The Way of Life

Because you see people wondering down the streets in raggedy clothes, when you go to school you are thought of as "dirty", the way people treat you is as if you do not belong, you can't help, but think that the world you were born into is one full of unfairness and unrighteousness. Our world is full of these these two things; but it is also full of love, justice, and happiness. But how can these very different concepts all exist in one world? The answer to this question can all become summed down to one word: life. During the process of living, all people have to endure these things; it is the only way to live.

In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Francie experiences all of these things on her way from innocence to experience. Learning to deal with each one of these is a skill that each person must attain to make it through life. Mastering these things takes all your life to learn and most people never actually learn to accept all of them before they leave this earth. While making the journey through innocence to experience, people are completing their circle of life. Slowly, slowly people are weaving together all the facts, information, tips and secrets of their lives and piecing them together in a circle; their circle, of life. Only a handful of people can learn to shape their lives into a complete circle before death knocks on their door; and these people are the most precious people of all.

For instance, when Francie meets the old man at Losher's bread factory, he has already finished weaving his circle and now it sits, old and dusty, waiting for the right time to have it's strings cut loose. This old man is already experience and he is showing the innocent ones that one day, they will have to make their way to experience; one day finish weaving their own circle. In the novel, Francie struggles with comprehending the different concepts of her life. She is stricken with poverty and all around her is unfairness; but because of her innocence she does not see all of these things as what they are. She sees them as her. Along her way in becoming experience, she begins to see these ideas, that seem so impossible to grasp, as life. Which is what they are.

Living on this earth, breathing the air that we breath, we are all connected. We are all brought together by the journey we make, the journey that leads us to becoming an experienced world. Since we are brought together by this journey, we are also separated by it because only some of us make it to the absolute ending of this journey, and others miss it by mere inches, mere threads of our circles. It is important to understand that our life, all of our threads, is our journey, our journey from innocence to experience, and everything we have learned throughout the process.