Francie’s Aunt Sissy had a dark side.
Francie Nolan is 11 years old when A Tree Grows in Brooklyn opens in 1912. Betty Smith's novel follows Francie and her family as they strive to rise above their poverty in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
A lot happens in those ten or so years: Prohibition comes and goes, World War I starts and stops, Houdini dazzles everyone at the Hippodrome, the Titanic sinks, Ford builds automobiles on an assembly line, and women get the vote.
Still, through it all, the poor are still the poor. In that way, the book is similar to Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes and Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books. These are the stories of people dealing with what life throws at them, making a life in the midst of some very hard times.
And that brings us to Aunt Sissy.
Sissy was Francie's favorite; vivacious, playful, fun-loving, wearing colorful clothing, loving to dance and sing. Sissy is the polar opposite of Francie's mother. So much so that Francie often wondered how the two women could be sisters.
People said Sissy was wild, that she was a "bad" girl. And it was true. Sissy was a sexually aggressive party girl. She used a very liberal definition of the term, "married," to be with the men of her choosing, one man after another. Francie was not unaware of Sissy’s dark side. But, Francie also knew why Sissy was that way.
Sissy wanted a baby.
She moved from one man to another because she was looking for the man who could give her a baby that would live. Sissy had had ten babies. There were ten headstones in the nearby cemetery marking where her babies lay, mutely accusing her each time she passed them.
It’s heartbreaking.
What she does in her desire for a living child is beyond what most of us can comprehend.
But, not all of us. Some of us understand, completely.
I think Hannah may well have been one who could empathize with Sissy. In this week’s passages from 1st Samuel we find her suffering from childlessness. Like Sissy, she desperately wants a living child. At one point, she becomes so worked up while pouring her broken heart out to God that the Priest thinks she is drunk! And, with just as much emotion, her prayer of thanksgiving when she does finally give birth to Samuel is almost electrical in its praise of God.
There is a difference between Sissy and Hannah. Neither can accept her barren state, but Hannah pours out her heart to God on both sides of the matter.
We, too, must seek God as we struggle with our deepest desires and needs. Like Hannah, we need to avail ourselves of prayer and petition while we are without. Then, we need to offer praise and joy when God answers.
_________________________
PHOTO CREDIT:
https://smile.amazon.com/Betty-Smith/e/B000AQ1NV4/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1
Cat Stevens singing Wild World (with lyrics):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69kTbYNZvtY
_________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment