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"McGarrity girl wears a different hair bow each day and they cost fifty cents apiece and that would feed the four of us here for one day. But her hair is thin and pale red. My Neeley has a big hole in his zitful cap and it's stretched out of shape but he has thick, deep golden hair that curls. My Francie wears no hair bow but her hair is long and shining. Can money buy things like that? No. That means there must be something bigger than money. Miss Jackson teaches at the Settlement House and she has no money. She works for charity. She lives in a little room there on the top floor. She only has the one dress but she keeps it clean and pressed. Her eyes look straight into yours when you talk with her. When you listen to her, it's like you used to be sick but hearing her voice, it's making you well again. She knows about things-Miss Jackson. She understands about things. She can live in the middle of a dirty neighborhood and be fine and clean and like an actress in a play; someone you can look at but who is too fine to touch. There is that difference between her and Mrs. McGarrity who has so much money but is too fat and acts in a dirty way with the truck drivers who deliver her husband's beer. So what is this difference between her and this Miss Jackson who has no money?" An answer came to Katie. It was so simple that a flash of astonishment that felt like pain shot through her head. Education! That was it! It was education that made the difference! Education would pull them out of the grime and dirt. Proof? Miss' Jackson was educated, the McGarrity wasn't. Ah! That's what Mary Rommely, her mother had been telling her all those years. Only her mother did not have the one clear word: education! " (207)

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It wasnt easy dragging that tree home. They had to pull it inch by inch. They were handicapped by a boy who ran alongside yelling "Free ride! All aboard!" who'd jump on and make them drag him along.

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While Katie knows education will free her children, she fears she will lose them when they advance beyond her. Katie works tirelessly for her children so they can have a better future, but she is also terrified about how her relationship with Fracie will change as she becomes educated and refined. She fears losing Francie. However, Katie feels differently about Neeley, because she believes he will never leave her. She sees similarity between Neeley and Johnny, but she thinks Neeley will be much better off than Johnny because he is educated.

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As Mary Rommely told Katie, "The secret lies in the reading and the writing...Every day you must read one page from some good book to your child. Every day this must be until the child learns to read. Then she must read every day, I know this is the secret." A good education is the most important thing in order for Francie to thrive.

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Francie's relationships with her parents are both very different. Even though Johnny is the "bad" parent he seems to care for her more, not about the most practical things, like getting money and food, but for things she actually wants, like being able to go to the other school. While Katie constantly provides necessities, she doesn’t try the way she should to make the things Francie wants happen.

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"Francie loved that school. It meant she had to walk forty-eight blocks each day but she loved to walk, too. she had she had to leave earlier in the morning than Neeley and she got home much later."

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“Maybe when she gets an education, she will be ashamed of me, the way I talk. But she will have too much character to show it. Instead, she will try to make me different. She will come to see me and try to make me live in a better way, and I will be mean because I’ll know she’s above me.”

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By switching schools, Francie is able to get the attention and education she needs to thrive, and find her way out of her unlucky and difficult environment. Francie's intelligence and eagerness to read and learn is how she is able to succeed in among/despite surroundings.

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"francie loved that school. It meant that she had to walk forty-eight blocks each day but she loved the walk." I think this part is showing how francie has to walk to get her education.

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"My folks never knew how to read or write. I only got to the sixth grade myself had to leave school when the old man died. You kids are lucky. I'm going to see to it that you get through school."

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Reading fills any void Francie feels. Reading is a works as a cure for Francie’s loneliness, because books are there for her however she is feeling.

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"'I was ignorant and did not know at first that the children of folk like us were allowed the free education of this land. Thus, Sissy had no chance to do better than me. But the other three ... you went to school.' 'I finished the sixth grade, if that is what is called education.' 'And your Yohnny' (she could not pronounce "j"), 'did too. Don't you see?' Excitement came into her voice. 'Already, it is starting-the getting better.' She picked up the baby and held it high in, her arms. 'This child was born of parents who can read and write,' she said simply. 'To me, this is a great wonder."' (82)

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“Francie was ten years old when she first found an outlet in writing. What she wrote was of little consequence. What was important was the attempt to write stories kept her straight on the dividing line between truth and fiction.” (197)

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The teacher at Francie’s new school helps her understand the distinction between having an imagination and telling a lie. Francie comes to realize that she does have a wonderful imagination and she can channel this into writing. She begins to have a better understanding of herself.

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Francie’s new school gives her the same kind of new perspective that she gets from reading books. The new school opens new worlds for Francie and she can see that there are opportunities and options outside her her small world she lives in.

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“From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness with someone she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived.(164-165)”

READING=KNOWLEDGE=POWER

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“It was a good thing that she got herself into this other school. It showed her that there were other worlds. besides the world she had been born into and that these other worlds were not unattainable.(174)”

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““That is the book, then, and the book of Shakespeare. And everyday you must read a [age of each to your child- even though you yourself do not understand what is written down and cannot sound the words properly. You must do this that the child will grow up knowing of what is great- knowing that these tenements of Williamsburg are not the whole world.”

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“A person who pulls himself up from a low environment via the bootstrap route has two choices. Having risen above his environment, he can forget it; or he can rise above it and never forget it and keep compassion and understanding in his heart for those he has left behind him in his cruel upclimb.”  (147)