A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

by Betty Smith

Start Free Trial

In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, why is Francie warned to never buy ground meat off the plate?

Expert Answers

An illustration of the letter 'A' in a speech bubbles

In Chapter 6, Francie's mother Katie tells Francie to never buy ground meat off the plate at the butcher's shop for two reasons.  First, the butcher leaves scraps of meat on the plate, so it gets hard and dry after it's been sitting on the plate all day.  Second, the meat on the plate may not even be beef.  Katie tells Francie to closely watch the butcher when she goes to buy meat for the family because the butcher likes to get rid of the scraps and is happy to cheat poor families into buying poor grades of meat.  Katie demands that her family be treated with respect and feels that they do not deserve to simply get the garbage scraps of meat from the butcher's plate.

See eNotes Ad-Free

Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts.

Get 48 Hours Free Access
Approved by eNotes Editorial Team