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Even though most of Francie’s school days are dreadful, she does enjoy visits from the jovial music teacher and beautiful art teacher, who visit once a week. Both visiting teachers treated the poor children well, unlike the regular schoolteachers.
Francie is practically “ill with excitement” when she learns to read (166). Books rescue her from her loneliness, and thus Francie promises herself that she will “read one book a day” forever (167). She also spends a lot of time making up games using mathematics.
Walking about one day, Francie chances upon a neighborhood full of old, enchanting houses and a stately school. Francie decides to talk to Johnny about her desire to go that school, knowing that her mother will probably not want to move so she can go there. She approaches him late at night with her request and he promises her he will try to help. The next afternoon, Johnny takes Francie over to the school. When he sees the school, he is convinced that Francie belongs at this better establishment. He devises a plan to lie and say Francie is living with relatives at one of the addresses in the approved school zone. He tells Francie that sometimes you have to do something “wrong” for the greater good. She agrees, plays along, and soon finds herself sitting in the classroom of her choice.
One of the best parts of Francie’s new school is the janitor, Mr. Jenson. He is a jolly, “respected” man. He loves the students and gets along with the teachers and administration. He lets the children warm up in his furnace room, and his heart-to-hearts take the place of the corporal punishment instituted by her former school. She always tidies the front yard of the house where she lied about living, and she is sure to behave perfectly at school and at home, lest she lose her place in this new and wonderful world.
Francie uses the holidays to keep time. Her favorite holiday is Election Day. She loves to dance and sing political songs with the other children, even if she does not understand their full portent. She loves to listen to her parents bicker about the government: Her father is a staunch Democrat; her mother is passionately unaffiliated. One summer, Katie decides to take advantage of a boat trip and picnic offered by a local political group despite her vociferous dislike of politics. The boat makes Francie seasick, and she has gambled away all her carnival tickets playing marbles with the boys, so she is poised to have a bad time when a sergeant offers her a few extra tickets he has. The sergeant comments on her mother’s beauty, and Francie then reports what he said to Katie. Katie is flattered by the man’s attention and asks a woman nearby for his name.
Later that day, she asks Johnny for more information about the sergeant, and Johnny explains that the sergeant is referred to as the “Honest Cop.” He tells Katie the sergeant has 14 children, but only four of them are still alive, the others having died of consumption because the wife is constantly sick. To Johnny’s horror, Katie responds by saying she hoped the wife “dies and dies soon,” blaming her for “not taking her medicine when the time came due” (186). This exchange fills Francie with fear, so she goes to her father for comfort. Soon after the boat trip comes Election Day, and with it lots of revelry, including a bonfire. Francie spends most of the boat trip and Election Day looking for the candidate—a hopeless pursuit, as she can only find images of him but never the actual politician.
Johnny often feels guilty for his growing alcoholism, so when sober, he often tries to educate Francie and Neeley. On one occasion, he takes Francie down to the poshest road in Brooklyn to watch the aristocrats in action. Johnny tells Francie that America is special because as long one has money, one is free. Francie questions this definition of freedom, but Johnny assures her this is as good as it gets and then breaks into patriotic song. They then see a parade for a recently returned explorer and cheer him on.
The most significant item of note in this section is the breakdown of Katie and Johnny’s marriage. All throughout this section, the tension builds. Johnny gets drunker and drunker and moves further and further from the ideal Katie thought she had married. Even Francie is starting to notice the ways in which alcohol has changed her father, when previously she was blissfully ignorant to much of his stupor. Up until this section, Katie has remained enamored, if exasperated, but in this section, Katie appears to be fed up. She disagrees with Johnny about practically everything, constantly pitting her beliefs against his, not only in front of Francie, but in the public eye as well. Johnny mocks her ideas about women’s voting rights as well as many of her attempts to assert her intelligence. As Katie finds herself constantly limited by Johnny, her eye starts to stray outside of the Nolan family, setting the tone for a possible future dissolution of their marriage.
This section also frequently points out the irony in America’s claim to be the land of the free. For example, Francie receives an ostensibly free education, but at the cost of being beaten up, degraded, ignored, and forced to soil herself. She doesn’t receive the same free education as the girls who are allowed to sit in the front of the room either. Additionally, Francie has trouble understanding her father’s excitement over capitalism, finding it hard to parse how something can be called free and still cost money. In another jab at Johnny’s beloved “freedom,” Katie pokes fun at his blind allegiance to the Democratic party, pointing out that the party only cares about him as long as he supports the Democratic candidates at the polls.
This section also stresses the power of education. For example, Francie’s life changes when she learns to read, allowing her to escape as well as to learn. Additionally, when Francie and Neeley learn to play piano, their newly acquired skill opens up a new world for them. Throughout the book, Francie has come to understand the power of education through experience—from her trip to a ritzy part of Brooklyn with her dad, from gambling away her tickets, and from her experience at the doctor’s. There, Francie learned that education even allows her to listen in on other’s secrets, giving her an advantage in a world where it seems so much is being hidden from her.