A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Allusions & Cultural References

When authors refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.

“Molly Malone” (This song is frequently sung by Papa when he returns home at the end of the night.)
“Annie Laurie” (15.31, 40.148)
“Call me Up Some Rainy Afternoon” (15.36)
“Sweet Adeline” (15.36)
“My Wild Irish Rose” (54.23)

“She May Have Seen Better Days” (9.5)
“I’m Wearin’ My Heart Away For You” (9.5)
“Blue Danube” (13.59)
“School Days” (23.42)
“You’re a Grand Old Flag” (25.26)
“Come Little Leaves” (35.40)
“Welcome, Sweet Springtime” (35.41)
“I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier” (42.88)
“Auld Lang Syne” (46.46.26)
“A Shanty in Old Shantytown” (49.52)
“When You Wore a Tulip” (49.52)
“Dear Old Girl” (49.52)
“I’m Sorry I Made you Cry” (49.52)
“Over There” (49.53)
“K-K-K-Katy” (49.53)
“The Rose of No Man’s Land” (49.53)
“Mother Machree” (49.54)
“When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” (49.54)
“Let Me Call You Sweetheart” (49.54)
“The Band Played on” (49.54)
“Some Sunday Morning” (52.106-113)
“Till We Meet Again” (52.115-120, 55.60)
“Hello, Central, Give Me No Man’s Land” (55.5)
“There’s a Quaker Down in Quaker Town” (55.7)
“You’ll Find Old Dixieland in France” (55.14)
“For When My Baby Smiles at Me” (55.58)
“There are Smiles That Make You Happy” (55.59)

Louisa Alcott (2.2)
Marie Corelli (2.8)
If I Were King by McCarthy (2.18, 2.23-24)
Beverly of Graustark (2.18)
Shakespeare’s Macbeth (13.9)
Lewis Caroll’s Through the Looking Glass (23.2)
The Minister’s Sweetheart (28.20, 55.10)
Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (60-64)

Confession (6.26)
Purgatory (12.47)
Begat (13.13)
First Communion (28.17)
The Virgin Mary (34.22)
Gethsemane (42.6)
Father, son, and Holy Ghost (47.60)

Abraham Lincoln (1.60, 41.35)
The Mayflower (23.14)
Big Chief Tammany (24.6)
Dr. Frederick Cook (25.40)
Woodrow Wilson (41.18-23)
Charlie Chaplin (41.26)
Corset Payton (41.26)