Johnny Tremain

Summary

Johnny Tremain follows a Boston apprentice from the summer of 1773 to the first day of the American Revolution in April 1775. Johnny, fourteen, is the most gifted of the three apprentices in the silversmith shop of old Ephraim Lapham, a pious man who warns him about pride by having him read Leviticus 26:19; the next two chapters take their titles from that verse. Johnny lords it over the younger apprentices Dove and Dusty and expects to marry Lapham's granddaughter Cilla and inherit the business. His only treasure is a silver cup bearing the crest of the wealthy Lyte family, left by his dead mother. When John Hancock orders a silver sugar basin, Johnny works on the Sabbath to finish it, and Dove spitefully hands him a cracked crucible. Molten silver burns his right hand; the old midwife Gran' Hopper treats it, but it heals with the thumb grown to the palm, and his trade is finished. Bitter and idle, Johnny scorns unskilled work. He befriends Rab Silsbee, a calm, strong young man who works in his uncle Lorne's print shop, publisher of the Whig newspaper the Boston Observer. When Johnny shows the cup to the merchant Jonathan Lyte and claims kinship, Lyte accuses him of stealing it and has him jailed; Rab finds him a lawyer, Josiah Quincy, Cilla testifies, and Johnny is acquitted. He becomes the Observer's delivery rider on the spirited horse Goblin and is drawn into the circle of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere, Dr. Joseph Warren and James Otis. He carries messages for the Sons of Liberty and helps dump the tea into the harbor on 16 December 1773. After the Port Act closes Boston and General Gage's troops occupy the town, Johnny gathers intelligence among British officers, uses Dove, now a stable boy for Colonel Smith, as an unwitting source, and helps a homesick British private called Pumpkin desert in exchange for his musket; Pumpkin is caught and shot. At a last meeting of the Observers, James Otis speaks of fighting so that every man may stand up. On 18 April 1775 Johnny learns of the British march, and Revere and William Dawes ride out. Lavinia Lyte tells him that his mother really was a Lyte, so he has a claim on the family's property, before she sails for England with Cilla's sister Isannah. Crossing to Lexington, Johnny finds Rab mortally wounded; Rab gives him his musket and dies. Dr. Warren examines Johnny's hand and offers to cut the scar so that he can fire a gun, and the book ends with Johnny ready to serve. Houghton Mifflin published the novel in 1943 with illustrations by Lynd Ward.

Plot or Argument

• Chapters 1-2: Up and About; The Pride of Your Power

  The Lapham shop, Johnny's arrogance, the Lyte cup, Hancock's sugar basin, Mr. Lapham's warning from Leviticus, the Sabbath work, Dove's cracked crucible and the ruined hand.

• Chapters 3-4: An Earth of Brass; The Rising Eye

  Johnny's despair and search for work; friendship with Rab at the print shop; Merchant Lyte's accusation, the trial and acquittal; Johnny becomes the Observer's rider on Goblin.

• Chapters 5-6: The Boston Observer; Salt-Water Tea

  Johnny rides for the newspaper and the Whig leaders, reads in the Lornes' library, and joins the destruction of the tea on 16 December 1773.

• Chapters 7-8: The Fiddler's Bill; A World to Come

  The Port Act and the occupation; Cilla and Isannah in the Lyte household; the mob at the Lytes' house in Milton; Otis's speech at the final Observers' meeting.

• Chapters 9-10: The Scarlet Deluge; Disperse, Ye Rebels!

  Johnny spies among British officers, uses Dove's place in Colonel Smith's stable, helps Pumpkin desert and sees him executed; on 18 April 1775 the alarm goes out.

• Chapters 11-12: Yankee Doodle; A Man Can Stand Up

  Lavinia Lyte reveals Johnny's parentage; he crosses to Lexington, finds Rab dying, receives his musket, and accepts Dr. Warren's offer to operate on his hand.

Characters

• Johnny Tremain, protagonist

  A proud, talented silversmith's apprentice who, after crippling his hand, finds a new purpose in the Whig cause.

• Rab Silsbee, Johnny's friend

  A quiet, steady printer's apprentice and Minute Man who guides Johnny and dies after Lexington.

• Cilla Lapham, Lapham's granddaughter

  Johnny's sharp-tongued friend, later a servant in the Lyte household, whom he grows to love.

• Ephraim Lapham, master silversmith

  An aging, devout craftsman who warns Johnny against pride.

• Mrs. Lapham, head of the household

  Lapham's practical daughter-in-law, who urges the Sabbath work and later brings in Mr. Tweedie.

• Dove, fellow apprentice

  A lazy, resentful apprentice who causes Johnny's injury and later works in a British officer's stable.

• Isannah Lapham, Cilla's little sister

  A beautiful, delicate child taken up by Lavinia Lyte.

• Jonathan Lyte, Tory merchant

  A rich merchant who denies Johnny's kinship and accuses him of theft.

• Lavinia Lyte, merchant's daughter

  A cool, elegant beauty who finally tells Johnny the truth about his mother.

• Dr. Joseph Warren, physician and Whig leader

  Boston doctor who directs Johnny's intelligence work and offers to repair his hand.

• James Otis, Whig orator

  The once-great lawyer of the cause, considered unbalanced, who speaks at the last Observers' meeting.

• Pumpkin, British private

  A homesick soldier who longs for a farm, trades his musket for escape, and is shot for desertion.

Lessons

• Pride before a fall

  Johnny begins as the cleverest boy in the shop and the cruelest to the others. Mr. Lapham's warning from Leviticus goes unheeded, and his Sabbath work for Hancock ends in the burn that ruins his hand. Forbes makes the injury the start of his education rather than the end of his life.

  • How does Johnny treat Dove and Dusty before the accident?
  • Was the accident only Dove's fault?
  • What does Johnny learn in the months when he has no work?

• Finding a calling after loss

  Johnny cannot be a silversmith, but he becomes a fine rider, reader, messenger and observer. Forbes shows that a person's worth does not depend on one skill, and that the gifts left after a loss can serve a larger cause.

  • Which of Johnny's abilities survive the accident, and how does the Observer use them?
  • How does Rab help Johnny find his way?

• Why men fight

  At the last Observers' meeting Otis argues that the cause is not taxes alone but the dignity of every person to stand up. The book sets this hope beside its costs: Pumpkin's execution, Rab's death and the divided Lapham and Lyte households.

  • What does Otis mean when he says men fight so that a man can stand up?
  • Why does Forbes include Pumpkin, a British soldier, in a story about American liberty?
  • Does Rab's death make the cause seem more or less worth fighting for?

• Friendship with an enemy's servant

  Johnny has every reason to hate Dove, yet when they meet again he chooses patience over revenge and keeps him close as a source of news from the British stables. The book shows a boy learning to see even people he dislikes as more than their faults.

  • Why does Johnny decide not to take revenge on Dove?
  • Is it fair for Johnny to use Dove without telling him?

Context

The novel follows real events in Boston from 1773 to 1775: the Tea Act and the Boston Tea Party of 16 December 1773, the Boston Port Act of 1774 that closed the harbor, the occupation of the town under General Thomas Gage, the network of artisans and Whig leaders around Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Dr. Joseph Warren, and the march to Lexington and Concord on 19 April 1775. James Otis, the brilliant lawyer of the earlier resistance, had suffered a head wound in a coffee-house fight in 1769 and was afterward subject to periods of mental disturbance, as the novel reflects.

Composition

Esther Forbes wrote the novel after her Pulitzer Prize-winning biography Paul Revere and the World He Lived In (1942), reusing her research on Boston's craftsmen and apprentices. Houghton Mifflin published it in 1943, during the Second World War, with illustrations by Lynd Ward; a British edition followed in 1944.

Reception

Johnny Tremain won the Newbery Medal in 1944 and became one of the most widely read American historical novels for young readers. Walt Disney released a film adaptation in 1957.

Comparisons

• carry-on-mr-bowditch

  Both follow a Massachusetts boy bound to work young whose hopes are cut short, Nat Bowditch by indenture and Johnny by injury, and who finds a new path by study and persistence.

• franklin-autobiography-and-poor-richard

  Franklin was himself a Boston printer's apprentice on his brother's newspaper, the life Rab and Johnny lead at the Observer half a century later.

• common-sense-rights-of-man-and-other-writings

  Paine's Common Sense (January 1776) argued in print for the cause Otis and the Observers debate in the novel, written in the months just after the book ends.

• the-red-badge-of-courage

  Both follow a young man toward his first battle; Henry Fleming runs from his and must earn his courage, while Johnny arrives after Lexington to inherit a dead friend's musket.

• across-five-aprils

  Another Newbery-honored historical novel for young readers in which a boy comes of age while the war tears his community and family apart.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• Mr. Lapham's verse from Leviticus in Chapter 2, which gives the next two chapters their titles, and how it comes true for Johnny.
• The silver cup with the Lyte crest: when Johnny hides it, shows it, loses it, and what Lavinia finally tells him about it.
• How Johnny treats Dove before the accident and after Dove turns up in the British stables.
• Otis's speech at the last Observers' meeting in Chapter 8 and the way its idea returns in the title of Chapter 12.
• Rab's musket, from Pumpkin's bargain to Rab's last gift.

Key terms and names

Apprentice

A boy bound by contract to live with and work for a master craftsman for years while learning a trade, as Johnny, Dove and Dusty are bound to Mr. Lapham.

Crucible

The heat-proof pot in which silver is melted; the cracked one Dove hands Johnny spills molten metal on his hand.

Whig

In this book, a supporter of American rights against Parliament, like the Observers and the Sons of Liberty.

Tory

A supporter of the king and Parliament, like Merchant Lyte.

Boston Observer

The Whig newspaper printed by Rab's uncle Mr. Lorne, whose loft becomes a meeting place for the cause.

Minute Man

A member of the Massachusetts militia ready to turn out at a minute's warning, as Rab does at Lexington.

Port Act

The 1774 law of Parliament that closed Boston harbor after the Tea Party, bringing hunger and idleness to the town.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension How does Johnny burn his hand, and why was he working on that day?
2. Comprehension Why does Merchant Lyte have Johnny arrested, and who helps him at the trial?
3. Comprehension What bargain does Johnny make with Pumpkin, and what happens to Pumpkin afterward?
4. Interpretation Mr. Lapham warns Johnny about pride before the accident. In what ways is Johnny still proud after it, and when does he finally change?
5. Interpretation Why do you think Forbes ends the book with Dr. Warren's offer to fix Johnny's hand instead of with a battle?
6. Interpretation When Johnny learns he really is a Lyte, he cares less about it than he once did. Why?
7. Big Question What is worth risking your life for, and how do you know?

Faith Connections

• Leviticus 26:19 (Scripture)

  Mr. Lapham has Johnny read God's warning that he will break the pride of Israel's power and make their earth as brass. Forbes takes the titles of Chapters 2 and 3 from it, and Johnny's fall follows.

• Proverbs 16:18 (Scripture)

  Pride goes before destruction. Johnny's scorn for Dove and his Sabbath haste lead straight to the burn, but his story continues after the fall.

• 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (Scripture)

  Paul learns that God's power is made perfect in weakness. Johnny's crippled hand closes one life and opens another of courage and service.

• John 15:13 (Scripture)

  Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. Rab gives his life at Lexington and hands his musket to Johnny.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Johnny's pride makes him useful but unkind, and the burn takes away the skill he was proud of. Stripped of his trade, he must find worth in what remains: his wits, his courage and his loyalty to friends. The Whig cause gives those gifts a purpose larger than himself. Therefore the novel argues that a person becomes truly free, able to stand up, not by talent or birth but by giving himself to something worth sacrifice.

Rhetorical device: foreshadowing. Mr. Lapham's reading from Leviticus in Chapter 2 about the breaking of pride comes just before the crucible cracks, and the next chapter's title, An Earth of Brass, finishes the same verse.

Debate: Resolved: that Johnny was right to use Dove as a spy without telling him.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Trace how Johnny changes from Chapter 1 to Chapter 12, using his treatment of Dove, his response to his injury, and his friendship with Rab as evidence. What caused the biggest change?

Comparison with Carry On, Mr. Bowditch: Johnny Tremain and Nat Bowditch both lose the future they planned. Compare how each boy responds to the loss and argue which one learned more from it.

Medical Lens

Johnny's burn is at the heart of the book. A deep burn of the palm treated only with a midwife's poultices heals with the thumb drawn against the palm, a description consistent with a scar contracture; the novel's ending, in which Dr. Joseph Warren proposes to cut the scar so that the thumb can move, imagines an eighteenth-century surgical release without anesthesia. Forbes treats the disability as a source of shame, anger and self-pity that Johnny must overcome, and his recovery of purpose precedes any repair of the hand. Warren was a real Boston physician, active in the 1764 smallpox inoculation campaign and a leader of the Whig cause, who was killed at Bunker Hill in June 1775, after the novel ends. The book also shows Rab's fatal wound at Lexington, the execution of Pumpkin, and the historical James Otis, whose mental decline after a 1769 head injury appears in the novel through the other characters' fear that he is mad; any modern diagnosis would be speculative.

• Chapter 2

  The cracked crucible, the burn, and Gran' Hopper's treatment, after which the thumb heals fused to the palm.

  Disability Deformity Pain
• Chapter 3

  Johnny's shame at his hand, his rejection by employers and his hidden despair.

  Disability Deformity
• Chapter 8

  James Otis appears at the Observers' meeting, feared as unbalanced yet lucid in his speech.

  Madness Psychosis
• Chapter 12

  Rab dies of his Lexington wound; Dr. Warren examines Johnny's hand and offers to cut the scar.

  WAR Wounds Death Dying Surgery Physicians Doctors

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Make a map of Boston in 1773-75 marking the Lapham shop, the Observer office, Griffin's Wharf, the Common, and the routes out of town on 18 April, using Forbes's descriptions.

• Fiction

  Write Pumpkin's last letter home to his family, telling what he hoped to find in America.

• Dialogue

  Write a conversation between Johnny and Dove years later, after the war, in which they talk about the crucible.

• Essay

  Is Johnny's injury the worst thing that happened to him or the best? Use events from at least three chapters.

Further Reading

• Paul Revere and the World He Lived In, Esther Forbes

  The Pulitzer Prize-winning biography from which the novel grew.

• Paul Revere's Ride, David Hackett Fischer

• And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?, Jean Fritz

• Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, Jean Lee Latham