Johnny Tremain

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1943

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Surviving in a Changing World

Throughout the novel, many characters must adapt to survive in a changing world. The protagonist experiences a life-changing injury early in the novel. As a result, his vision of a prosperous, prestigious future as a silversmith falls to pieces, and he must find a new way to support himself. Of course, Johnny’s new life at the printing office offers him much more than employment. Johnny finds friendship, a sense of belonging, and a cause that gives him a purpose beyond himself. In a way, Johnny’s adaptations to his new life parallel the changes occurring in the city of Boston.

The novel is a bildungsroman as well as a piece of historical fiction, and the protagonist’s coming of age serves as a sort of extended metaphor for the nascent resistance of the people of Boston. The city is young compared to England, and important British figures seem to view the city as a misbehaving adolescent that will soon respect its parent once more. For example, General Gage, who replaces Governor Hutchinson after the Boston Tea Party, “confidently expected all the trouble would smooth out by itself” (160). However, rebellion is far from a phase for the colonists. Like Johnny, Boston as a whole becomes more politically aware, shifts toward the Whigs’ perspective, and ultimately decides to fight for independence.

The Lyte family also contributes to the theme of Surviving in a Changing World. The decline of their power correlates to the ascent of revolutionary beliefs. At the beginning of the novel, they are among the richest and most influential families in Boston, but their hold on the city erodes as the story progresses. The first challenge to their power occurs when Mr. Lyte loses the court case against Johnny. Ostensibly, the case is about one boy’s patent innocence. However, the defeat has broader implications due to the city’s political climate. Johnny’s attorney, Mr. Josiah Quincy, is a prominent Whig, and his fellow Whigs warmly congratulate him for publicly embarrassing Mr. Lyte, whom they consider a two-faced Tory.

After the Boston Tea Party and the influx of British soldiers, the region’s rebellious fervor only strengthens. Mr. Lyte and his family learn this for themselves when a mob of the Sons of Liberty chases them from their home in Milton. At Milton, Johnny predicts that “the cards are going to be reshuffled. Dealt again” (194). While the more egalitarian society that the Whigs seek to build appeals to people like Pumpkin, it is not as hospitable to people like the Lytes. For all their wealth and power, the Lytes fail to adapt to the changes in Boston and must leave for England.

Some characters’ economic conditions make them particularly vulnerable to change. Out of all the characters, Mrs. Lapham is the most keenly aware of her financial circumstances. Her life is a fight for survival. Her husband is absent for reasons that are never divulged, she’s responsible for keeping seven people clothed and fed, and the household’s already stretched income dwindles as her father-in-law places piety over worldly concerns. After Johnny’s accident, she lashes out at him with a viciousness commensurate with her dashed hopes that he will lift the family out of poverty. Where once she praised and relied on his skillfulness, she then sees him as possessing criminal tendencies and declares that he’ll “end up on the gallows” (68). To ensure her family’s survival, she finds a business partner for Mr. Lapham and tries to marry one of her daughters to Mr. Tweedie. However, the Lapham girls have their own plans. Dorcas elopes with a leather-dresser, and Madge marries Sergeant Gale. Cilla refuses anyone except Johnny and supports herself by taking work with the Lyte family.

In a way, the youngest of all the Laphams might be considered the most successful in her adaptation to a changing world. Lavinia takes an interest in Isannah and promises that she will “be a great lady and wear silks and jewels and ride in coaches” (270). Although her economic security seems assured if she stays in Lavinia Lyte’s graces, Isannah has no sense of integrity or identity. She’s sacrificed these things and her connection with her family for the sake of survival. After years of fruitless attempts to get Mr. Tweedie to marry into the family, Mrs. Lapham eventually marries him herself. While this marriage subplot offers some comic relief, it is also an example of the ways people must adapt to survive. From the powerful Lytes to the impoverished Laphams, Forbes uses her cast of characters to show how a changing world forces people from all walks of life to adapt to survive.

Learning Humility and Empathy

In this coming-of-age story, a significant portion of Johnny’s growth entails learning humility and gaining empathy for others. His transformation is foreshadowed by Proverbs 11:2, which Mr. Lapham instructs Johnny to read in Chapter 1: “When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom” (11). When the protagonist first appears, he has an “insufferable way” of “bossing everybody” from his fellow apprentices to his master’s family (37). After Johnny is shamed by his prideful accident, he gains a wiser estimation of himself and a better understanding of other people. Initially a little tyrant in the Lapham household, Johnny is then treated like a criminal by the same people who used to depend on him. The collapse of Johnny’s life reveals that he is not the center of the universe as he once believed.

Johnny’s experiences teach him that he doesn’t have all the answers, so he becomes more open to learning from people with different perspectives. The boy who took such delight in ordering people about at the start of the novel spends much of the story humbly striving to help others through his work as a delivery boy, messenger, and spy. He once rejected the job of delivering papers as beneath him, but he finds purpose and meaning in the work and the way it allows him to be a part of a cause much bigger than himself.

Johnny’s work for the printing office also places him near Rab, and the protagonist learns much about empathy through the older boy’s example. For example, Rab observes Johnny’s habit of insulting people and bluntly asks him, “Why do you go out of your way to make bad feeling?” (116). With prompting like this from his best friend, Johnny learns to rein in his tongue and to see people in a kinder light. For example, he forgives Dove for the ill-fated prank and realizes that Mrs. Lapham was never “the ogress he had thought her” but rather an impoverished woman tirelessly striving to provide for her household (173). No longer absorbed with his own self-importance, Johnny becomes more aware of the strengths and struggles of the people around him.

Although Johnny learns much from Rab, his own empathy eventually extends further than his friend’s. While Rab accepts bloodshed as an inevitable part of the struggle for liberty, the protagonist experiences internal conflict due to his concern for those on the opposing side. During a meeting of the Boston Observers, Johnny overhears a group of Whigs beating a “courageous Tory,” and the violence “made Johnny feel sick” (134). As the novel continues, Johnny’s empathy reaches even to the British soldiers. He bonds with Lieutenant Stranger over their mutual love of horses, and he almost compromises his disguise near the end of the novel when he sees an injured Stranger. Johnny offers the readers a powerful example of humility and empathy by overcoming his pride and recognizing his enemies’ humanity even in a time of war.

Self-Sacrifice for the Greater Good

Through Johnny’s story, Forbes extols those who sacrifice themselves for the greater good. James Otis, the founder of the Boston Observers, gives a stirring speech on the subject during the Observers’ final meeting. He calls on his audience to “give all [they] have, lives, property, safety, skills” for the cause of freedom (212). Over the course of the novel, the Observers rise to answer his call. Paul Revere, one of the city’s most accomplished silversmiths, leaves his beloved profession to devote all of his time to the fight for independence. Likewise, Mr. Lorne risks his safety and livelihood for the cause of liberty. In Chapter 11, British soldiers raid his printing office and reduce it to a picture of ruin: The sign is “stamped to kindling,” “the door of the shop was shattered,” and the “presses were broken” (265). Although understandably shaken by the destruction, Mr. Lorne continues printing publications that support independence. As the leaders of Boston’s Whigs, the Observers demonstrate their commitment to the greater good through acts of self-sacrifice.

While the adults lay many meaningful offerings on the altar of freedom, it is the young Rab who makes the ultimate sacrifice. At Lexington, 70 militiamen make a valiant albeit hopeless stand against 700 British soldiers. Although Rab is not among the eight men who die immediately in the battle, he succumbs to his wounds soon afterward. His best friend’s courageous sacrifice inspires Johnny to take up his musket and join the fight at the end of the novel. As Johnny braces himself for the surgery that will allow him to wield a firearm, he feels a surge of patriotism: “This was his land and these his people” (299). The resolution leaves Johnny’s fate unclear. However, whether he lives or dies, it’s clear that he will do all he can for his country.

Of course, the novel’s message is about more than Rab’s and Johnny’s sacrifices. Forbes created these fictional characters to model the sort of selfless love of nation she wanted to see. Johnny Tremain is a piece of historical fiction, but she had the present and future in mind as much as the past when she wrote this novel. Forbes penned this story during World War II, and she encourages her readers to think beyond the Revolutionary War. For example, Dr. Warren places Rab’s death in the context of a battle for human dignity and freedom that spans centuries: “A great many are going to die for that. They have in the past. They will a hundred years from now—two hundred. God grant there will always be men good enough. Men like Rab” (297). By telling a story set during the birth of the United States, Forbes’s novel demonstrates that ideals like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness depend on the willingness of individuals to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.