Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

First published: 1943; illustrated

Type of work: Historical fiction

Themes: Coming-of-age, friendship, jobs and work, and war

Time of work: 1773-1775

Recommended Ages: 13-15

Locale: Boston, Massachusetts

Principal Characters:

• Johnny Tremain, a young boy who loses his position as an apprentice silversmith when his hand is maimed
• Dove, a lazy and unpleasant boy, who is responsible for Johnny’s accident
• Rab, an older boy, who befriends Johnny and teaches him the meaning of friendship and courage
• Mr. Lapham, Johnny’s first employer, a kindly old silversmith, who is devoutly religious
• Mrs. Lapham, the daughter-in-law of Mr. Lapham
• Cilla Lapham, Johnny’s friend and the most pleasant of Mrs. Lapham’s four daughters
• Isannah Lapham, Cilla’s sister, who is sickly, weak, and self-centered
• Merchant Lyte, a wealthy Tory, who not only refuses to acknowledge his kinship to Johnny but also tries to cheat him
• Lavinia Lyte, the spoiled and beautiful daughter of Merchant Lyte

The Story

Johnny Tremain is a historical novel in which both a young boy and a nation come of age: Johnny Tremain overcomes the personal problems that hamper his maturity, and the citizens of Boston take the first crucial steps toward independence from Great Britain. The novel’s power stems not only from Esther Forbes’s handling of plot and character but also from the vivid detail with which she re-creates daily life in prerevolutionary Boston. The central character, Johnny Tremain, is an exceptionally talented but overly proud apprentice with a bright future before him until an accident maims his hand and deprives him of his trade as a silversmith.

The opening chapter introduces Johnny as the most important member of the Lapham household, which consists of Mr. Lapham, an elderly silversmith who is now less interested in his trade than in preparing his soul for heaven; Mrs. Lapham, his ambitious daughter-in-law; the four Lapham daughters; and two other apprentices, Dusty Miller and Dove, a lazy, irresponsible, and mean-spirited boy. While making a silver sugar basin for John Hancock, Johnny’s hand is badly burned as the result of a trick played on him by Dove. Johnny finds himself without a trade or a future.

Johnny’s attempt to find another position is hampered by both his physical injury and his personal pride. Forbes depicts the young boy’s sufferings as others make fun of his injury or cruelly reject him. His worst moments come when he tries to use a silver cup that his mother left him that proves his kinship with the wealthy Merchant Lyte. Lyte not only refuses to recognize his relationship to the outcast boy but also accuses him of being a thief. Johnny is saved by the testimony of Mrs. Lapham’s daughters, Cilla and Isannah, and by his friendship with Rab, a young printer’s apprentice. Rab becomes a mentor and role model for Johnny; he secures for Johnny employment as a circuit rider for a newspaper, introduces him to the leading patriots of Boston, and teaches him to control his temper and pride.

The second half of the novel focuses on Johnny’s activities with the Sons of Liberty in the events prior to the American Revolution. Johnny takes an active part in the Boston Tea Party, serves as a messenger for the patriots, steals a musket for Rab, spies on the British, helps a British soldier desert, and meets many of the heroes of the Revolution, including Paul Revere, James Otis, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock. In the process, Johnny grows to maturity. He overcomes his infatuation with Lavinia Lyte, the Merchant’s beautiful and vain daughter, and learns to appreciate Cilla Lapham. He develops a deeper understanding of the true value of liberty, as well as its costs, when he witnesses the aftermath of the battles of Lexington and Concord and Rab’s death. A doctor informs him that an operation can restore the use of his hand. Johnny will be able to go into battle with a hand that can fire a musket. More important, he can serve the cause of the American Revolution because he has gained a mature understanding of the meaning of personal and political freedom.

Context

Johnny Tremain won the Newbery Medal in 1944 and is considered one of the best historical novels written for young readers. Forbes wrote only one other book for children, America’s Paul Revere (1946). Readers of Johnny Tremain will be interested in her Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Paul Revere and the World He Lived In (1942), which offers an introduction to American life during the Revolutionary era. Historians admire Forbes’s commitment to historical accuracy and her vivid delineation of the texture of everyday life in the past.

The most interesting of the novels that Forbes wrote for adults deal with the frustrations of imaginative women in a historical setting: O Genteel Lady! (1926), A Mirror for Witches (1928), and Miss Marvel (1935). The most impressive of these is A Mirror for Witches, which is distinguished by a remarkable blending of historical fiction and psychological realism. In this book, Forbes portrays the witchcraft hysteria in seventeenth century New England through the eyes of a Puritan narrator who devoutly believes in the need to seek out and exterminate witches. Forbes uses this unreliable narrator to provide a powerful depiction of a repressive society that distorts human emotions and sexual needs. In fact, the novel’s treatment of psychological themes and its depiction of the loss of freedom provide an intriguing counterpart to the much more optimistic exploration of similar themes in Johnny Tremain.