Johnny Tremain

T HE G LENCOE L ITERATURE L IBRARY Study Guide for Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes i Meet Esther Forbes After high school, Forbes studied history at the University of Wisconsin. Like her char- acter Johnny Tremain, whose life changes because of the American Revolution, Forbes’s life was redirected by war. After the United States entered World War I, Forbes left col- lege to join the war effort, working on a Virginia farm. “One of the proudest moments of my life was when the farmer appointed me as a teamster to work only with horses, instead of merely shucking corn and picking apples like the other girls,” she said. Forbes worked as an editor for a book pub- lisher after World War I ended. She also No matter how much external things change, the devoted time to her own writing, publishing human emotions do not seem to change much. her first novel in 1926. In the next ten years, she published four more books—all historical —Esther Forbes novels linked to New England. Turning her interest to biography, Forbes chose as her sub- ject a famous historical figure from this or Esther Forbes, the past was as alive as region. Her book Paul Revere and the World Fthe present. Forbes’s love of history dated He Lived In won the Pulitzer Prize in 1943. back to her earliest childhood days in rural During her extensive research for Paul Massachusetts. The youngest of five children, Revere, Forbes was drawn to the lives of early Esther was born in 1891 into a family with a Bostonians. She became especially interested tradition of studying history. Her mother was in the young apprentices of this time and an antiquarian—an expert on objects from decided to tell their story in a work of much earlier times—whose work focused on historical fiction. In this work, entitled New England. Young Esther’s home was filled Johnny Tremain, war influenced her life once with physical reminders connecting her pre- again. With World War II raging, Forbes saw sent life to the past. The Forbes family also young people thrust into adult roles of preserved history with stories of its own past. responsibility. Like the patriots of colonial One of the stories was about an ancestor America, they were fighting desperately for jailed for witchcraft. their cause. In Johnny Tremain, Forbes wanted In these surroundings, Forbes quickly devel- to show that in the 1770s, as in the 1940s, oped her love of history and of stories based on young Americans “were conscious of what historical events. She read widely—everything they were fighting for and that it was some- Copyright © by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. from the classical Iliad, to her mother’s manu- thing which they believed was worth more scripts, to books found in her attic. Not surpris- than their own lives.” ingly, Forbes’s first attempt at a novel, written Forbes won the 1944 Newbery Medal for at age thirteen, had a historical setting. Forbes Johnny Tremain. She explained that she also spent time riding her pony through the wanted to show readers “the excitement of countryside of Massachusetts and scouring human nature, never static, always changing, ponds for turtles, which she collected. often unpredictable and endlessly fascinating.” Johnny Tremain Study Guide 9 Introducing the Novel The story of Johnny Tremain begins in readers can imagine what it was like to walk 1773 in the Boston home and workshop of down Boston’s cobblestone streets in the early old Mr. Lapham, a master silversmith. 1770s. They can share the sense of danger Fourteen-year-old Johnny Tremain is one of and excitement surrounding such real events three apprentices who live with the Lapham as the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere’s famous family while learning the silversmith trade. ride, and the Battles of Lexington and Although Johnny is an orphan, he had the Concord. Readers also learn more about such advantage of a mother who taught him to great Patriot thinkers and leaders as Sam read and write. These abilities, along with Adams, John Hancock, and John Adams. Johnny’s intelligence and superior skill as an In Johnny Tremain, readers share not apprentice silversmith, make him overly only a historical journey but also Johnny’s per- proud. He wins no friends with his haughty sonal journey of growth and discovery. When attitude toward the other two apprentices. planning the novel, Forbes was determined “to Johnny is so proud and aware of his value to give Johnny room enough to change and grow.” the Laphams that, at times, he even treats his She also wanted “an obstacle [for] Johnny . master’s family disrespectfully. to face from the beginning to the end of the As the story begins, Johnny is far more book. This obstacle was to have psychologi- interested in his personal ambitions than in the cal significance.” At the beginning of the political turmoil brewing all around him. At novel, Johnny is an arrogant and impulsive this time, the colonies were on the eve of the boy, but then life knocks him around quite a American Revolution, and Boston was a hotbed bit. He runs into some bad luck and also of tension and unrest. Many colonists were creates some problems for himself with his fiercely engaged in debating how much control excessive pride. He has to face his problems Great Britain should have over the colonies and and try to figure out who he is and what whether to form a separate nation. matters to him. When the dramatic events of Johnny’s story is filled with characters, the American Revolution involve Johnny, he Copyright © by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. places, and events that make Boston, as it must decide what ideas and beliefs are worth existed in the early 1770s, come alive. Some fighting for. characters are mostly interested in their daily lives. Other characters are passionately inter- THE TIME AND PLACE ested in the political changes erupting around The story of Johnny Tremain takes place them. Though many of these characters are mainly in Boston, beginning in the summer of fictional, Forbes has skillfully interwoven their 1773 and ending in April 1775. At this time, stories with those of real people and events Boston was an important colonial city with a from history. In fact, the author has combined thriving economy. The thirteen American fact and fiction so seamlessly that readers may colonies were well established and had grown not always know what is real and what is in population to two and a half million. The invented. In the words of one critic, “If geographic area of the colonies was larger Jonathan Lyte Tremain never lived in the flesh, than that of the mother country, Great he lives vividly with the men of his time.” Britain. Transportation within and between In writing Johnny Tremain, Forbes drew colonies was very slow, with horse or horse- upon the extensive research she did for her drawn carriage the fastest method of travel. biography of a famous Boston patriot: Paul Mail service was minimal and news could take Revere. With Forbes’s vivid descriptions, days, weeks, or months to circulate. 10 Johnny Tremain Study Guide The circumstances leading to the momen- the colonists decided to protest by boy- tous historical events described in Johnny cotting, or refusing to buy, British goods. Tremain had been brewing for more than a Some protests led to violence. The most decade. In 1763 Great Britain found itself important effect of the Stamp Act, however, deeply in debt after the end of the French and was that the colonies began to unify. People Indian War. The British government decided like Sam Adams began to organize groups that it was time that the American colonies dedicated to the cause of fighting British helped pay for their own defense. Between tyranny. 1763 and 1775, the British Parliament Another event that helped trigger the approved a variety of laws requiring colonists American Revolution was the Boston Massacre to pay new taxes. Many colonists objected in 1770. Confusion during a routine street strongly to paying these taxes because they dispute led to violence and bloodshed had no representatives in Parliament. Thus, between colonists and British soldiers who they said, Parliament had no authority to tax were stationed in Boston. This event further them. “No taxation without representation” convinced Patriots such as Sam Adams that became the rallying cry of colonists opposed all the colonies should unite against Great to the new taxes. Britain. He encouraged regular communication One of the new laws, the Stamp Act, between important leaders from the different meant colonists had to pay a tax—in cash— colonies. Eventually, Adams’s “committees of for most products made from or using paper. correspondence” became the Continental As this tax affected nearly every purchase, Congress, which met for the first time in 1774. Did You Know? Not all colonists were Whigs—people who sup- claimed to support the Stamp Act boycotts, for ported independence from Britain and opposed example, but then secretly traded with the British control of the colonies. Some colonists British. protested the taxes the British imposed on Important real-life Whigs such as Sam them yet did not support independence from Adams, his cousin John Adams, and John the mother country. Other colonists were Tories Hancock appear in Johnny Tremain. Several of who opposed the Whigs entirely and supported the British leaders and soldiers in the novel— King George’s rule. The issue was not simply for example, Governor Hutchinson and General how much control the British should have, but Gage—were real-life Tories.

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