Johnny Tremain

The setting for Esther Forbes's young adult novel Johnny Tremain is crucial to the story. The novel is set in Boston during the Revolutionary War. Many of the characters are well known figures from...

To a large extent Johnny's maturation parallels that of the United States itself. Both boy and nation are forced to grow up fast over the course of the Revolutionary War and its aftermath. One way...

Johnny Tremain shows that he is a reliable apprentice right from the start when he sets about getting the other apprentices out of bed in the morning. After being an apprentice for just two years,...

The small details, such as of daily life, are accurate to the time period as well, which provides a richer depth of historical accuracy. Things like apprenticeships and food and workmen (e.g.,...

Johnny Tremain is set during the time of the Revolutionary War, in which America battles England for its independence. Pumpkin (his nickname based on his bright red hair) is a horse-boy for the...

Johnny Tremain had been the most valuable apprentice at the Laphams house and shop. After his hand is crippled in a terrible accident, he is no longer able to work at silversmithing, and loses his...

One way in which the colonists resist English rule is refusing to import British goods until the Stamp Act is repealed. However, not all colonists are equally committed to the cause. For example,...

The most frightening element of the Alien and Sedition Acts would be the apparent suspension of the First Amendment's entitlement to free speech. In an act of government repression and in the...

Johnny doesn't really want to deliver the mail for the British soldiers. This seems like helping the enemy. But then he realizes (with Rab's help) that he can actually hurt the British and help...

Johnny commits himself to the Patriot cause at the end of the novel. He decides his future will involve sacrificing for the cause. While Johnny has been slowly emerging into the political realm,...

Things were changing with the rebels attitudes and the fighting. The rebels were threatening the Tories or King's Loyalists. According to their maid, Bessie, they had threatened to tar and feather...

When the story opens, Johnny is an apprentice to Mr. Lapham, a silversmith with a shop in Boston. Historically, an apprentice was a person who was legally bound to a master craftsman for seven...

When Johnny is at the barn dance at the Grandsire's big barn, he forgets about his deformed hand. The girls he dances with take his hand, and they don't seem to notice that his hand is misshaped....

As well as being a great American hero, Paul Revere also happens to be a darn good silversmith. He's just the kind of man, then, to help Johnny with the silver sugar bowl handles he's trying to...

The setting for Esther Forbes's young adult novel Johnny Tremain is Boston at the onset of the Revolutionary War. As a silversmith apprentice, Johnny is not particularly interested in politics; in...

Similes are comparisons that use the word "like" or "as." a) The author describes the scene of hundreds of British redcoats crowding the narrow Tremont Street--"like a river of blood." b) Johnny...

The Sons of Liberty was a group formed in the American colonies to protest the levying of new taxes on the colonies by Britain in the aftermath of the French and Indian War, which had cost the...

For Johnny, at the beginning of the novel, the rising sun symbolizes wealth, power, and prosperity. Johnny has a cup that has the Lyte crest on it, and he believes that he can use the cup to prove...

Mrs. Bessie is the cook for the Lyte family. They are the family that Johnny is actually related to. They do not actually acknowledge that he is related to them and, in fact, Merchant Lyte tries...

Johnny is the title character in Esther Forbes's novel Johnny Tremain, and at the beginning of the story he is not a particularly nice person. Some things happen in his life to change that, but...

I teach this book at the 7th grade level, because it connects with the history. I do think high school kids could read and enjoy it, but I don't think I would teach it. The hero seems a bit...

Johnny Tremain tells Pumpkin that he will get him a smock like farmers wear and a hat with dark hair sewed into it to obscure his face. Johnny says he will bring Pumpkin the clothes he needs and...

Johnny Tremain is, of course, primarily about the life of young orphan named Johnny Tremain. We first meet him as an apprentice in a silversmith's shop, and he is an arrogant, impatient, and...

When the Lytes flee, Cilla returns to get the silver. Johnny realizes that the Lytes knew that he was a member of the family all along. He finds the family genealogy and sees his parents’ names...

There were two reasons why Johnny and Rab befriended Dove. The first reason was because Dove was working for the British, and might reveal information about them that would be useful to the...

The book Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes was published in 1943. Due to the fact that it is a historical fiction novel and that it was published over seventy years ago, there is language contained...

Johnny has a sense that there is something unlikable about Lavinia Lyte long before he can put the reasons for his feelings into words. Although her beauty is such that it sends an enjoyable...

In the book Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes, Pumpkin illustrates a unique viewpoint during the time period before the Revolutionary War. In the story, Pumpkin is a British soldier who wants to...

Sam and John Adams are on their way to Philadelphia to the Continental Congress. Someone mentions peace to Sam Adams and he responds with "No. That time is past. I will work for war: the...

The irony of James Otis attending the last meeting of the Observer in Chapter 8 is that the leaders of the budding revolution had not wanted him to come, but he showed up anyway. Once there, Otis...

If we say that a person is "aloof" we mean that they are distant, that they seem to act as if they are better than other people. People hold themselves aloof from others if they think they are too...

In the book Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes, Rab and Grandsire Silsbee represent admirable American characters during this time period. Beginning with Rab, this character demonstrates several...

Suspense is when a book is so interesting you can’t wait to see what happens next. Since most readers of this book are already familiar with the American Revolution, they know what will happen....

Esther Forbes creates suspense in the final chapters of Johnny Tremain by involving us in the furtive efforts of the colonists as the conflict comes to a head. Several characters that we know are...

The exact year that the book "Johnny Tremain" starts out in is 1773. The setting is Boston, Massachusetts. That places the book's time period smack dab in the middle of a ready to blow powder keg...

England taxed tea, and the Americans responded with the Boston Tea Party by throwing the tea into the harbor. Johnny Tremain tells the story of America in the days leading up to the Revolutionary...

The Sons of Liberty are an organization of Patriots that Johnny is exposed to through his connection with John Adams and John Hancock and The Boston Observer. The Sons of Liberty are technically...

Great question! In Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes, chapter 6 (sections 1-6) includes monumental events! During this section, Johnny learns more about the dreaded taxation on tea. Although the tax...

Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes, is the story of a prideful boy who suffers a great loss but learns how to be a better and more productive person because of it. When Johnny can no longer...

Johnny gets Pumpkin the items he needs to attempt an escape from the British Army. In return, Pumpkin gives Johnny his musket. Pumpkin, who is a private in the British Army, has little heart for...

Similes are comparisons that use the word "like" or "as." One example of a sentence that includes a simile is the following: Counting houses, shops, stores, sail lofts, and one great ship after...

He did that because Rab was looking at one of the guns belonging to a British soldier. Rab then touched the gun. The British officer then hit Rab with the flat part of his sword. A medical...

Lieutenant Stranger treats Johnny as a friend.The Lieutenant is above all a good and decent person, a quality which Johnny recognizes immediately.  Capable of laughing at himself and...

The answer to this can be found two or three pages into Chapter IX. The significance of these letters is that they tell the Patriots when the British are planning to move against them. At this...

Interesting question! In the book Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes, there are numerous components worthy of literary discussion. However, some of the more interesting components include the book’s...

John Hancock ordered a silver sugar basin as a birthday gift for his Aunt Lydia. The sugar basin was to match the creamer pitcher he already owned. The original sugar basin, which Mr. Lapham had...