Johnny Tremain Themes

“’We give all we have, lives, property, safety, skills . . . we fight, we die, for a simple thing. Only that a man can stand up. (192)” Ester Forbes, the author of Johnny Tremain, creates an series of plots and themes to lead to final resolution of the book. She begins with a adolescent boy, Johnny, who has somewhat of an arrogant personality. He is stubborn as well, so his will to change is slim. Johnny changes his character through a number of people, but more importantly through himself, by overcoming his own obstacles. The author creates Johnny as a transformational character.

The author uses the character, Mr. Lapham, to inform Johnny of his arrogant behavior, and tries to adjust Johnny’s character into someone with a humble heart and

Soon enough, Johnny’s pride had punished him greatly. Johnny had burned his hand in silver to the point where he could not feel the pain. He then had it wrapped incorrectly and soon had to live with the fact that his hand was gone. Once Johnny’s hand had been incapacitated, his value had no longer been of use. Johnny’s importance left when his hand did. Now, Johnny was not able to provide, or do much of anything really. He just existed. This hit Johnny extremely hard because he had nothing left to be prideful about. His past-self always believed he was outstanding, but his new-self would grow insecurities very quickly. I believe the author used this quote to foreshadow Johnny’s major conflict. “Since his accident he had unconsciously taken to wearing his hat at a rakish angle. This, and the way he always kept his right hand thrust into his breeches pocket, gave him a slightly arrogant air. The arrogance had always been there, but formerly it had come out as pride in his work—not in the way he wore his hat and walked.”(pg. 60) Johnny held on to his pride closely; even if he had nothing to be proud about, he would find a way to stay in his arrogant ways. Throughout this story Johnny has found many

Johnny never had many close friends until he meet Rab. Many were not fond of Johnny because of his attitude, as well as his hand being frightening, so Johnny was quite lonesome. By introducing Rab into the story, the author automatically foreshadows Johnny’s transformation by expressing the way Rab handles himself. Rab does not only become Johnny’s friend, but his mentor as well. “It wasn't the food alone that so raised Johnny's hopes. It was Rab himself; an ease and confidence flowed out and supported those around him. The marketwoman had felt better about losing her Myra after she had talked with Rab. He was the first person to whom Johnny Tremain had confided his own story. (57)” As Johnny would watch Rab conversing with people and examined how his mind set worked, he secretly aspired to be him. Rab was well-liked, and a trustworthy man. Rab was a modest individual who kept his pride to himself. Johnny on-the-other-hand, liked to let everyone be known of his pride in an extremely arrogant way. But soon after Johnny was around Rab long enough, he decided he no longer wanted to a boastful man, but one who stays humble under times of achievement. “‘And there's not one reason why I can't leave for Lexington too, except you don't want me."He knew this was not true, but he could not help badgering Rab, trying to make him say, "I'll miss you