Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

“We give all we have, lives, property, safety, skill...we fight, we die, for a simple thing. Only that a man can stand up.” 

Johnny Tremain holds a special place in my heart because it is one of the first books I can recall pushing myself to finish reading. It was assigned to me in my seventh grade English class, and I remember not feeling too impressed with the story in the beginning. The temptation to put it aside and read something else was high, but I made myself stick with it and ended up really enjoying it. Of course, at this point, I barely remember anything about the plot. All I really remember is being glad I made myself finish it. That was really the start of my feelings on sticking with books today. I always finish the books I start now, and this little book was the origin of that.

When I was designing my Classics Club list a few years ago, I knew that I wanted a selection of classic children's books on it. In my search for titles I wanted to try, I came across Johnny Tremain again. I decided to put it on my list to see if I still would feel the same way about the story when I revisited it--bored, but eventually entertained. I don't count something I read when I was twelve as a re-read for these purposes, so I felt fine including it. A short trip to Boston a few months ago, in which I visited Paul Revere's house, sparked my interest in reading this novel again, so I decided now was the time to pick it back up.

The plot of the story follows a young orphan boy named Johnny Tremain who is growing up in Boston in 1773. Johnny is working as an apprentice silversmith for the Latham family, a position that his mother was able to secure for him before she died. He shows such skill and promise in his craft that every other silversmith in town, including the famous Paul Revere, is interested in him. Unfortunately for Johnny, he knows how skilled he is and he delights in lording his talents over the other apprentice boys he lives with. He has a good heart, but he is also bossy, mean, and quick to anger. His pays a heavy price for this pride at the beginning of the novel when he burns his hand with molten silver in a tragic accident.

His injury is severe enough that he can no longer work as a silversmith, and the loss of his future career is a devastating blow to the young boy. With no real family to rely on, he is forced to find another way of earning a living that he can do one-handed. After a long and agonizing search, he winds up delivering newspapers for The Boston Observer, a local Whig newspaper. His new job thrusts Johnny into a world he previously ignored - the world of politics. The Observer happens to be the headquarters for the Sons of Liberty, a secret Whig group that desires freedom from England. Once Johnny has proven himself to be a trustworthy ally to their cause, he is running errands for Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, James Otis, and many other major American patriots in addition to his newspaper duties. With tensions between England and the American Colonies rising, Johnny gets a front row seat to the events leading up to the American Revolution, including the Boston Tea Party and the "Shot Heard Round the World." Along the way, he grows up a bit, learns to control his temper and understands what it means to become a part of a movement that's larger than himself.

Coming back to read this as an adult turned out to be an excellent idea, because I don't think that a twelve-year-old reader is capable of appreciating everything Johnny Tremain has to offer. The first time I read this, in middle school, I had to push through boredom to make it all the way to the end. I ended up recognizing it was a good book, but I didn't enjoy the whole journey. Reading it now, I understand what a little gem it is.

One reason for this is Johnny's character development. Many of the young boys in children's adventure novels are a bit flat. Jim Hawkins and Tom Sawyer, for example, have a great deal happen around them, but they ultimately change little in their respective adventures. Johnny, however, experiences quite a lot of growth throughout his journey. He begins the story as a prideful, snobby boy who likes to bully others. After his accident, however, he needs to find new ways to interact with people in order to survive. He slowly learns to hold his temper, be kinder to others, and take responsibility for his actions. He also learns to grapple with jealousy and fear as he discovers how to live with his injury. He realizes that there are some things he can't do and other things he can, if he has enough heart to work hard for them. He even manages to maintain a fragile peace with Dove, the selfish and petty boy that caused his accident. By the end of the novel, Johnny is brave, respectful, and admirable. Realistically, he does not attain perfection, but he comes out of his ordeal a better person than when he went in, which makes him a character that is easy to root for.

Another strength of the novel is the wealth of historical information it contains. Johnny Tremain is historical fiction, but it is absolutely stuffed with facts about the colonial time period in the U.S. and the early days of the Revolutionary War. I felt like I learned more from reading this novel than I learned in my actual history classes. Home life, different professions, politics of the day, and the factors that led the colonies to war are all explored in a way that doesn't feel intrusive to the overall story about Johnny's life. Esther Forbes masterfully weaves in her history lessons with the fictional plot points, creating a read that is engaging and educational. Obviously, one shouldn't take everything in the novel as an absolute fact, but it is obvious that great efforts were made to keep the story as true as possible for the time period.

One last element of the story that stood out to me was how successful this book was at inspiring a feeling of patriotism in me. I'm not the kind of person that's easily moved by U.S. history stories. That's not to say that I don't appreciate my country, because I certainly do, I'm just not the type to feel particularly patriotic. Reading Johnny Tremain, however, made me feel some twinges of pride for our forefathers that stood up for what they believed in and fought for freedom from tyranny. It probably helped that I'm originally from Massachusetts and love Boston in particular, but I was surprised at how moved and interested I was by this story. John Otis's speech to the Sons of Liberty, which gives us the novel's most famous lines, was particularly inspiring. His assertion that, "We give all we have, lives, property, safety, skills...we fight, we die, for a simple thing. Only that a man can stand up," had me practically cheering. The story wasn't perfect. There were still some spots that moved a bit slowly. Overall, however I was engaged in and inspired by what I was reading and cheering on Johnny and his Whig buddies.

I went into reading Johnny Tremain not expecting too much. I was interested to see if I would still find it boring, and figured that I probably would, at least in part. What I discovered instead was an exciting adventure that brought the Revolutionary War to life for me. I teach seventh grade right now. My students are the same age as I was when I first read this novel. There is a push in modern education to read books that are "relevant" to our students' lives, so stories like this don't make the cut anymore. It's a shame, but I do not think that this novel can be a hit with most young kids at this point anyway. They've been fed on a diet of instant-gratification entertainment for too long. However, for patient and thoughtful readers of any age that enjoy history, Johnny Tremain remains a treasure.


Challenge Tally
Classics Club (#27 on my list): 39/100 

Total Books Read in 2019: 12