Johnny Tremain (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
By SparkNotes
()
About this ebook
Making the reading experience fun!
Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, SparkNotes is a new breed of study guide: smarter, better, faster. Geared to what today's students need to know, SparkNotes provides: *Chapter-by-chapter analysis
*Explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols
*A review quiz and essay topics Lively and accessible, these guides are perfect for late-night studying and writing papers
Read more from Spark Notes
King Lear: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Fear Shakespeare Audiobook: Romeo & Juliet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tempest (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As You Like It (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bird by Bird (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Much Ado About Nothing (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMacbeth: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5No Fear Shakespeare Audiobook: Julius Caesar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Years of Solitude (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMeasure for Measure (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Merchant of Venice: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outsiders (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomeo and Juliet: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Richard III (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Atlas Shrugged SparkNotes Literature Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Winter's Tale (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Autobiography of Malcom X (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Merchant of Venice (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two Gentlemen of Verona (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHenry V (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Raisin in the Sun (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTempest: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Comedy of Errors (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Fear Shakespeare Audiobook: Othello Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dune (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomeo and Juliet (No Fear Shakespeare Graphic Novels) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomeo and Juliet SparkNotes Literature Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKing Lear (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRichard II (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to Johnny Tremain (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
Related ebooks
Johnny Tremain: A Newbery Award Winner Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When Heaven and Earth Changed Places (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study Guide for Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeroy Smith: 20th Century Impresario of Denver's Five Points District Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Real Blithedale Romance: The Love and Marriage of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sophia Peabody Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHoward Zinn: A Life on the Left Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quick Guide: Johnny Tremain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmall Town Girl: And Other Stories About Ordinary People Who Led Extraordinary Lives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThey Also Served: Women's Stories from the World War Ii Era Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Judicial Murder of Mary E. Surratt Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study Guide for Zora Neale Hurston's "Spunk" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEthan Frome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marne Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRagtime (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study Guide for Robert Olen Butler's "Good Scent from a Strange Mountain" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTheir Eyes Were Watching God SparkNotes Literature Guide Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Roy Hugh: The Boy from Bisbee That Went to War Pfc to Brigadier General Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUpper Bohemia: A Memoir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In The Shadow Of Blue Mountain: Lives And Letters Of A Remarkable Family - Volume I, 1868-1946 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmazing Women of the Civil War: Fascinating True Stories of Women Who Made a Difference . . . Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Lady Upstairs: Dorothy Schiff and the New York Post Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Revenge of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll My Love, Johnny: Memories and Loss in Troy, New York Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study Guide for Sui Sin Far's "Mrs. Spring Fragrance" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJohn Lothrop Motley (Barnes & Noble Digital Library): A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo Ordinary Time: Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Mothers' War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Poverty, Through Protest, to Progress and Prosperity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Land (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn The Shadow Of Blue Mountain: Lives And Letters Of A Remarkable Family - Volume II, 1946-1962 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Book Notes For You
Gavin de Becker’s The Gift of Fear Survival Signals That Protect Us From Violence | Summary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Midnight Library: A Novel by Matt Haig: Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor: Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Summary: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 5 AM Club Summary: Business Book Summaries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Poverty, by America By Matthew Desmond Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi: Summary by Fireside Reads Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab: Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Summary of 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Ichiro Kishimi's and Fumitake Koga's book: The Courage to Be Disliked: Summary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O'Neill: Conversation Starters Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson: Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Workbook for Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Eight Dates: Essential Conversations for a Lifetime of Love by John Gottman: Conversation Starters Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5SUMMARY Of The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in Healthy Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez: Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides: Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success by Darren Hardy: Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant: Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Johnny Tremain (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Johnny Tremain (SparkNotes Literature Guide) - SparkNotes
Context
E
sther Forbes
was born on June
28, 1891,
in rural Massachusetts to a family steeped in American history. Her mother, Harriet Forbes, was an antiquarian specializing in the New England area, and the Forbes home was filled with relics of the region’s past. The Forbes family also eagerly traded folklore, particularly a story about an ancestor who was accused of witchcraft. From a very young age, Forbes began to read widely, paying particular attention to books on history and stories set within a historical context.
After graduating from high school at the Bradford Academy, Forbes spent two years studying history at the University of Wisconsin. When the United States entered World War I, she left college to join the war effort. Just like Johnny Tremain, war transformed her life and her ambitions. Forbes spent several years working on a Virginia farm to produce food for the embattled nation, which she calls the proudest years of her life. After the war ended, she moved back to Massachusetts and worked as an editor at the Boston-based publishing company Houghton Mifflin. During this period she also devoted a lot of time to her own writing. She published her first novel, O Genteel Lady!, in
1926
, and published four more historical novels over the course of the next decade. In
1942
she published her first nonfiction work, a biography of Paul Revere entitled Paul Revere and the World He Lived In, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize.
While researching Paul Revere’s life, Forbes became increasingly interested in the colonial period, particularly in the Bostonians of the Revolutionary era. She decided to write a children’s book telling the story of a young Boston apprentice who witnesses America’s birth firsthand. Forbes began writing Johnny Tremain on December
8
,
1941
, the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed and the United States entered World War II. As the war waged on, Forbes was impressed with the way that young men and women were suddenly forced to become adults and take on weighty responsibilities. She admired their sense of self-sacrifice and their commitment to the cause of patriotism. Her observations of American youth during World War II helped her to understand the youth of the Revolutionary era and the ways in which they, too, were forced to grow up rapidly. These observations helped Forbes to develop the characters of Johnny and Rab. Johnny Tremain was published to widespread acclaim in
1943
, during the height of American engagement in World War II. In
1944
Johnny Tremain received the Newbery Medal, awarded annually to the best book of children’s literature. After Johnny Tremain, Forbes returned to publishing novels for adults. Forbes’s best-selling book The Running of the Tide won the MGM novel award and inspired a motion picture. Her last work, Rainbow on the Road, spawned the
1969
musical Come Summer. Forbes died on August
12
,
1967
, after a long and fruitful career as a novelist, historian, and biographer.
Though Johnny Tremain is one of only two books Forbes wrote for children, it is the work for which she is best known today. The novel has become standard reading for students because of its insightful and vivid portrayal of the events leading up to the Revolutionary War. During the time period that the book covers, colonial frustrations are reaching a fever pitch and threatening to erupt into war. In the wake of the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years War, England found itself heavily in debt and looked to the colonists to alleviate some of the financial pressure. Between
1764
and
1767
, the British government enacted a series of new taxes targetting to the colonies, such as the Sugar Tax, the Townshend Acts, and the notorious Stamp Tax. Given that the war had been fought partly to protect the American colonists, the decision to raise revenue from within the colonies made some sense, but it outraged many Americans, who felt that they were being governed unfairly. Since Americans had no representative in Parliament, they argued that they had no say in how they were taxed or how their tax money was spent. The Americans called England’s unfair financial practice taxation without representation.
The Americans responded to England’s actions by ignoring the laws, formally protesting the British violation of American rights, and finally by resorting to boycotts and outright violence. England repealed many of the taxes in response to American protest, and the years
1770
to
1773
saw a lull in the difficulties between the mother country and her colonies, although the rebel leaders continued to criticize England. In
1773
, the year in which Johnny Tremain begins, this lull in civil unrest was broken. The disruptive incident was the infamous Boston Tea Party, during which young patriots, dressed as Native Americans, stormed a British ship and tossed its cargo of tea into Boston Harbor. This act of disobedience, and the British response, set off a series of events that led to the Revolutionary War. Johnny Tremain brings to life this series of events, and the lives of the men and women involved in them.
Plot Overview
F
ourteen-year-old
Johnny Tremain is the gifted appren-tice of Ephraim Lapham, a silversmith in Revolutionary-era Boston. The pious and elderly Mr. Lapham is more interested in preparing his own soul for death than in running his silver shop, so Johnny is the chief breadwinner of the family. Dove and Dusty, Lapham’s other apprentices, are expected to bow to Johnny’s authority, and Mrs. Lapham is determined to have Johnny marry her daughter Cilla. Johnny’s enormous talent and his special status in the Lapham household go to his head, and Johnny often bullies the lazy, insolent Dove, as well as Dusty and the four Lapham daughters. Although Mr. Lapham tries to contain Johnny’s arrogance, Johnny is unwilling to rein in his quick temper or impulsive acts.
The Lapham’s fortune and Johnny’s fame as a silversmith appear to take a turn for the better when the wealthy merchant John Hancock puts in an order for an elaborate silver basin. Mr. Lapham hesitates to take on such a difficult project, but the rash Johnny accepts the job on behalf of his master. That night, Johnny reveals his family secret to Cilla. He is related to Jonathan Lyte, a wealthy Boston merchant. Johnny’s mother revealed his ancestry to him before she died and gave him a silver cup engraved with the Lyte’s coat of arms. She instructed him to steer clear of the Lytes unless he had no other recourse.
Johnny struggles to design the silver basin’s handles, but he is dissatisfied with the result. After consulting Paul Revere, Johnny creates a mold for a perfect set of handles. While