Johnny Tremain

Johnny Tremain takes place in pre-Revolutionary Boston. Johnny Tremain is boy who is proud--too proud. His pride made him overconfident. He pretty much planned all of his life while he was young; he would be a silversmith and marry Cilla. His mother dies when he is fourteen years old. Before his mother died, he was apprenticed to a silversmith named Mr. Lapham. When his mother died, she gave him a silver cup that showed that he was a member of the Lyte family. The cup signifies that he is related to the famous merchant Lyte who was very rich. One Sunday, in order to get a silver basin for Mr. John Hancock done on time, Johnny broke the Sabbath and cast a silver pitcher. Dove, who is very unintelligent and jealous of Johnny gave him a cracked crucible and it spilled all over the stove top and Johnny went to get it but it burned his hand. Mr. Lapham sent out for a midwife to come and fix his hand because they didn't want to get caught working on the Sabbath by a doctor. She wrapped it up together and it crippled and stuck together which meant he couldn't work as a silversmith anymore. Johnny's master, Mr. Lapham, said that he would always have a home there. Soon Mr. Lapham was getting impatient and Johnny knew that he needed to get a job. So Johnny went out to find a job. He had a rough time finding a job because nobody wanted a so-called crippled boy who supposedly couldn't do anything. After searching and searching for a new job, he was offered a job by a boy named Rab who was about his age to deliver the Boston Observer, which was a town newspaper. Johnny became a messenger for the Sons of Liberty, a group of patriots that includes Sam Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock. Johnny wanted to get to Lexington, so he made himself look like a soldier and tore open his shirt and smeared mud and blood on his face and body. He successfully slipped past the soldiers and got to Lexington. When he got there, he saw Pumpkin and gave him some clothes to escape