Literary Devices in Johnny Tremain
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Why Boston?We can't talk about Colonial America without talking about Boston—this is the city that gave us so many of our Founding Fathers. (And yes, a lot of them show up in this book. See the "...
Narrator Point of View
Our unnamed narrator sticks pretty close to Johnny Tremain but keeps a distance that allows for a clear view of him. Check out this passage:By temperament Johnny was expansive, easily influenced. A...
Genre
Let's get the obvious one out of the way first. Johnny Tremain, published in 1943 but set in 1773-1775, is a work of historical fiction, meaning that it's set in the real world but either prior to...
Tone
For a book written in the middle of the patriotic fervor of World War II, Johnny Tremain views its characters and its situation through a remarkably objective lens. The Founding Fathers are neither...
Writing Style
Straight off of winning the Pulitzer Prize in history for her adult nonfiction work Paul Revere and the World He Lived In, Esther Forbes brings a bit of that historian's matter-of-fact style to Joh...
What's Up With the Title?
Obvs, the title is the name of the protagonist. But this is a case in which we definitely need to ask, "What's in a name?" Johnny actually has two: Johnny Tremain and Jonathan Lyte Tremain. He's mi...
What's Up With the Ending?
At the end of the novel, Johnny is standing on Lexington Green waiting for Doctor Warren to prepare his surgical instruments for the operation that will repair Johnny's hand at least enough for him...
Tough-o-Meter
While the plot moves along in a linear fashion, the structure is more complex than that of the average young adult novel. Forbes breaks the chapters into sections, and the sections don't always flo...
Plot Analysis
Please Come to BostonIn July 1773, Johnny Tremain is a bright young apprentice with a promising future as a Boston silversmith.Total Eclipse of the CareerJohnny loses that bright and silvery futu...
Trivia
Esther Forbes was related to Sam Adams. He was a distant great-uncle.
(Source.)
In 2001, Publisher's Weekly ranked Johnny Tremain 16th among all-time bestsellers in paperback children's books. Boo...
Steaminess Rating
Johnny is the king of the longing look and also the king of not doing anything at all about it. He does a lot of mooning over Lavinia Lyte, and later a lot of realizing that Cilla is pretty and bei...
Allusions
Biblical ReferencesThese are verses about pride that Grandpa Lapham asks Johnny to read at breakfast.Leviticus 26:19 (1.2.18)Proverbs 11:2 (1.2.20)Proverbs 16:18 (1.2.22)Literary ReferencesThis is...