Summary Of After Johnny Tremain By Esther Forbes

“And some of us would die––so other men can stand up on their feet like men. A great many are going to die for that. They have in the past. They will a hundred years from now––two hundred. God grant there will always be men good enough. Men like Rab.” (Forbes, 266) This is said to Doctor Warren in the last chapter of this novel, after Johnny Tremain learns of Rab’s death. Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes is the story of a young man’s journey to find himself in changing world whose challenges allow him to mature in the process. The story starts on a July morning of 1773 in Boston, with fourteen-year-old Johnny Tremain, a skilled silversmith apprentice to the Lapham family.

In the beginning, Johnny's future work and family life seems fixed—he

He is hoping that this encounter with family will provide security. The visit takes an unfortunate turn when Merchant Lyte accuses Johnny of stealing the silver cup his mother had left him. “… the merchant’s voice was smooth as oil. I declare this cup to be the very cup which was stolen from me by thieves. They broke through yonder window on the twenty-third of last August. Sheriff, I order you to arrest this boy for burglary.’” (Forbes, 82) Johnny is being rejected from society and from his family, therefore continuing his search for some form of solidarity. After Johnny gets arrested for “stealing the Lyte cup”, Rab helps Johnny get a better jail cell, finds him an exceptional lawyer, and gets Cilla to testify on Johnny’s behalf in court. Rab serves as a catalyst to the plot movement; he allows Johnny Tremain to progress out of the climax- where we see Johnny incarcerated, and ostracized from society. Therefore, Rab’s character pushes Johnny to the resolution, as Forbes uses Rab as a literacy

He leaves the Laphams's property, and moves into the newspaper office with Rab, and becomes heavily involved in Whig politics during the fall of 1773. He finds out about the Boston Observers, a group of prominent Whigs- Paul Revere, Sam Adams, and John Adams- who surreptitiously meet in the attic of the Boston Observer's. In the December of 1773, Johnny chooses to partake in the Boston Tea Party. Johnny asks Rab, whose responsibility is to recruit boys for this occasion, if he will be included into this group, in which Rab replies by telling Johnny to practice chopping logs so that he will be able to chop tea chests when the time comes. “Johnny moved restlessly on his bed. ‘Rab?’ ‘Uh?’ ‘Rab… those boys you promised. Am I one?’ ‘Of course.’” (Forbes, 129) Johnny’s ambition or desire to secure friendships motivates him, rather than his belief in the whole revolutionary