Johnny Tremain Essay

406 Words2 Pages
In the book, Johnny Tremain, by Ester Forbes, the author portrays the characters in several different ways. Johnny, the main character, is depicted as an apprentice to Mr. Lapham, a silversmith. Johnny is living in Boston, Massachusetts and staying in Mr. Lapham’s home with Mr. Lapham’s family. Mr. Lapham and his apprentices work; his wife and daughters do household chores. This book relates to the economy of the colonies because colonists made their living based off of jobs like the ones mentioned in this book. Johnny is living in Boston, which is a New England colony, so the economy there was mainly based on shipbuilders, fishermen, artisans, subsistence farming, timber, and commercial trade. In this book, there were examples of artisans, farming, and fishermen. The economy of artisans in the colonies was included in the novel. Mr. Lapham is a silversmith, a type of an artisan. An artisan is defined as a person skilled in an applied art. In the novel John Hancock said, “But there are other silversmiths.” (22) He said this to Mr. Laphan when he wanted him to make a sugar basin for him. A silversmith is a type of artisan, so Mr. Lapham directly related to the colonial economy. Artisans were in the book, and so were subsistence farmers. Subsistence farming was part of the New England economy. Subsistence farming is farming for enough for one family and typically not selling a significant amount of their harvest. “In the barns cows lowed to be milked.” (7) When cows are milked, it is farming. Even though it is not specifically said in the book that it was for subsistence farming, it can be implied. In the novel, farming was referred to in the economy. Farmers in the book were part of the colonial economy, and so were fishermen. Fishermen were part of the New England economy, and the occupation of fishing was in the book. “Johnny could smell hemp and spices, tar
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