Johnny_Tremain__Pride_and_Humilation

Johnny Tremain Essay © 2010 Pride and Humiliation Johnny Tremain is a book written by Esther Forbes and it is about pride and humiliation. In the dictionary pride is defined as “becoming or dignified sense of what is due to oneself or one's position or character; self-respect; self-esteem.” Pride is mostly found as something good and being happy for yourself. Pride can also be negative. Other people might think you are bragging about yourself and you could get humiliated. Unfortunately, Johnny Tremain learned this the hard way ‘Johnny! Ma sent me. Johnny, its Mr. Hancock himself. He’s in the shop ordering something. Stand by and listen or Grandpa will get it wrong...’ Johnny got his notebook and pencil. ‘ We can do it Mr. Hancock. It will be exactly right...’ Johnny’s pride was good because it got things done around the silversmith shop. Even though Johnny was an apprentice, he almost acted like he was in charge. If Johnny didn’t help his master get the order right, then things would be a mess. The girls even told him to help out their Grandpa! ‘Look sharp Dusty,’ Johnny said, ‘Get the annealing furnace going. Fetch in charcoal. You’ll have to do it by yourself.‘ 'This spoon you finished yesterday afternoon has to be melted down-made over. You beat it to the wrong gauge.’ Sometimes Johnny’s pride was hurtful to others. He told his fellow apprentices what to do and how to do it. Johnny wasn’t the master. Johnny was an apprentice! He even told Dove, the boy who is older then him, that he made a spoon wrong! ‘Johnny did not see Dove standing on a stool, reaching far back and carefully taking out a cracked crucible. It might stand the heat of the furnace, but chances are it would not. It would serve Johnny Tremain right, if the crucible gave way and the hot silver did spill over the top of the furnace.‘ ‘Something happened, he never knew exactly what. The burn was so terrible he at first felt no pain, but he stood stupidly looking at his hand.’ Johnny had a change in his attitude after his accident. Dove gave Johnny a cracked crucible that wasn’t good for using anymore. The silver spilled out and Johnny burnt his right hand. It changed the way Johnny’s pride was shown. He was more careful in the way he did things, but after a while he no longer stayed at the Lamham’s, because he couldn’t work as an apprentice anymore. ‘Then she tried to kiss Johnny, but he thought it beneath his dignity to be kissed on the street. She bent and kissed his burned hand. He said nothing. He was suddenly afraid he might cry.’ After the court case, Isannah was very happy about what the judge said to her. She wanted to kiss Johnny, but he thought he would’ve been humiliated in the street. She kissed his burnt hand. This gave Johnny a small spark of hope. He realized things might not be so bad after all. ‘He began to cry. He had not been able to cry before. It was if Isannah’s words had broken down the last strength in him. He cried half for himself and half because he knew how sorry his mother would be for him if she knew. I can’t do decent work. I can’t ever be a silversmith-not even a watchmaker. My friends don’t want me to touch them with my dreadful hand. Then he lay face down, sobbing and saying over and over that God had turned away from him.’ This was a very hard time for Johnny. He felt that everyone, his friends and God, had turned away from him. Johnny felt like it was all because of the accident. Isannah had humiliated him. She ran away screaming, because he had touched her with his burnt hand. He thought everything would be horrible and nothing would go right for the rest of his life. He had finally just let it all go on his mother’s grave and wept. Johnny had a lot of pride before his accident. It resulted in positive and negative things for himself and sometimes others were humiliated from his actions. Johnny Tremain should be an example for us. Having pride can be a good thing, if you handle it well. Pride can easily result in humiliation for yourself and even others, just like Johnny Tremain. Pride is good, but it also can be dangerous. Pride is seldom delicate; it will please itself with very mean advantages. - Samuel Johnson He that is proud eats up himself. Pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise. - William Shakespeare