When the novel opens, Johnny Tremain, the fourteen-year-old protagonist, is intelligent and talented but also arrogant. A silversmith's apprentice, he is perceived as a leader by the other apprentices, who both resent and admire him. After an accident at work cripples his hand, he must find another means of supporting himself. He develops new skills, learning to ride a skittish horse, "Goblin," in order to get a job delivering newspapers. As Johnny becomes a skilled rider, he begins to accept his disability. To keep Goblin under control, he must use his crippled hand: "He could not keep it proudly in his pocket while careening about on a horse like Goblin." The only character in the story who changes, Johnny learns humility as through adversity and struggle he discovers his true strengths and weaknesses.

The secondary characters remain unchanged throughout the story. Johnny's fellow apprentices at Mr...