The Conversation Between Johnny And Johnny

Under Rab’s influence, Johnny turns from a haughty boy to a humble and thoughtful man. Prior to meeting Rab, when Johnny is still a silversmith’s apprentice, readers can see his pride in the way he treats and interacts with his fellow apprentices. For instance, in a conversation between Dove, a fellow apprentice and minor antagonist, and Johnny, Johnny shows his arrogance in the way he replies to Dove’s apology: “‘Gosh, Johnny. I’m sorry.’ ‘Sorry, eh? . . . You’re going to be a lot sorrier. . . You do that again and I’ll beat you up again. You overgrown pig-of-a-louse’”(6). Here, Johnny is treating Dove with contempt, which shows that he over-values his own importance. Furthermore, when Johnny first burns his hand, he has to go out to find a job that he can do with his burnt hand.
The narrator continues by saying that Johnny “barge[s] into shop after shop”(51) and that he “would grit his teeth and plunge headlong into the next shop”(52). The narrator even goes as far as saying that Johnny “[does] look, at times . . .[like] a potential criminal. Sometimes he look[s] so proud and fine that people [think] he must be a great gentleman’s son in misfortune”(62). This shows that Johnny is carrying himself in a proud way, skulking around like he is too good for the jobs he is applying for. The aura of arrogance Johnny carries with him is so extreme it made him seem like a rich gentlemen’s son! However, after meeting Rab, Johnny starts to see the errors of his arrogant disdain. A while after Johnny meets Rab, Rab insinuates Johnny’s flaw of thinking he is better than everyone else by telling him “‘Well, if you go around calling people squeak pigs and you’re just about get to take it when they hit back’”(92). This is one of the first instances of Rab mentioning Johnny’s arrogance and influencing him to think about his