Johnny Character Analysis in We Were Liars

The second-oldest Sinclair grandchild and one of the Liars. His mother, Carrie, is divorced and began dating Gat’s uncle Ed when the boys were eleven years old. Because of this, Johnny and Gat have lived almost like brothers for the entirety of their adolescence. Johnny is good-natured and generally carefree, and his easygoing disposition contrasts with Gat’s seriousness within the group. When they discuss wealth and possessions, for example, Gat is deeply concerned about the excessive consumerism he observes in American culture, while Johnny asks if the Liars “I dunno, want to own stuff?” Along with Mirren and Gat, Johnny dies in the fire that the Liars set during their fifteenth summer on the island.

Johnny Quotes in We Were Liars

The We Were Liars quotes below are all either spoken by Johnny or refer to Johnny. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

“Maybe land shouldn’t belong to people at all. Or maybe there should be limits on what they can own.” He leaned forward. “When I went to India this winter, on that volunteer trip, we were building toilets. Building them because people there, in this one village, didn’t have them.”

“We all know you went to India […] You told us like forty-seven times.”

Related Characters: Gatwick “Gat” Patil (speaker), Johnny (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman, Mirren

Page Number and Citation: 19-20

Explanation and Analysis:

Carrie lived with Ed. The Two of them bought art that might or might not be valuable later. Johnny and Will went to private school. Carrie had started a jewelry boutique with her trust and ran it for a number of years until it failed. Ed earned money, and he supported her, but Carrie didn’t have an income of her own. And they weren’t married. He owned their apartment and she didn’t.

Related Characters: Cadence “Cady” Eastman (speaker), Carrie, Ed, Johnny, Will

Page Number and Citation: 176

Explanation and Analysis:

Johnny Character Timeline in We Were Liars

The timeline below shows where the character Johnny appears in We Were Liars. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Cady spends her summers on Beechwood with her three closest friends: Johnny, Mirren, and Gat. They are all about the same age, and the rest of the... (full context)

Gat Patil comes along with Ed that eighth summer—Gat’s father recently died, and he and Johnny are close friends, so Ed and Carrie think he might enjoy a summer on the... (full context)

Cady learns more about Gat’s girlfriend, Raquel, from Johnny, who has met her. She lives in New York, is a modern dancer, and wears... (full context)

...or how anyone can say that a piece of land belongs to them at all. Johnny laughs him off, but Gat continues—he was in India earlier in the year, and saw... (full context)

Johnny and Mirren are not interested in what Gat is saying, however, and they tell him... (full context)

...spent together; once, he mentioned a favorite memory of Tipper at a family dinner, and Johnny had to talk loudly over him in order to distract everyone from the taboo topic.... (full context)

...and underpants, with no towel. She has no idea how she got there, or where Johnny, Mirren, and Gat are. Cady hit her head on a rock off the shore and... (full context)

...her memories from that summer. Mirren’s hand holding a jug of gasoline for the motorboats, Johnny running down the stairs from Clairmont to a boathouse, and Harris holding on to a... (full context)

...the family. Cady looks toward the shore from the boat and sees her friends, Mirren, Johnny, and Gat, waiting for her, welcoming her home. When Penny and Cady finally get into... (full context)

They go out to the beach, and Mirren and Johnny go into the water, leaving Cady and Gat alone to talk. They flirt casually for... (full context)

...that she has trouble sleeping when Ed isn’t there and asks if Cady has seen Johnny recently. She then tells Cady that her younger son, Will, has been having nightmares and... (full context)

...them, and Cady asks Mirren not to feel sorry for her. Mirren tells Cady that Johnny and Gat are staying at Cuddledown, another house on the island, and asks Cady to... (full context)

Johnny interrupts their conversation and asks Cady about the laundry basket of belongings at her feet.... (full context)

Harris asks Cady where “the young man” is, and she thinks he is referring to Johnny, but he means Gat. He looks faint and clutches a nearby desk, and Cady asks... (full context)

...has been ignored. When Cady asks if Bess actually asked Harris to remodel the house, Johnny gives her an odd look and asks how she doesn’t remember. Mirren scolds Johnny and... (full context)

...not to feel sorry for her and then tell a story like that. Gat and Johnny also tell her that they are jealous, because they have never been to Rome; Cady... (full context)

...the world as it is. She and Gat have a sharp discussion about this, until Johnny breaks the ice by announcing that his motto is “never eat yellow snow.” Cady says... (full context)

...when she dies, she wants her ashes scattered in the water on the small beach. Johnny and Mirren like the idea, but Gat says that he doesn’t want to have his... (full context)

...are not as good—the Liars do not want to go anywhere, and Mirren feels sick. Johnny creates a game in which he throws used tea bags into a mug of orange... (full context)

One afternoon, Cady finds Johnny alone, building something out of Legos. The two of them have lunch together, and Cady... (full context)

...come, and that ends the argument. When they get to the secluded spot, Gat and Johnny climb up the rocks to a cliff and decide to jump the twenty-five feet into... (full context)

...off the cliff, and her family is currently attending her funeral. And another in which Johnny hurts himself and has to be airlifted to the hospital to care for his injuries.... (full context)

Cady has another recovered memory, in which her aunt Carrie is crying, and wearing Johnny’s blue windbreaker. Cady can’t figure out why Carrie is so upset, or why she is... (full context)

...swing Cady on when she is younger. She recalls squeezing into the tire swing with Johnny, Gat, and Mirren during summer fifteen, and how they hardly fit. They yelled for a... (full context)

...Vineyard and Woods Hole to try to put out the fire that she set. She, Johnny, Mirren, and Gat set fire to Clairmont—they burned down the castle of the king with... (full context)

...the Liars about this memory and reveal the fact that she knows they are criminals. Johnny asks her what else she remembers, and she realizes that the snippets of memory that... (full context)

...“very impressionable” and needed reminding that Cady is the eldest grandchild, despite the fact that Johnny is only three weeks younger, and a boy. (full context)

...He went on to explain that Ed and Carrie had been together nine years, that Johnny and Will considered him a father figure, and that Ed wanted to make it official.... (full context)

A few days later, Harris talked to Johnny privately to ask him a favor. He wanted Gat to stop coming to family dinners... (full context)

Cady asks Johnny for more memories like these, as they sit in Cuddledown talking about summer fifteen. Johnny... (full context)

...that was wrong with the family—Gat described it as the “seat of the patriarchy,” which Johnny laughed at, but he was right. Clairmont housed the family possessions and the paperwork, and... (full context)

...change. She even thought of herself as a hero. She and Gat convinced Mirren and Johnny, and they all decided to do it together. They made their plan: they would soak... (full context)

Johnny and Mirren told Cady that the fire departments from Martha’s Vineyard and Woods Hole took... (full context)

...that on a July evening two summers earlier, Gatwick Matthew Patil, Mirren Sinclair Sheffield, and Jonathan Sinclair Dennis died in a fire in Clairmont, caused by an upturned gas can in the mudroom.... (full context)

...declined formal investigation of the fire, and the family held funerals for Gat, Mirren, and Johnny in their hometowns. Cady did not attend, as she was still suffering from a head... (full context)

...fire departments. But that is the last time that Cady would see Gat, Mirren, and Johnny, as they went to their respective floors. They are all a bit drunk on the... (full context)

...started her fire and watched it burn, and then suddenly heard a scream from above her—Johnny was on the second floor above the study, and it burned too fast. Cady panicked,... (full context)

...was a wall of flames and she couldn’t get down there. She went to save Johnny and Mirren, but the stairwell caved in as she was going towards it, and she... (full context)

Cady goes to Cuddledown to see the Liars, and when Johnny appears, he can tell that she remembers everything. She tells him that she doesn’t know... (full context)

...they are a happy couple on the beach. They hold each other as Mirren and Johnny walk out into the ocean, and when he finally has to leave as well, he... (full context)

Johnny Character Analysis

Johnny Quotes in We Were Liars

Part 1: Welcome Quotes

Part 4: Look, a Fire Quotes

Johnny Character Timeline in We Were Liars