Red Sky at Morning

The book Red Sky at Morning by Richard Bradford is a novel about a young boy who, during World War II, moves from Mobile, Alabama, to Sagrado, New Mexico. There, with his father in the Navy and his mother drinking herself to incoherence he is left to his own devices. Because Josh has no responsible adults in his life he is thrown on his own inner resources as he learns to deal with the various challenges life throws at him. He must go to rehire his housekeepers when his mother, in a drunken fit, fires them. He is there for his mother when she is increasingly unable to cope because of her alcoholism and he deals successfully with the school bully by befriending him when he is injured.

His mother, who never truly liked the housekeepers, fires them and Josh has to step up and take the responsibility to rehire them. The mother fires them for a few reasons, but biggest was because she was drunk. The next day she says to Josh, “Excilda won’t be in today, will she?” and Josh replies, “No mother, you fired her.” His mother, along with her alcoholic friend Jimbob (who is living with them) had no right to fire their housekeepers and Josh goes on the long journey to their village to rehire them. This becomes a big change Josh’s amount of responsibilities in his house. Up until then he had been a child stealing wine from his parents, now he is the man of the house and it was his responsibility to bring the help back, especially as his mother is unable to cook or clean or manage the household.

Another way Josh shows his growth and maturity is that he takes care of his mother when she has a nervous breakdown. Upon arriving in New Mexico, she had begun to drink excessively. Finally Josh realizes that her drinking has gotten out of hand. He then takes the lead; he calls his friends parents saying, “I think she needs a psychiatrist, she’s acting funny.” He finds her a psychiatrist, and by taking these matters into his own hands helps both his mother and himself. Although the psychiatrist proves to be unhelpful this experience helped him figure out what he needed to do on his own. It is amazing that a boy of seventeen with no family support is able to confront and handle the fact that his mother is an alcoholic and even reach out for help for her. He shows a lot of responsibility when, after the psychiatrist failed he reaches out yet again to a lawyer so he can legally take charge of the household.

Doing all this without falling apart himself is a big feat for someone still at such an early stage of his life.

Lastly, he truly shows how much living in New Mexico has made him more mature by befriending an enemy. When Josh had first gotten to Sagrado, a boy named Chango had bullied, and almost killed him; but when Chango nearly dies himself, Josh acts like a mature adult and visits him in the hospital. Chango at one point chases Josh saying, “Hallo you sissy queer pendejo.” Although Josh has a very good reason to despise him, instead he stands by Chango’s side while he recovers, truly being the bigger person. By just visiting Chango once in the hospital, he sees that there is a whole other side to Chango. He sees his “family” side. This book shows us that all people have a part of them that they hide from their family. Surely most people would not say half of the things they say to their friends in front of their parents. Because of this incident Josh learns that we are all more alike than we are different.

In conclusion Josh’s move from Mobile, Alabama to Sagrado, New Mexico gives Josh a new sense of maturity and responsibility. He finds himself head of his house and has to fix some of his mother’s mistakes that she is not well enough to fix herself; and doing this while also solving his own problems is a big triumph for someone who is not yet acknowledged as an adult by society. He learns that all people (including the one you wouldn’t inspect) are the same inside, even if they seem different at first. But Josh manages to overcome all of his problems and find himself on this journey.