Character Analysis: No Promises In The Wind

I believe that no one wants to be in poverty, but do you know that during the Great Depression, it is considered normal to be so poor that you’re jobless and hungry all the time? That’s what happened to Josh and Joey in No Promises in the Wind: because of their harsh father and the financial problems, they left their home to look for a job which can support the two of them. They met a lot of people, desperate people. Almost everyone was looking for a job so they could fill their stomachs. However, even desperate people were divided into two groups: some people remained positive, and the others were stressed.
Throughout the book, there are three characters who were very positive considering the environment that they were in. Josh was the big

brother in the book. Being the role model for his brother, Josh pushed on until he found a job for himself and Joey. In chapter two and three, almost immediately after they left home, Josh and Joey experienced the dangers of the society by watching their best friend, Howie getting hit and killed by an oncoming train, and getting robbed by a bunch of hoodlums. They wasn’t far away from home by then, and it was very easy for them to go back. However, Josh went on and took care of Joey. Speaking of Joey, he went on the journey with Josh. Even though he was only ten years old, Joey was determined to follow and help his brother. In chapter seven, after their twenty dollar bill got taken away because of Josh, Joey didn’t blame Josh for anything. Instead, he was able to make a joke to make the atmosphere lighter. Lonie, the stranger who eventually became like an uncle to the kids, helped them greatly even though he was in a difficult financial situation. Without Lonie, Josh and Joey would never had been as successful as they were. When Lonie learned that the boys were trying to find a job of playing piano and singing, he was happy to drove the extra miles, and spent a lot of his time on taking the boys to an interview. Also, when Joey was missing, Lonie sacrificed his free time on finding him. Those people stayed strong, and they eventually made themselves a better life.
Unfortunately, not everyone in the great depression dealt with it with positivity.

Josh and Joey’s father, Stefan, was really troubled with his responsibilities of supporting his family. He was really desperate to feed his family, and he worked extra hard on finding jobs. When he couldn’t get a stable job after trying for months, he let out his stresses and anger on his own family, own children. Because he couldn’t deal with the problems positively, he literally drove his own sons out of his house. On the first day of their new job at the carnival, Josh and Joey was waken up by an annoying dwarf, Blegan. This eccentric man was a pest, and he neither welcomed the brothers nor showed them the circus. All he did was calling the brothers ‘young fools’ and insulting Pete, their boss, for hiring them to play piano. When the circus burned down, one of the brothers’ co-workers, Florinda, freaked out. She had been a dancer for her life, so she was really scared of her future when she lost her job. However, instead of planning and preparing for her next step, all she did was crying out loud uselessly, and it took Emily, one of the best clowns, thirty minutes to calm her down. Those people really should had lighten up, because they are not helping by being

negative.
There are two kinds of people in the Great Depression: the ones who kept on going despite the hardships, who finally succeeded; and the ones that succumbed to the calamity and blamed it on everyone else, who didn’t achieve anything in the end, and worsened their relationships with others. If you ever feel desperate or disappointed, think about the positive people during the Great Depression: life was ten times harder for them, but no matter how hard everything was for them, they still dealt with their problems positively. If they can do it, why can’t you?