No Promises In The Wind

Josh describes his 10-year-old brother, Joey, as a “golden child with a mouth that looked as if it had been sculpted, and great gray eyes under his shock of bright hair” (13). He was often ill as a young child, and at age 10 is still “fragile, a little too slender and delicate” (13).

Joey idolizes his older brother, Josh, so he doesn’t hesitate to beg to leave home with him after Josh has a falling out with their father. Joey’s angelic looks and sweet voice easily endear him to strangers when he and Josh are out on the road begging for food. An extravert, Joey has no problem singing in front of strangers to earn a meal for him and Josh.

Joey has a soft spot for animals and people who are suffering. Early in the story, he spends a nickel on milk to feed a starving alley cat. Josh scolds him for wasting a nickel on an alley cat but later admits to himself that it was the decent thing to do. Later in the novel, when the boys are nearly starving, Joey gives half a loaf of bread to a woman with six children because she fed him and Josh some soup.

Josh and Joey’s father, Stefan, has an old-school philosophy about work and doesn’t cope well with the loss of employment. His parents were musicians, and he shares a love of music with his wife. However, he believes that pursuing a career in the arts is unmanly and irresponsible. He tells his wife that his “man’s hands” have “never dawdled over a keyboard while you and the children suffered” (4). In fact, he blames the poverty of his childhood on his father’s preoccupation with music. After Stefan loses his factory job in 1932, he becomes bitter and takes out his anger on Josh, whom he discourages from pursuing a career in music. Ironically, Josh has a job delivering newspapers early in the novel and later lands two piano gigs, while Stefan remains idle. Even at the end of the novel, Stefan has only “a job of sorts—not a good one and not steady […],” (149), according to Josh’s mother. Stefan’s two sons, ages 15 and 10, are at this point in their lives better at making money than he is.

Lonnie, a truck driver who gives Josh and Joey a ride, is the novel’s most unselfish character despite experiencing a terrible loss in his life. Lonnie’s 15-year-old son, Davy, died of appendicitis. Davy’s death apparently led to the end of Lonnie’s relationship with his wife, Helen. Lonnie mentions her early in the novel when he tells Josh about Davy’s death. However, when Josh is at his house, Lonnie tells him that his niece, Janey, and his mother are the only family he has now. Janey tells Josh that “something happened between her [Aunt Helen] and Lonnie” (138) after Davy died.

Lonnie handles his losses well. Instead of being bitter, he develops new family-type relationships. He becomes a helpful surrogate father to Josh and Joey. He’s also a father figure to Janey, whose parents were killed in a car crash. Lonnie’s character contrasts sharply with Josh and Joey’s real father, who doesn’t handle losses in his life as well.

Emily is a realist who stoically does what she needs to do to support her family. Although she has no training as a carnival performer, she uses her ingenuity to create a clown act that’s a hit with audiences. Enduring the sexism of the time, she plays a male clown named Bongo because “carnival and circus crowds think of all clowns as men” and “might not like a clown named Emily” (77).

Emily’s beauty captivates Josh. He describes her reddish gold hair, her “almost purple” (77) eyes with thick lashes, and her beautiful voice, which sounds to him like “a little bell” (77).

When Josh criticizes her plan to marry a man 15 years older than she is, Emily explains:

Pete is a good man. He’s not handsome or well-educated or polished. He’s not rich—he’s never likely to be rich because he cares too much for everyone who has too little. Pete’s not what is called a catch, but he’s loyal and kind and decent (95).

She goes on to tell Josh that Pete was “like an older brother” (95) to her when her former husband, Carl, was dying. After she marries Pete, she writes to Josh and tells him how glad she is to have a father for her children again. It’s obvious that she’s not madly in love with Pete, but she does what’s right for her and what’s practical given the tough times.