Essay About Familys Summer And Family Moves

Red Sky at Morning: Stepping into Adulthood
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Red Sky At Morning by Richard Bradford, is a coming of age novel that
illustrates the maturing of a young man. In the summer of 1944, Frank Arnold, a
wealthy shipbuilder in Mobile, Alabama, receives his volunteer commission in the
U.S. Navy. He moves his wife, Ann, and seventeen-year-old son, Josh, to the
familys summer home in the village of Corazon Sagrado, high in the New Mexico
mountains. Mrs. Arnold finds it impossible to cope with the quality of life in the
largely Hispanic village. Josh, more the son of his father than his mother, becomes
an integral member of the Sagrado community, forging friendships with classmates
at Helen De Crispin school, with the towns resident artist, with Chango
Lopez–macho bully turned model student–and with Amadeo and Excilda
Montoya, the couple hired by his father to care for their house. Josh narrates the
story of his fateful year in Sagrado and reveals the events and people who
influence his progress to maturity. Josh matures throughout the book into a young
man who learns the understanding of change, responsibility, and duty.
Josh stays strong through the changes he goes through and it helps him
mature into the man he becomes. When his family moves to Sagrado he makes
new friends and adapts well to the new environment he is put into. Josh stays
open-minded when making friends at school. He gets to know many different
kings of people. Unlike his mother he doesnt judge people by where they live or
their racial background. His mother does not adjust to the changes as well as
Josh does.
Josh is faced to handle the responsibilities of taking care of his home, his
mother, and himself. His mother takes a turn for the worse in dealing with the
changes of Sagrado and her husbands death. She gets caught up in alcohol and
leaves Josh to take care of her. Her behavior got to the point that he had to call a
doctor. “I hoped I wouldnt have to call Dr. Temple again professionally, but
mothers behavior had been pretty strange last night. (129).” Josh is not only
responsible for his mother but he takes care of himself and his house. “Mother this