April Morning Howard Fast Character Analysis

A Man with Morals
How would you fare in a war you are not prepared to fight? The book, April Morning, by Howard Fast, is about Adam Cooper and the challenges that he must endure through the first battles of The Revolutionary War. Joseph Simmons is Adam’s cousin and a complex character who is simple, brave, and father-like.
Joseph Simmons is a simple man and is both a major and minor character in this book. He is very close knit with Adam’s family and is good friends with Moses Cooper. Adam states, “He was a blacksmith and had shares in a slaver” (Fast 32). The Coopers, at the beginning of the book, also consider Joseph to be a simple minded, heavyset man with high morals. Adam shows this by saying, “The ship the Simmons brothers invested in came in and made them rich, but Joseph broke with them and remained a blacksmith” (Fast 33). Joseph did not want to become wealthy in that way, so he remained hard working because of his high morals.
When Adam sees that Joseph is alive, they have a reunion, Adam says, “I threw myself into his big arms and let him hold me as tight as if I was a little shaver and he be my own father” (Fast 126). This sets up the fact that Joseph is concerned about Adam and sees him as his own son. He even makes Adam share a cold meat pie with him when they are waiting for the redcoats. Joseph said, “Nothing could ever replace Moses in my heart but I could turn to him just as I would a father” (Fast 135). You can tell that when Joseph says that it makes the death of Adam’s father just a little bit easier for him. This is a turning point in the book for both Adam and Joseph because the redcoats had