Overcoming Adversity In The Film 'October Sky'

John Hickam was a miner that really enjoys his job. For that reason, he hoped for his two boys, Jim and Homer Hickam, to work with him in the mine. Jim, and athletic football player, has received a football scholarship to go to college. As a result, Homer is left to fulfill his father’s wishes.

The Civil War devastated families all across the United States. Hundreds of thousands of people died and for many years after, the nation was still divided and trying to figure out how to move forward. Irene Hunt learned of stories of the Civil War from her grandfather who served in the Civil War. Hunt’s book, Across Five Aprils, relates to her childhood because this novel is nothing but a story of the war from one family. This book hit home hard and revealed concepts of realism by examining the effects the war had on everyday life.

Cut is a nonfiction by Bob Green that tells five stories of how he and four other people were cut from their sports teams. Being cut can have effects that last a lifetime such as being motivated to improve yourself from your moment of failure. This paper will explain the effects getting cut had on three different people. People who face failure develop a desire for success. Malcolm MacPherson “drove [his] opinion of [himself] right into a tunnel” when he was cut from his high school baseball team after the first game.

“Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard for 22 minutes to make sense of something that most people would give up on after 30 seconds.” (246) This quote shows that even though the author has given many examples throughout his novel of how people can become successful by chance, you are more likely to become successful by putting in the time and effort. During the course of the novel, many characters become successful because of how or where they grew up, but the author seems to be trying in the quote to get the reader to understand that you must work for success not just wait for it to fall into your

Success comes from self-determination, motivation, and hard work – that was the message I received from reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell helped me understand that the outliers mentioned in the book didn’t gain their success easily. Some may have had lucky opportunities and where born in the right year, but they had to work hard, they were smart, and out of their achievements, they made an impact on society. Prior to reading Outliers, I was lost among the success of others because I thought these people came from wealthy families, which meant they had a head start, but I was wrong. Success has a different meaning to everyone, but the commonalities of success are the advantages and opportunities given to us.

In order for determination to thrive in a person, a strong foundation of motivation must exist. Homer Jr.’s motivation for his determination comes in the form of wanting to escape the dying town of Coalwood, so that he may escape the economic hardship and make something of himself in the outside world. This motivation of escape comes in chapter 3, when Elsie Hickam, Homer’s mother, recognizes that he may have a skill that can get him out of Coalwood and she tells him, “You’d be some kind of clerk working for your dad, sitting at a typewriter pecking out forms, or writing in a ledger about how many tons got loaded in a day. That’s the best your dad thinks you can do. You’ve got to get out of Coalwood, Sonny.” This idea that Homer can make something of himself and that he must leave the town sets him up on a journey that would eventually lead him to the national science fair, which acts as Homer’s next piece of motivation. Homer now wants

Homer applied, got the job and was a coal miner. For weeks all he did was get up at the crack of dawn and not come home until late at night. For once, Homer’s father was proud of Homer, and showing it. Homer’s mother, Elsie Hickam, had shown she believed in Homer, but until Homer got a chance to go to the science fair, she did not show it. She stayed out of Homer and his dad’s fights, which is almost as bad as following John blindly. But, when Homer needed her most, she was there, fought John and had John help Homer. “Homer once said you loved the mine more than your own family. I stood up for you because I didnt want to believe it. Homer has gotten a lot of help from the people in this town. They’ve helped him build his rockets. They’ve watched him fly ’em. But not you. You never showed up, not even once.” Now, Homer’s brother, Jim Hickam, on the other hand had still followed their dad but he was closer to helping and believing in Homer than their dad was. Homer’s brother had told everyone about the rocket launch and told them all to come and see it without Homer’s consent or knowledge of everyone showing up. Originally, Jim wanted to embarrass Homer in front of everyone, but it backfired and worked well for Homer in the end. Although Family doesn’t show it much, they still do love you, they may disagree with your beliefs, and your dreams, but they should still help and support you, even if they do not have the money to help.

“Later, Homer Barron disappears, prompting this response: “Then we knew that this was to be expected too, as if that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman's life so many times had been too virulent and furious to die.” (Faulkner, paragraph 47). What this means is that her father always drove away potential suitors because he was under the assumption that his daughter was too good for any of them. It also shows that the narrator is in fact, a female. The most proving point of this is, “that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman’s life so many times had been too furious to die.”

They are interested but fearful to get involved in someone's life that is troubled or different than theirs. The townspeople's curiosity is shown through their inquiries about the smell at Emily's house, the watching of the comings and goings of Tobe, who is Emily's Negro servant, and their observing the buggy rides that Emily is having with Homer. Despite the curiosity of the residents, not one of them reaches out a compassionate hand to Emily. While the townspeople choose to stay on the outer circle of human contact, Homer, on the other hand, pursues his curiosity and engages in a personal friendship with Emily. Faulkner tells the reader how Homer takes Emily for buggy rides and, according to the townspeople, has been seen going into Emily's house. Homer has really stirred up the gossips of the town as they discuss whether or not it is proper for Emily to so closely relate to a Northerner, who is considered below her social class. While Homer develops a relationship with Emily, he does not realize what emotional state Emily is in and does not offer the help this poor distraught lady so desperately needs. Homer, knowingly or not, misses an opportunity to change Emily's life forever. Faulkner may be suggesting that just being involved in someone's life casually falls short of how human beings should be involved in others' lives.

Homer quit his job, went back to school, and won the County Science Fair. He was sent to Indianapolis for the National Science Fair. His dad was disappointed again that Homer went back to building rockets. He was the only one in town who didn't believe in Homer and his friends. His father helped him out when all of Homer's rocket supplies were stolen in Indianapolis the night before the science fair. His father made him

The film “October Sky” is a motion picture consisting of Homer Hickam’s journey. His journey is composed of various setbacks and advancements. A perfect analogy of his journey can be put into this simple saying: two steps forward one step back. This analogy collaborates perfectly with Homer’s journey due to all of the challenges he faced throughout his journey. Homer’s journey to success contains various challenges and advancements which all playan important role in the outcome.

Homer was a Yankee a big dark ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than eyes than his face. (Faulkner, 1931)This time emily was determined to make it by work any means necessary with homer. As, he put it he was not the marrying type and liked younger men but she was determined to make it work even if that meant killing him to make him stay or his lover. So after the the road project was complete and homer was gone, poor Emily again. She ordered arsenic from the druggist, and Emily be order a complete outfit including a nightshirt and a man’s toilet set with his initials on it. Three days later homer returned to never be seen or heard from again. Again Emily begin talking to her father your right “No one is good for me”. The very day that Miss Emily passed away, there was a room that no one has entered in years. A man whom they thought was homer lying in bed what was left of him was rotten beneath the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay and besides him was a long strand of gray hair which belongs to Emily herself, and was him her father who she talked to and slept beside every night. In her mind but in actually it was

     In her mind she had the one thing she needed most, companionship. Even if it was a dead corpse, it was stilling something. In the end of the story when the book states, “We saw a long strand of iron gray hair,” it was obvious that she sought refuge from the world in that bed with Homer. However twisted that may sound it showed how desperate she really was. That is the pint in the story where things really change. If you look back on her life and how everyone in town abandoned her, you really have strong feelings for her. You feel sorry that she was left to fend for herself without any idea of what to do. She did what she felt she had to do, and in her mind it was all right.

On the other hand, later, in the middle of the book, Mother Maria Marthe reveals she was never planning on paying Homer to begin with, even though, these were the terms Homer thought he would originally be working on. After this, Homer went through a short time truly considering leaving the nuns, because he thought the work was so unreasonable for one man and outrageous, since he wouldn’t receive any benefits. The audience soon realizes that he actually continues and accepts help from other volunteers. From experience in my life and those of others, I can say that sometimes doing the right thing or completing a task you do not want to do like finishing your homework can sound hard and miserable at first, yet we soon realize that when we do the task, it does not only benefit ourselves, but those around

The summer after her father died, the town hired contractors to pave the sidewalks. The foreman, Homer Barron, and Miss. Emily became quite fond of one another. On Sunday afternoons they could bee seen driving in his buggy together. Soon the people began to whisper about Emily and Homer. Emily held her head high; she would not be seen as anything other than respectful. The town's people believed that Miss. Emily should have kinfolk come to stay with her for a while.