Success In Homer's October Sky

Homer’s great literary classic, The Odyssey, represents and illustrates many emotional and mental values. All of these values can be classified under three different main themes that are constant throughout the epic tale. These themes are: A boy’s struggle to be a man, a king’s struggle to reclaim his kingdom, and a man’s struggle to return home. As one reads this book it will become more and more evident to them that a man’s struggle to get home is the most important theme throughout Homer’s adventure.

The Odyssey written by Homer highlights the character development of Odysseus, the epic hero, in his journey of self-discovery. Odysseus is accredited with many strong traits including his nobility, smarts, and bravery. Having one tragic flaw, being his arrogance, was put to the test throughout his heroic journey. Homer stripped the protagonist of his arrogance as the story goes on, by giving him many challenges, giving dire consequences for his mistakes, and allowing him to continue to overcome obstacles. The main purpose of Odysseus’ journey was to reach his home as a humbled man. The hero’s journey can be used as a way to look at life’s morals. The reader is able to see the protagonist continue to make mistakes, because of his arrogance and continue to be punished by the gods. Once he overcame this, he is greatly awarded with the security of his home. This essay will analyze the arrogance of Odysseus along with his extraordinary traits, the molding of his identity, and his new found lesson of humility.

Homer's great literary classic, The Odyssey, represents and illustrates many emotional and mental values. All of these values can be classified under three different main themes that are constant throughout the epic tale. These themes are: A boy's struggle to be a man, a king's struggle to reclaim his kingdom, and a man's struggle to return home. As one reads this book it will become more and more evident to them that a man's struggle to get home is the most important theme throughout Homer's adventure.

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 Hickam was a teenage boy from a mining town in West Virginia called Coalwood. He inspired to build rockets when he seen the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, streak across the stars. With his friends and the local nerd, Homer sets out to do just that but with many errors and trials. Along with the town, Homer's father thought they were wasting their time with their rockets. He wanted Homer to be a coal miner just like everyone else but Homer knew he didn't belong there. As time went on, some people from town became interested in seeing the homemade missiles launch into the sky. The boys became popular and were known as the "Rocketboys" around town.

The Odyssey is filled with emotion and adventure. Homer’s ability to show and give the reader a visual of each and every scene gives the story its unbelievable significance. To all the people who read his work there is something to be captured within every sentence, each one different in its own, unique way. Through tales of courage and defeat, friendship and love this book tells of all the values within the life of a single, solitary man, and his journey to attain what is true and dear to him. And this journey is known to all of us as The Odyssey. The Odyssey is a test of human devotion and trust through the gods, the mortals, and the obstacles through which they venture. No matter where they go or what they do, humans are tested for

This must be a flare dropped from an airplane!” (222). Even though the Rocket Boys are in trouble and their minds are racing, they are still able to persevere through the moment and prove that it was not their rocket that set off the fire, but the nearby airports. If they had just given up they would have been arrested and never been able to pursue their dreams and create better rockets. This also taught the Rocket Boys that they will almost always have allies to back them up like Miss Riley in dire situations and that help them persevere through the challenges that are presented to the

Homer Hickam was very interested in rocket engineering and was determine to go to college. No one would support him for building a rocket and going to college except his mother and his teacher, Ms. Riley. He teamed up with three other of his classmates who were also interested in rocket engineering. At first, they attempted to launch their rocket on front of Homer’s yard. The

Reaching for your dreams is like looking at the Sunday newspaper comics, if you look from a far, you see the big picture, but if you look close, all you see are a bunch of dots put together. October Sky is a film based on Homer Hickam’s determination to win a national science fair. He is constantly ostracized by his community and family and does not have much money to support him either. Homer clearly doesn’t have a good chance at even getting to the science fair, let alone winning it. Many obstacles are in his way and he can’t even see his goal with all of them in the way. Somehow, he perceivers and finds a way to reach his goal. His friends did not believe in him, but later started to really believe and they all

Homer, the son of Telemachus and Epikaste, was a Greek poet and court singer born sometime between the 12th and 8th century B.C. There is no certainty of his birth place, but it is believed that he was born somewhere on the Asia Minor coast. The language he uses in his poetry suggests that he may have been native to what is known today as Turkey. His is believed to be the originator of Europe’s first known literature, yet very little is actually known about him and what little information we do have was derived from scrupulously studying his works (softschools.com). Some would debate that he never really existed and that his works were just stories passed down orally through folk tales from generation to generation, but it is apparent that his poetry ended up setting the common values that preserved the Greek’s own ideas about themselves, provided the foundation for the model of heroism, and seemed to portray the Greek gods as always being less clever than their mortal contemporaries (pbs.org).

In October Skys, Sonny and the Rocket Boys faced nearly impossible odds and persevered through all of the obstacles they encounter. They were truly amazing young boys with courage, determination, and a will to do what they had their minds set on no matter what life threw at them.

Every action we take impact the lives of others around us.” Rocket boys is a novel written by Homer H. Hickam Jr.. It is a story about his life going up in Coalwood. The novel takes us through his ups and downs while trying to do what he loves and be successful at it. Homer Hickam grew up to become a NASA engineer and made a major impact on the space exploration as it is today. In the novel Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam, his mother Elsie is delivered as a significant person in his life because she plays a pivotal role in his life and has never doubted his capabilities.

“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

of Homer’s literary skill and of the impressions he intends to leave with us. This is clear even in the

In October Sky, Sonny had a lot of support and encouragement to do the Science Fair. Sonny’s mom and Miss. Riley supported Sonny and the Rocket Boys throughout their whole high school experience. Most the time negative actions toward a person, makes them react with a negative decisions. In October Sky, Homer (Sonny’s dad) didn’t agree with Sonny building rockets.