The Rocket Boys

Homer grows, matures, becomes a team leader by the end of the book, even at the end he tells everyone were to go, were there new home is, in hell. Homer begins to lead by changing the rules around, telling the others they did well throughout the book, gives them supporting advice or great speeches to help the others feel more calm about what’s going on. He becomes the leader by establishing the plans making the others move forward keep them moving and pushing them on to achieve their greatest. Homer shown his friends that he can be more than a difficult person that gets in trouble all the time by caring for them putting his friends before himself. Throughout the story line Homer grows and matures into a

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.

They had multiple of failures, but eventually made some that worked. The boys entered multiple science fair with their rockets and all won scholarships. The memoir and the film, October Sky, by Homer Hickam, were immensely different. For example: in the memoir Sonny did not work in the mines, and in the film Sonny got arrested for his rocket that supposedly set fire to the forest. The film does not do a fit job portraying the memoir.

In conclusion, the film October Sky touches on Homer Hickman’s determination to successfully build and launch his own rocket despite being isolated by his family, friends, schoolmates, school officials and community. This is shown through John Hickman (Homers father), the town of Coalwood and Mr. Turner

Homer is changed by the war, we first understood him to be this immature and irresponsible prankster with no regard to the consequences of his actions. Homer likes stirring trouble and doesn’t care about what others say or think of him, homers attitude changes, he swiftly realizers that he can no longer mess around and cause trouble like he did before the war. Homer must take some responsibility and be accountable for his actions. “Homer was becoming more surprising with every passing hour. It was getting hard to remember that this fast thinking guy, who’d just spent fifteen minutes getting us laughing and talking and feeling good again, wasn’t even trusted to hand out the books at school.” Through unlikely circumstances Homer has had to become a mature and responsible leader for the group.

Additionally, when Homer’s father said “I've been mad as hell at you. But it's the first time in your life I've been ashamed of you.” Imperils Homer’s emotional and mental well being a substantial amount. Especially when one knows the odds of becoming successful coming from a town like ‘Coalwood’ is little to slim. The support of family members is remarkably crucial in times of making difficult decisions such as choosing to work in a coal mine or choosing to find another path to success. In spite of this, Homer managed to be persistent throughout his work, and with indefatigability continued to pursue his dream to be a rocket building engineer. When Homer’s rocket got purloined while he was at the ‘national science fair’ his mother defended him by saying “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” (October Sky, Elsie Hickam). She had undoubtedly contributed to the process of Homer resolving the austerity between his father. Primarily when she said “I'm not asking you to believe in it, but he's your son, for God's sake. And I am asking you to help him.” That day John Hickam had

A person’s childhood very often helps establish who they grow up to be. This idea has proved to be true in the memoir Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam. Coalwood, West Virginia was not only Sonny’s hometown, but also an influential character. Coalwood was very uniform and all the citizens took an interest in similar activities during the time-period in which he grew up. For example, "Only coal mining was more important...than high school football. Sputnik, and anything else, was going to always come in a distant third” (Hickam 27). This mentality causes an issue for Sonny, as he aspires to pursue an alternate career in rocket-building. While most of the townspeople are apprehensive of his plans initially, a majority begin to respect his choices

1.) How is Foxfire a different gang from the others in the previous works we read for class? How is this gang similar? What is significant about the differences?

Coalwood, like many mining towns in the Appalachian mountains, had drastic effects on the people residing within its boundaries. However, getting out of Coalwood was the main obstacle in the memoir Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam. The storyline follows an unordinary group of boys trying to escape the fate of becoming a miner. The protagonist, Sonny, realizes at a young age that he doesn't want to follow in his fathers footsteps working as a mine engineer, even saying things like, ““I want to go work for Dr. von Braun, Dad”” (Hickam 174). Despite his father's obvious disapproval at his sons wishes. Sonny, still determined to prove to his father that his future lies with rocket building and not strategically placing pillars in coal mines, decides

Secondly, Odysseus if the perfect man with perfect characteristics to define the term ‘Homeric Hero’. The Essential Homer states, “And so Odysseus mastered the army… The men all streamed back from their ships and huts and assembled with a roar” (Homer 21). This event took place after General Agamemnon failed to motivate his Greek army, but Odysseus took over and

During the month of August, he spent most of his time with the Thyme family who are Sandra, the girl he likes and Fred, his best friend. Just like most teenage boys, he starts to develop feeling for Sandra. In the article, The Teenage Brain by Amanda Mascarelli, says “teenagers are sensitive and responsive to influence by desires and emotions…and that teenagers respond to these influences by a brain chemical known as dopamine.” (Dopamine is released when something makes us feel good). At first, Homer is more interested in playing sports and hanging out with friends but then he starts to get feelings for Sandra.

I the short story “Boys” by Rick Moody it has a weird and interesting way of telling a story. Almost every sentence starts off with “Boys entered the house”, which is neat. This little segment shows that the narration could be told from a mother view even though the other is male and that there are two brothers. For every time the line is said it seems to resemble the boys actually entering the house from the mothers point of view, but only important areas of their lives because it would be hard to narrate their lives from every moment. Additionally, Moody does another unique way of writing a story by having the story be objective and have a playlist of songs that belong to certain parts of the main characters life. For example, in “Wilkie

There are two formal elements that Homer uses here to help capture the viewer and that is the use of color and lines. When first looking at this picture everything tends to be the same color tone except the boy on the left who is wearing a bright read shirt and bright blue vest.

This proves that this theme is a huge part of making the story interesting. The characters has lots to fight for. They know that they will be heroes and they know that they have people depending on them, they know they need to survive. Towards the end of the book, Homer as a leader, he gave a motivational speech, “We’re not trained for this stuff, and it’s important for ourselves, and for our families and maybe other people out in the Showground.”

When Wally visits we learn that Homer has a heart disease or dysfunction so this maybe part of the reason that Homer is a very slow and enunciating talker. When he gets excited or shows emotion he doesn't take it over the edge, he keeps his composure at all times. So you can say that Homer is calm, cool, and collected. Homer has this way of giving sheepish smiles, and an aw-shucks way of presenting himself, that is a major appeal to the viewer and makes them fall in love with the young character.