Rocket Boys is a memoir about a boy named Sonny and his dream of building rockets. It’s the fifties and the town of Coalwood, West Virginia, is more dependent on its mine now, than ever. Most of the boys in Coalwood are expected to play football in their early years, and mine in their late years. However, Sonny and his friends, together named the Rocket Boys, have other ideas. Because of the launch of the Russian satellite, Sputnik, the boys have been inspired to one day, launch a rocket of their own. There are also other cases in the memoir about characters struggling with expectations, like Sonny’s friend, Quentin, and Sonny’s dad, Homer. Quentin isn’t from Coalwood. He doesn’t care about playing football, and he doesn’t care about the mine. …show more content…
He was known as the “outsider” of the town and the “class joke” for his very little care for football and mining (Hickam Jr., 61). Quentin also grew up very poor. Sonny noticed him because of his intellect, and they bonded over the rocket building. However, when their rockets failed, Quentin was the most worried as since he was already being made fun of, he didn’t want to become even more of a joke to the town. That’s why Quentin worked his hardest to prove to the people of Coalwood that you don’t have to follow the social norm. Together, Sonny, Quentin, and the other rocket boys became the most famous people in the town, breaking free from the town’s expectations. Quentin showed everyone that your background or where you come from doesn’t matter, and that you can become successful if you try hard enough. Finally, Sonny’s dad, Homer, struggled to meet the town’s expectations. Homer is the embodiment of Coalwood. He has always stuck to tradition and is resistant to change, which is the primary reason for the conflict between him and Sonny. As the mine superintendent, arguably the most important job in Coalwood, Homer has a lot of weight on his
In the novel, October Sky by Homer Hickam, Sonny’s parents have two different views on what Sonny should be when he is older, his dad, Homer Hickam Sr., says a coal miner, but his mom, Elsie Hickam, says he can be anything he wants. Although Sonny’s dad wants him to be a coal miner, Sonny wants to build rockets and him mom understands that, so therefore his mom understands Sonny better than his father. Sonny lives in a coal mining town and most men or boys who live in the town are or are going to become coal miners. It is a tradition in their society. If their father is a coal miner, the boys in the family become coal miners. But, Sonny doesn’t want to become a coal miner. Sputnik inspired him to build rockets. His mother believes that Sonny should be able to be whatever he wants, no matter what his father does.
The older brother, the narrator, finds himself struggling at the beginning of the story. While riding the subway, he reads in the paper that Sonny has been arrested for possession of drugs. During his day of teaching, he reflects on prior years with Sonny and their past adventures as young boys. He remembers Sonny's "wonderfully direct brown eyes, and great gentleness and privacy." The narrator sees his brother as a good boy, not "hard or evil or disrespectful." He wonders how many of his algebra students are similar to Sonny in appearance and personality along with his drug habits. This comparison allows the older brother to conclude that Sonny was probably not arrested on his initial use of drugs. It also allows the narrator is see that Sonny may be like most of the other young boys in Harlem.
Sonny was brought up in this very Harlem and learned how to steal and fight his way through life. However, life fought him back at every opportunity. “By the time I was nine years old, I had been hit by a bus, thrown into the Harlem River (intentionally), hit by a car, severely beaten by a chain. And I had set the house afire” (Brown 12). Sonny’s childhood was filled with so much mayhem that it would be ridiculous for anyone to expect his turnaround into a functional adult. Nevertheless, he accomplished just that . He did it by learning from not only his mistakes, but from others as well. Seeing how everyone he knew was going to prison, dying, or becoming a junkie, Sonny decided that he wanted a better life than what the streets of Harlem could offer. Sonny grew beyond his environment until he finally stopped doing drugs, he got a job, and went to college. He overcame the low expectations of him and ended up being better than what anyone had expected. Although, his personal growth was not a quick one, it was slow, painful and has relevance throughout the entire
In the book Boys In the Boat, Daniel Brown tells the story of the U.S.’s rowing team’s Olympic journey to gold in 1936. The games were held in Berlin, right under Hitler’s eye. Though the games were held in Berlin that didn’t stop Joe Rantz, the book’s main character, and his team from going for gold. The boys had to show perseverance and teamwork to even be able to row. From country boys, to gold medal winners, rowing and hardships helped them embody the American spirit of hard work and teamwork. The boys had to overcome hardships, to work hard, and they never stopped being a team in order to win gold in Berlin.
“Geronimo: an American legend” is a story of an apache warrior who fought against the United States in order to preserve his peoples culture. The film starts off, ironically, with the first surrender of Geronimo. His people are sent to a reservation called turkey creek. On this reservation they were expected to become farmers that would produce mostly corn. However the apache where not harvesting enough to sustain their community and had to rely on government checks.
" Sonny had been wild, but not crazy, he had always been a good boy and had never turned hard or evil or disrespectful the way the kids did and still do in Harlem."…His face had been bright and open, there was a lot of copper in it; and he had wonderfully direct brown eyes, and a great gentleness and privacy…." (66).
Throughout the story, the narrator learns how important it is to Sonny for him to care and listen to him. Sonny is vulnerable and in a state where he is getting into trouble with drugs and alcohol perhaps because he feels as though no one cares enough to help him. The narrator lives his life as a teacher while Sonny spends his days using drugs hoping someday to pursue his dreams of music. Both characters end up in a place they are meant to be; acting as family and leaning on each other for support, which is the true importance of an older brother.
A main theme presented in “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe is that Montresor shows obsession with the murder of fortunato. This is exemplified by Montresor’s precise planning, carefulness and slowness of speed in the process.
The mining industry is a very dangerous/hard working job. Homers father expected him to do his job and make him proud, meanwhile homer had other plans. One day at the dinner table homer expressed his feelings with saying, “I want to build a rocket.” his family reacted by laughing at him, which made him determined to accomplish this task, and this leads us to his next sacrifice. Homer had a pretty good social life, but when he was determined to build a rocket he was willing to sacrifice anything. He decides to risk his whole social career to walk up to Quinton, the biggest nerd in school, to ask him for help. Homer’s friends watched him in awe after they had just warned him what a dumb idea this would be, but Homer didn’t care. He wanted to build a rocket and Quinton was the man to ask.
To sum up, the boys at Devon have endured a lot as teenagers. They are faced with pressures and values that cause them to develop into adults, at an early age.
When Sonny was attending high school, he found himself trapped in the world of drugs and violence in Harlem. He is a young man of color who is trying to find himself in the world. He was not quite an adult, but certainly not a child anymore. His dreams and desires of becoming a musician was quickly overturned by his brother, the unidentified narrator. This led him to feel constrained and lacking courage.
In conclusion, “Sonny’s Blues” is the story of Sonny told through his brother’s perspective. It is shown that the narrator tries to block out the past and lead a good “clean” life. However, this shortly changes when Sonny is arrested for the use and possession of heroin. When the narrator starts talking to his brother again, after years of no communication, he disapproves of his brother’s decisions. However, after the death of his daughter, he slowly starts to transform into a dynamic character. Through the narrator’s change from a static to a dynamic character, readers were able to experience a remarkable growth in the narrator.
The story starts when the narrator reads about his brother’s incarceration for getting caught with Heroin. The brothers hadn’t spoken in years and that didn’t change until narrator’s daughter dies. After the death of his daughter the narrator and Sonny write letters and when Sonny gets out of prison, he comes to live with his older brother, the narrator and the narrator’s wife, Isabel. The narrator lives in Harlem, where the men grew up and where both men did their best to escape from. On their way back to the narrator’s apartment the men looked out the window, seeing boys who remind them of their younger selves and the feelings of being young in Harlem.
Even though the narrator and Sonny grew up in the same house being raised the same they both took different paths in life. The narrator was the ambitious son that was not a trouble maker. He was the good child that had good grades in school and wanted to be successful by putting out hard work to get it. Sonny, on the other hand, was the bad that was not very ambitious through hard work but through his music.
This is quite evident after the demise of their mother whereby the narrator intends to know as the eldest brother what Sonny intends to do in life before returning to war. He contends, “I’m going to be a musician (Baldwin 133).” This does not go well with the narrator who deems other people can embrace that life’s path but not his brother, hence brewing a discrepancy and misunderstanding amid them. It is through Sonny’s choice of pursuing jazz that unveils numerous flaws that characterizes their relationship with the narrator who insist of him completing the school first but eventually admits reluctantly. The extent of confusion and misunderstanding his Sonny is evident how the narrator can hardly imagine him in life he will be hanging in nightclubs in the company of others whom he refers as “good-time-people” (Baldwin 134). Probably, it is Sonny’s choice of jazz career that leads to long durations of silence among them without keeping in touch because the narrator feels his younger brother opted to embracing wrong life. In addition, the instilled notion of how reckless “good-time-people” (134) were by his father yielded to him fighting with Sonny for leading a loose life (Baldwin