October sky essay Recently in class we have been studying October sky set in a town called Coalwood, West Virginia in the 1950’s and at the end of the rock and roll era. Singers such as Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochran were famous at the time and were featured in this movie. Coalwood is a very small town in which the main character called Homer Hickam lives, where almost every boy apart from a select few of scholarship winners escape the main occupation of mining until they are unfit to work. Homer
He dreams about building rockets. People in his town fail to support Homer, including his father and older brother. Homer changes from a kid without an identity into a successful man because of his success of a rocket engineer. Most young boys in Coalwood have the expectation growing up and becoming a coal miner, or being a great football player. Homer is not good at football like his
October Sky is an uplifting film directed by Joe Johnston. It is a true biographical story of how Homer H. Hickam, Jr., went from being a coal miner’s son to NASA engineer. The setting takes place in Homer’s home town of Coalwood in West Virginia. Homer (played by the talented Jake Gyllenhaal) starts out as being sort of an unpopular kid in his high school. In his town, kids were destined to either earn themselves a scholarship from sports or do what most families did and work down in the coal mine;
October Sky is set in the small mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia during the 1950s, the time of the space race between America and Russia. The film tracks Homer Hickam, a young boy interested in creating and building rockets. Homer eventually gets a group of three friends from school to help him create a rocket. Unfortunately, Homer faces a lot of challenges including trouble getting the right materials for the rocket and he faces pushback from his father who disapproves of his dream of building
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,
why a lot of people actually started supporting the rocket boys was because they had never seen anything like this in Coalwood before. All everybody was ever used to, or comfortable with was mining and football. When the idea of rockets came up, most everybody in town was hostile to the idea of it because it was different. Different was not necessarily welcome to the town of Coalwood, but Sonny and his mom saw it as a way out. This is an... ... middle of paper ... ...ctober Sky, but the one that
final assignment in the Adult Learner and Portfolio Instruction Class, I have chosen to do a movie review on October Sky. October Sky, directed by Joe Johnston, is based on a true story about a young Homer Hickam, who lives in a mining town named, Coalwood. Homer is a young man whose life is ultimately fated by his father, a foreman at the coal mine. His father’s plan is for him to one day become a coal miner, as well. But, that all changes in October 1957 when the first artificial satellite, Sputnik
Hickam’s case, in the movie October Sky, it was the relationship with his father that fell apart. Homer had dreams of building rockets, and winning the National Science Fair; doing anything to escape the harsh life of coal mining in the small town of Coalwood, West Virginia. As a result of this disagreement, Homer grew even farther from his already estranged father, and even threatened to run away forever. (Johnson, October Sky) In the case of Derek Halpern, it was the relationship with his mother that
The movie “October Sky” is basically about a high school student Homer Hickam and three of his friends inventing a rocket which can actually fly for a long distance. Homer and his friends named each other the rocket boy. Homer Hickam talks about how the rocket boys got inspired, what problems they faced and how they were able to prove themselves innocent. Homer got inspired by watching sputnik go into space. Since, then he got inspired to create his own rocket which can go into space. He was all
In the movie October Sky produced by Larry Franco, Homer Hickam faces many sacrifices to pursue his dream. Homer lives in a small town, he spends his time with his friends Roy Lee, Odell and a later friend, Quinton. Homer lives in a home where he’s expected to work in the coal mining industry after his dad, but he has bigger plans, as big as rocket science, literally. Homer was inspired by mrs. Reiley his science teacher to build a rocket with his friends while making big choices along the way.
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
In the novel, October Sky, it is a story about a boy who has a dream to make rockets and not just be a coal miner. After graduating high school, the boys of Coalwood would normally go into the career of coal mining or be lucky enough to get a football scholarship. Sonny had no interest in coal mining and was not athletic; both of those choices were out of the picture for him. He is the son of Homer, a coal miner, and Elsie Hickam. He also has an older brother named Jim who was an amazing football
show large amounts of determination throughout Rocket Boys and throughout their lives. In Coalwood, most every young man either goes into the military or goes to work in the mines after they finish high school. While there are ways to avoid going to into the mines or into the military, they can be difficult to achieve. Sonny’s older brother, John, is trying to get on one of the more difficult paths out of Coalwood, by trying to perform well enough for his high school
Sonny,’ Mom said, ‘Jimmy will go. Football get him out. I'd like to see him a doctor, or a dentist, something like that. But football with him out of Coalwood, and then he can go and be anything he wants to be”. ( Hickam 50 ) Sonny’s mom knows that Coalwood withholds people from reaching their full potential. She believes that anywhere but Coalwood would be better for both of children to
purpose, as if there were no power in the universe that could stop it” (Hickam 32). This is the moment that Sonny becomes truly enraptured with outer space flight, and becomes even more determined to achieve it. Despite the restraining limits born to a Coalwood dreamer, Sonny continues on towards
the parents and the kids, Homer and his father and Homer’s mom with Homer’s dad. The Hickam family also had boundaries with Miss Riley, the coal mine, Coalwood, college, and rocket science. To
from even a small mining town like Coalwood Virginia. To begin, in the movie October Sky, Miss. Riley was determined to help Homer Hickam win the science fair in their county. She was doing everything as his teacher to help him to win; she even gave him a rocket science book to help him accomplish his goal (Johnston). Miss. Riley was Homer Hickam’s science teacher in Coalwood, Virginia. She was being encouraging because she helped Homer even though no one in Coalwood really believed in his dream of
Auk 1: During the late 1950’s the space race began. This was a race to see who could achieve the most space firsts, between the USA and Russia. Sonny, O’Dell, Sherman, Roy Lee and Quentin live in Coalwood, West Virginia.The space race inspired these boys, who decide to call themselves the Rocket Boys, to make their own rockets. The BCMA (Big Creek Missile Agency) was born when Sonny called a meeting with his friends in his room and discussed how he wanted to build rockets. With the help from the
building his own rockets and of course he and his friends first attempt at a working rocket failed and destroyed Sonny’s mothers fence. This in turn does not upset his mother but she saw it as an opportunity for “sonny” to escape the town of coalwood and learn something great. Next we will here from a new character by the name of quentin he is often unliked because of how intelligent he is. Quentin becomes sonny’s partner in crime so to speak and they both work together to start learning
Throughout the summer of 1958, explosions rocked the hills and hollows near Coalwood, West Virginia. The first blasts terrified miners and their families. Had the mine blown up? Were the Russians attacking? But when the echoes died away, folks shrugged and said, "It's just those damn rocket boys!" The book seems to have the required elements; a noble, inquisitive young kid overcoming hurdles placed in front of him by family, location and education to achieve success, both in the short and long