October Sky Essay

Movie Analysis: October Sky
I recently watched a biographic movie, October Sky, which is all about you and your early
endeavors in the field of rocketry with your team, the Rocket Boys. The amount of determination
and courage you shown was absolutely mind blowing despite many odds being stacked against
you. Yet, your movie never touched on the military service you served during the Vietnam War. I
am wondering how the military experience you had during the war influenced your view on
rocketry. Along with this, the movie only gave basic details about the afterlives of the original
Rocket Boys team. Did you keep in contact with them after the time period in which the movie
covered, especially during your occupation in NASA? Also, I would like your stance on the recent
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October Sky Analysis
October Sky
The enlightening and inspirational true story of Homer Hickam in October Sky directed by Joe
Johnston reminds us all to aim for our goals and never give up, even while battling difficulty.
However, Homer was struggling for a great deal in his pursuit of rocketry, he was even struggling
for his life. Born in a coal mining town, son of a foreman, Homer seemed destined to work the mine
when he grew up. But in October Sky, Homer has to overcome what the mine represents: isolation
and darkness. Mining coal isolates many of the characters from each other throughout the storyline.
The main antagonist, Homer's father, John, frequently seems distant from his own family because of
emergencies and accidents inside the mine that demand his utmost attention. Even Homer's mother,
Elsie, threatens to leave him if he doesn't become more attentive to their son's interest in rocketry.
Homer decides to drop out of high school and become a miner to provide for his family after John is
injured in a mine accident and the family won't have enough money to continue their current...show
more content...
When Miss Riley was accused of giving false hopes she held her ground and continued to support
the boys whether it earned the disapproval of others. Great teachers can present a world of
opportunity to those who may not have any. Great teachers can shine their light and allow their
ability to help others even in the darkness of a small, failing mining town. Miss Riley used her
talents to brighten the Rocket Boy's horizons in a community little expectations were placed on
them and even less opportunities were available. The movie October Sky gives a very positive
depiction of a teacher as Miss Riley says, "How about I believe in the unlucky ones? If I don't I'd
probably go crazy." She is a friend, a role model, a source of knowledge, and, most importantly, a
light in a town of

October Sky Quotes
Turning rocket Into Success
For most of Homer "Sonny" Hickam's life, he worried about what his dad thought about him and
didn't want to disappoint him. His father would have like him to be a mining engineer in the
Coalwood mine, but Sonny had his own dreams. Even though his father had high expectations of
him, he let his dreams take hold of his life and transform him for the better. In the book, October Sky
, the main theme that doing something people are passionate about can transform them, is prevalent
throughout the entire book, especially with the change that Sonny goes through building his rockets.
In the real world, hard work and persistence will bear results in more than just someone's work, but
also in their character.
Doing something you are passionate about is one of the many things that can transform a person.
This is illustrated in the book by Sonny's father Homer. "'I'm going to show you first hand what an
engineer does' he said. Then he told me his plan. It was the most remarkable thing. I just gaped at
him. This was something he'd never ask Jim to do" (162). This quote is where Homer offers to take
Sonny into the mine because it is something Homer is...show more content...
In the book Sonny's father said "Nobody ever launched a better rocket than you" (421). He was
able to build the best rockets because he worked hard and was passionate about his work. Cathie,
a popular girl in coalwood high school called out to him, "How're your rockets doing?" (277).
Before Sonny built rockets, he didn't have many friends, but when he started building rockets more
people talked to him. Building rockets got him more popular and more friends. He got more of a
social life because he followed his dreams and was really passionate about them. Sonny's life was
transformed when he did the thing he was most passionate about, and anyone else can transform
theirs by following their

October Sky Essay
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.
When Homer and his friends fired one of the first rockets off and it crashed...show more content...
During this time Homer's dad was really disappointed in him because he quit football to build these
rockets. Homer says he is never going to mine coal. One day after they shot off a rocket, the police
came to the school to arrest Homer and his friends for starting a forest fire. They gave up on
building rockets because all of their dreams were crushed. That night his father was hurt mining and
Homer quit school and worked in the mines to help pay the hospital bills. His dad changed his
attitude about Homer when he worked in the mines because he thought he was doing the right
thing. Homer didn't like it at all and his hopes and dreams were gone. After work one night,
Homer's mom told him that Miss Reilly was sick. When he went to visit her, she told him that he
didn't belong in the mine and that he needed to stick to his dreams. That night he opened the book
she gave him and started to work on the math and where the rocket went when the police said that it
started the fire. He calculated that he didn't start the fire.
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

October Sky Teacher
October Sky In the October Sky directed by Joe Johnston, the main character, Homer Hickam,
was inspired by his high school teacher, Miss Riley who affect him a lot on the way to success. In
this movie, Homer Hickam is a student with typical American Dream which is to design a space
rocket, and then he and his friends (Quentin Wilson, Roy Lee Cooke and Sherman O'Dell) start a
series of trials with the encouragement from their teacher Miss Freida J. Riley. Homer Hickam's
father John Hickam is a miner manager who want his son to be a miner as him, so he strongly
disagreed with his son's dream. After conquering lots of obstructions, the Rocket Boys won the
champion of the national science fair and went to college with scholarship. When I was a child, I
failed many English tests, and then my teacher started to give me both mental and academic
assistance which helped to get a perfect academic performance in the following test. An inspirational
teacher play an important role in our entire life....show more content...
The teacher knows what you are good at and gives you enormous proper and professional
suggestions. According to Mr. Joe's movieOctober sky, Homer Hickam's teacher Miss Riley gives
as many as supports she can to Homer Hickam such as giving him a Rocket Math book as a
birthday gift which was "the best gift I ever received", and he use the knowledge in this book to
prove to the principle who suspected him as a arsonist he is innocent, after that the principle
believed him and gave him the opportunity to go to the national science fair. It is easy to see that
the book gave by Miss Riley is really important. This book contains many knowledge useful to
Homer Hickam's interest and also is the fundamental of his future

October Sky
October Sky
Marion Eady
The film October Sky (1999), directed by Joe Johnson is based on a true story of Homer Hickman
( a coal miners son) who is inspired to build a rocket after the Russian launch of the first artificial
satellite (Sputnik) into orbit. The film definitely focuses on the course theme of being a social
outcast. This is explored in the film through three people, John Hickman (Homers Father), the town
of Coalwood and Mr.Turner (Homers principle).Firstly, John Hickman, father of Homer Hickman
and a coal miner at the Coalwood mines in West Virginia, socially outcasts his son. Why? Because
John doesn't agree with his son building a rocket. This is explored through Homers father getting in
multiple fights with his...show more content...
When Homer wins the school science fair and then gets to go to the National Science Fair the
town of Coalwood was so happy for them. The town of Coalwood was never supportive of Homer
and the boys and that is why they socially out casted Homer and his friends.
Thirdly, Homers principle out casted Homer. Now you may ask, how could a principle socially
outcast their own student. Mr. Turner (Homers principle) socially out casted Homer by not
allowing him to do what he loved. Homer wanted to make a rocket to get a scholarship but the
principle made it so hard on homer. He had Homer arrested because he thought that Homer started
a fire, he didn't allow the boys to work on their rocket at school or make the stuff for the rocket so
that it can fly. It seemed like Mr.Turner didn't want one of his own students to succeed. But with
the help from Mrs. Riley she helped Homer and his friends succeed and she fought against the
principle. Mr.Turner never really stopped socially out casting Homer and his friends. It really
shows how a principle can really put a big impact on one of their students
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

October Sky Research Paper
Dreams lead to false hopes and are deceiving! That's at least what some say. But throughout the
dream unit we have seen and have read about achieving our dreams and not going the distance. It
is worth it to dream because dreams give us hope and purpose, working hard at our dreams can
have a great outcome, and Dreams can lead to more than we can imagine. It is very easy to
dream. Dreams help give us hope and purpose in life. This is easily shown in October Sky when
Homer Hickam wants to get a scholarship to college so he doesn't have to work in the coal mines.
He entered in a science fair and had one of the most interesting things because he worked hard at
his dream. Some of us decide to take the easy way out of things, while some of us work

October Sky Analysis
October Sky is a memoir, the first in a series of three written by Homer Hickam, Jr. This memoir
is about a boy named Homer "Sonny" Hackim who's amaetur dream is to build a rocket in a small
mining town called Coalwood. Various types of challenging conflicts had occurred in this memoir
and heroes had arisen to the challenged in which they faced. Ahero is someone who does not cower
away from hefty challenges. Sonny is heroic by conquering these challenges such as his father's
disapproval, fuels to use in the rocket, and the internal conflicts he faces within himself with courage
and confidence.
First, a hero will always have to face a bad guy that wants to stop them from accomplishing their
goal. As soon as Sonny express his interest in rocket...show more content...
Sonny not knowing anything about rockets, have a long way to go. Sonny needed to find the exact
fuel in a rocket to make, which contributed to the rocket's successful flight, altitude, stability and
more. The fuel needed to be at an exact rate because if it was too reactive it could cause an
explosion. Then, Sonny experimented with a variety of fuels, a homemade concoction called
zincoshine; a combination of zinc, sulfur and moonshine. In addition, Sonny also did not know
how to calculate the rocket's course. Which results in Sonny finding it in a book, he then makes an
hypothesis on where they would find the rock which then leads him to indicate that there isn't a
chance that the rocket could have caused the fire that had took place. Sonny had to find a way to
obtain the money to purchase supplies or hunt up parts from others. Sonny read book after book,
magazine after magazines to learn this information.Sonny takes leadership and tells the others what
to do and he takes blame for every mess that was their fault. Sonny faces this conflict by learning
background knowledge about it and then figure out the supplies needed in order to make the fuel, he
does this instead of giving

Reflection Of October Sky
Movie Reflection: October Sky
A great movie is always ambivalent to define. What could be great for someone might not be at all
for someone else. But then a movie is defined by the characters it displays. Some characters go down
in the timeline of history as memorable and legendary. One such movie that scripts such tremendous
characters that have become cult overtime is "October Sky". However, the many characters that this
movie portrays, all have one distinct and common quality– that of being great leaders in themselves.
This paper intends to first highlight the movie, its characters and themes and then further shed some
light on the leadership qualities that few characters possess in parallel to defining a few leadership
theories, among...show more content...
That just implies that extraordinary pioneers are born. This hypothesis sees incredible leaders as
the individuals who are foreordained by birth to end up a leader. Moreover, the conviction was
that incredible leaders always rise when they set themselves up against suitable circumstances.
This theory applies in October Sky very verily. We see it in Homer's characters that he is born to
dream, and born to take up rocketry against all odds. And like the hypothesis posits, he actually
when faced with suitable situations, always rises upward. Be it to professionally take up rocketry
and build his own rocket and end up being a NASA scientist, or the smaller endeavors like winning
the coveted science fair for his school.
Trait Theory
The trait theory hypothesis trusts that individuals are either conceived or are made with specific
qualities that will make them exceedingly tremendous in leadership qualities. That is, certain
qualities, for example, knowledge, and awareness of other's expectations, innovativeness and
different qualities place anybody in the shoes of an amazing leader. Indeed, Gordon Allport, an
American psychologist, identified close to 18,000 English leadership defining terms"
This theory concentrates on breaking down mental, physical and social trademark keeping in mind
the end goal to acquire comprehension of what is the trademark or the amalgamation of qualities that
are basic among

Analysis of October Sky Essay
Living Above Ground The inspirational true story of Homer Hickam in October Sky reminds us
all to strive for our goals and never give up, even in the face of adversity. However, Homer was
fighting for a great deal in his pursuit of rocketry, he was even fighting for his life. Born in a coal
mining town, son of a foreman, Homer seemed destined to work the mine when he grew up. But in
October Sky, Homer has to overcome what the mine represents: isolation and death. The life of a coal
miner is often isolated from several things that most people would take for granted. Due to the
demand of coal, towns are set up wherever the mines are opened. In the case of the movie, the main
setting was in the remote town of Coalwood, West Virginia....show more content...
This provides an interesting dynamic and internal conflict in Homer. He is overcoming the isolation
from his father by mining, and John even considers him a man since he has done hard work in the
mine. However, he also becomes isolated from his friends that he has spent so much time with
recently. He is relegated to spending lunch breaks catching up with the other members of the
rocket boys. While being separated from the outside world and even family and friends may be
one effect of the mine, a larger impact may be the fact that the mine is a place of death in the
mind of Homer. Throughout the movie, Homer's fear of the mine is shown in cases like where
the boys are shooting Roy Lee's car and he mentions how O'Dell's father died when the roof of the
mine collapsed near him and cut his head off. Allusions are made to the symbol of death
throughout the movie. The elevator could be seen as a coffin, an instrument of isolation. When
Homer is going down into the mine for the first time, the shot is of him being lowered into the
mine shaft, much like that of being lowered into a grave. Homer even begins to blame himself for
the death of Ike Bykovsky later in the movie. Because Bykovsky helped Homer build the first
rocket, Homer's father sent him into the mine, where he was later killed. Homer keeps Bykovsky's
number tag as a reminder of what his future could

October Sky Essay
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 term. Throw in a little danger, teen–age angst, and a sexual coming–of–age subplot, and all the
required elements for an engrossing story are there. Despite Hickam's less than stellar prose, the
story manages to effectively convey a bittersweet...show more content...
Then they selected the perfect launch site, and accompanied by the obligatory countdown, sent
Hickam's mother's rose garden fence streaking toward the stars. Repeated efforts by both rocket
programs were finally rewarded by successes, and soon Hickam and his team of classmates were
reaching higher and higher into the sky with their home made rockets. With each launch, Hickam
and his partners refine their designs, especially of the crucial rocket nozzle, which directs the rocket
exhaust and produces its propulsion.
For Hickam, the day of enlightenment was Oct. 5, 1957. That was the day his mother roused him
from a Saturday morning slumber to listen to something scary on the radio. It was nothing but a
steady beepbeep–beep, but the announcer said it was coming from something deep in outer space
that was called Sputnik.
"What is this thing, Sonny?'' asked his

October Sky Essay

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October Sky Essay