Conflicts

Throughout, life we all have to face many conflicts and we must over come these conflicts to better ourselves as individuals. In this same way Homer Hickam Jr. has to face many conflicts throughout the memoir Rocket Boys. In the beginning of the book he has to find his greater purpose in his life to get out of Coalwood, because he knows he does not want to work in the coal mines for the rest of his life. Then, Homer Sr. does not treat Homer as an equal because he his not a football star which second to coal mining is the most important thing in the lives of Coalwood civilians. When he decides to start his rocket building adventures, Homer has to first learn about rockets and then work to gather all the products he needs to overcome. He reaches out to different people in the town, stepping past his boundaries and he does anything he can to build his rockets. When have you done something similar to the things that Homer has to do in his life.

Homer H. Hickam, Jr.'s life

Early in the memoir Rocket Boys you can see the determination and the search for a purpose in Homer's life. He begins the book, by telling about Coalwood West Virginia; the main setting of the book. He explains how the mining of Coal is so important to the people of the community and how the community was built around the mine. You can clearly see this when he says "Coalwood, West Virginia, where I grew up, was built for the purpose of extracting the millions of tons of rich, bituminous coal that lay beneath it."(pg. 1) Then, he explains how his father was meant to be a coal miner, but Homer Jr. needs to escape from Coalwood and leave the dangers of the mine. There is one major event early in the book that changes Homer's life for ever. After this event he works the rest of his life to achieve his goals and launch his rockets.

What was this event that changed his life?

How did this event change his life?

Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam

Lately, I have been reading Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam, Jr. or more commonly known as October Sky. As I began to read the book, I kept pondering how the insightful memoir about Homer's fascinating life would be different than the movie. As I started to read the memoir, there were some things that were clearly different than the movie, but many things that were the same. In the beginning of the book there is some small things such as Homer Jr. has dogs, and a pet squirrel. I also noticed that Homer seems to talk more about his time at school and his ever growing love for Dorothy. Also, the talk about the popularity of the Football team and the team not being able to play for the championship. These are just a few things I have noticed, please feel free to comment back if you have noticed anything else through out the rest of the book that was similar or different.