Homer H. Hickam Jr.’s 1998 Rocket Boys: A Memoir is a partially fictionalized account of how a small town boy from a coal mining family becomes a rocket scientist. The intriguing story follows young Homer Jr., nicknamed “Sonny,” on his quest for knowledge and aspiration of working alongside the legendary Dr. Wernher von Braun at NASA. This is a well written account of the ongoing struggle of rural Appalachia and the difficulties of breaking away from the past that is worth reading. Overall, Hickam is able to expertly explain how he, against all odds, breaks away from tradition to pursue his dreams.
The main characters are the narrator, Sonny; his family, Homer Sr., Elsie, and Jim; and his friends, Sherman, Quentin, Roy Lee, and O’Dell. These people along with the citizens of Coalwood, WV are essential to Sonny’s success as a rocket
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In the beginning the BCMA is a group of curious boys but by the end they mature into educated young men ready for college and their world to expand past southern West Virginia. The rockets symbolize a coming of age for the rocket boys because with each one comes increased knowledge and maturity. It is as if each major event that affects the way they view the world is accepted with the launch of a new rocket. Hickam’s descriptive and powerful language is quintessential to the telling of this novel because no one other than people from similar backgrounds can understand how difficult it is to get out of this cyclic society. He dives straight into this point in the beginning with the line, “Until I began to build and launch rockets, I didn’t know my hometown was at war with itself over its children and that my parents were locked in a kind of bloodless combat over how my brother and I would live our lives” (1). This quote can nearly summarize the entire book because it represents each element Sonny and the BCMA set out to overcome through their
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do” (Pele qtd. In Soccerlens). Countless people have done amazing things through perseverance. Sonny was an average boy in a mining town, but he started building rockets and learned a valuable life lesson.
The story is a first-person story that is narrated by Sonny ‘s brother who provides not only insight into their lives, but also the environment they lived in. The narrator addresses their storyline including the dark sides of his community although he does so with a lot of cautious. With the manner in which the narrator is narrating the story, it is clear that he has got some difficult time when he is expressing his ideas and emotions. The narrator writes after the death of her daughter where he is writing back to his brother.
Taylor Grayson English Honors Period 1 Peller Task # 1: The Glass Castle Throughout their lives , every member of the Walls family experienced hardships. Though Jeannette and her three other siblings endured abuse both physically and mentally throughout their childhood, the peculiar ways in which both her mentally unstable parents showed their love and guidance ultimately helped to form these children and shape them into the individuals they are today. While Rex Walls, Jeannette’s alcoholic yet genius father, promised that he would one day create a house for the family made out of glass, his skills in mathematics and science unfortunately were not enough to battle his issues with alcohol and his inability to provide for his family.
He describes the childhood friend of Sonny as being “high and raggy” and smelling “funky,” and later a woman as having a “battered face” and being a “semi-whore” (68-69). These vivid character descriptions sharply contrast the strong lack of environmental descriptions found at the beginning of the story. These environmental descriptions are not yet found because Sonny has not yet come back to the city. Since the environment is used as a tool for describing the relationship between the brothers, it can not be described fully until the relationship is at play. As soon as the narrator is reunited with Sonny, he begins to fully describe his surroundings.
The narrator starts the story off by reflecting back to when Sonny was a young boy. He then compares his students to Sonny and realizes they could end up like him one day. For that reason, the narrator starts to doubt his
Throughout the story of “Sonny’s Blues”, James Baldwin develops a theme that can still be related with today. The misunderstanding and lack of knowledge that the narrator experiences, about his brother, is something that many today feel, as their own family members are being prosecuted and they do not comprehend why. Within the story, there are numerous subtle ideas that are used to progress the story and theme along to the ending that is given. James Baldwin advances the theme of his story, that misfortune and anguish can be renovated into a unique art form, using characterizations, settings, and symbolisms. One of the main literary devices that is used to express the theme is characterization.
Ray Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012) was an American fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery fiction author. In his works Bradbury brought up various problems, concerning scientific progress as well as personal interaction in modern society. One of these problems is relationship between children and adults. In a short story “The Rocket” the writer depicts trusting and caring relationship between Fiorello Bodoni, a poor junkyard owner, who spends his nights admiring nearby rocket launches bound for the Moon, Venus and Mars, and his family.
October Sky is a true story based on the life of Homer “Sonny” Hickam Jr. It describes how he is inspired to build rockets when he sees Sputnik, at age 14. Throughout the book, Sonny has to overcome many obstacles to achieve his dream of sending rockets into space. The reason he was able to overcome these obstacles was due to his determination to work, willingness to learn, and his faith in his friends. Because of these three things, Sonny and the other Rocket Boys were able to go to college, escape Coalwood, and get jobs in which they could pursue their dreams.
He hasn’t seen his brother in about a year, but as he is walking out of his school he notices a familiar face and it turns out being one of his brother’s old friend. The old friend spoke to the narrator about how hard Sonny’s struggle is now and how it will still be a struggle later. The narrator went
The theme of the story is the struggle between adventure and peace. On page 102 it says, “Where’re you going next? I haven’t decided yet, I’ll think it over” this clearly states that he is searching for adventure. (Bradbury 102) The Rocket Man wants to stay with his family which is the peace part, but is torn between going back into space.
Bobo is a dynamic character, he recognizes that he bullied Amat only because he was older and felt Amat was lower than him because he was poor even though Bobo is lower middle class as well. Bobo goes onto to befriend Amat and protect his friends from the others. Bobo sees how terrible some of the people are the team are and that they hurt people because they don’t see them as equals. William Lyt is a leader on the hockey team who takes over when Kevin is arrested. His parents moved in next to Kevin’s family so that their kids would be best friends and Williams mother is a big part of the fight against Maya and claims she was lying.
“We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort.” Jesse Owens said discussing the correlation between determination and making dreams come true. This message translates directly to Homer Hickam 's memoir October Sky. This theme emerge very early in the book in Sonny’s many relationships; then later in his interests and goals.
They both went through the same childhood, but handled it differently. The narrator was more mature and had set goals. While Sonny, fell into the depth of his feeling and influences. The narrator cares for his brother and feels as if he has failed him. While his brother feels like he could never truly explain anything to the narrator.
The book I have chosen to review is Boy 21, a fictional read that is written by Matthew Quick. Quick is a New York Times best-selling author debuting in novels such as The Silver Linings Playbook and Love May Fail. To best describe this book, it is a captivating read that is comforting for the mind, as it canvasses the raw and unflinching life of a high school senior who displays love for basketball and life relationships. Furthermore, set in a troubled Belmont city of Philadelphia, Quick incorporates the presence of mobs and violence which is captivating towards the reader and audience. I was intrigued about how the novel was written through Finley the main protagonist, which was Quick’s childhood perspective of life in Philadelphia and his passion towards basketball.
Before the narrator gets married his mother asks him to help Sonny “and don’t let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening to him and no matter how evil you gets with him” (Baldwin, 165). Yet time brings memories to a close and the narrator soon forgets his promise. On the subway he reads the paper to discover that Sonny was in jail but doesn’t immediately write him a letter. After the narrator’s daughter, Gracie, dies he writes a letter to Sonny. Sonny writes back and they continue to exchange letters until Sonny comes back to New York.