October Sky: Character Analysis: October Sky

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The film “October Sky” based on a true story, shows a young man named Homer Hickam, facing numerous adversities as he strives to become successful. The 1950’s space race between United States and The Soviet Union, encourages Homer to possibly pursue a career in rocket building. In a town where the main line of work was coal mining, Homer’s aspiration towards rocket building become troublesome. Throughout the film, Homer is discouraged and made fun of for working towards an ambition other than coal mining. This however, did not demoralise Homer as he continues to attempt at rocket building alongside his companions with the same goal. Homer is confronted by several challenges including, failure, peer pressure, absence of self-belief, discouragement, …show more content…

Homer’s rebellious actions come as an astonishment to John, and this as a result causes a conflict between the two. An example of this conflict would be Homer yelling to his father, “There's nothing here for me! The town is dying, even the mine is dying...EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT BUT YOU!”. John, furiously says “You want to get out so bad, then go. Go!”, Homer, in anger replies with “Yeah, I’ll go! Yeah, I’ll go! And I'll be gone forever! I won't even look back!”. The only way for Homer to overcome this conflict is to disregard his father, and remain focused on the task at hand. This is obviously not an easy thing for anybody to do. Nonetheless, Homer must become oblivion to the negativity that comes from his father and the rest of Coalwood. Another example of the challenges that Homer had to overcome would including building a rocket itself. Although inspired by the launch of Sputnik I, Homer, who was once a jock, had no clue how to build a rocket. Putting his reputation as a jock on the line, Homer decided to gain knowledge about rocketry from Quentin, the nerd of the school. By conversing with Quentin, Homer’s reputation in the school begins to decline. This however, did not discourage Homer as he continues to be equally …show more content…

The film itself, teaches the viewers about concepts such as courage, determination, and hard work. To overcome adversities, I, similarly to Homer have used courage, determination, and hard work which I have talked about in the paragraphs above. Homer is forced to make decisions that are very tough in order to succeed, such as, contradicting with his father’s wishes. Adversities can be overcome in all sorts of ways which can be seen through Homer’s experiences, along with mine. At the end of the day, overcoming adversities may cause challenges in itself, but is worth all the pain in the

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