"Rocket Boys"

Paper Summary:

The paper compares and contrasts the author, Homer Hickam, Jr., and his father. The paper explains that Homer and his father seem to be from two different worlds that can never come together. Homer has ambition and dreams, and his father cannot see past their small, West Virginia, coal-mining town. The main difference between Homer and his father is that Homer has dreams, and his father only wants to smash those dreams because he thinks they will never come true; he fears his son will only end up bitter and disappointed. It shows how, in the end, Homer is stronger than his father and has become the man his father cannot be because he has grown beyond him and the small, West Virginia, coal-mining town.

From the Paper:

"Homer's father works as a superintendent in the mine, and his life revolves around the mine. Because of this, he cannot see that the mine and the town are dying, and the future lies away from Coalwood. Homer Jr. can see the town is slowly dying, and so, he wants to leave the town and make something important and valuable out of his life. He works on the rocket because he wants to work with Werner von Bruan building rockets that will take men into space. He is not consumed with the mine, as his father his. Hickam writes, "Dad rarely came home from the mine, and when he did, he ate the cold leavings. I fully expected the rest of my life in Coalwood to go on exactly like this" (Hickam 256). Unfortunately, he can see there is no future in his hometown, but his father is blind to that, he is so consumed with the mine. Homer's father tries to get in the way of his rocket building because he is afraid. He is afraid Homer will not succeed, or will succeed, but will have nowhere but the mines to go, and that he will end up bitter and disappointed. To him, there is no life other than the mine. He tells his son, "'There's no men in the world like miners, Sonny."

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