Rocket Boys Essay - Determination
The novel Rocket Boys follows the life of a young Homer Hickam Jr. and his life as a teen in the small mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia during the Space Race era. Homer and some of his friends are fascinated by the idea of space exploration and decided to create their own rockets though their homemade organization, called the “Big Creek Missile Association”. The idea is seen as completely ludicrous at first, but the boys work hard to overcome the doubt surrounding their idea and improve their rockets. The enormous determination demonstrated by the group of boys is shown throughout the novel as the boys learn from their mistakes, search for necessary materials, and overcome doubt from others.
The “Rocket Boys” build dozens of rockets throughout the novel and learn something new from each one. At first, their rockets were largely unsuccessful, but they wrote down all their observations in their “body of knowledge” and tried to figure out …show more content…
A main idea in the first part of the novel is the desire for “a book”. The boys, especially Homer and Quentin desperately wanted a book filled with information about how to improve their rockets. Their prayers were answered in Chapter 13, when Miss Riley provided them with a book called “Principles of Guided Missile Design”. That was only step one, though, because the boys still needed to know trigonometry, calculus, and other higher math skills to understand the concepts in the book. These classes were simply not offered at the high school Homer attended. That school was all about football, and most students who weren’t athletes would take after their fathers and enter the mines after high school. The boys displayed amazing determination as they actively pursued new information and learning tools they could use to improve their
The novel Rocket Boys follows the life of a young Homer Hickam Jr. and his life as a teen in the small mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia during the Space Race era. Homer and some of his friends are fascinated by the idea of space exploration and decided to create their own rockets though their homemade organization, called the “Big Creek Missile Association”. The idea is seen as completely ludicrous at first, but the boys work hard to overcome the doubt surrounding their idea and improve their rockets. The enormous determination demonstrated by the group of boys is shown throughout the novel as the boys learn from their mistakes, search for necessary materials, and overcome doubt from others.
The “Rocket Boys” build dozens of rockets throughout the novel and learn something new from each one. At first, their rockets were largely unsuccessful, but they wrote down all their observations in their “body of knowledge” and tried to figure out …show more content…
A main idea in the first part of the novel is the desire for “a book”. The boys, especially Homer and Quentin desperately wanted a book filled with information about how to improve their rockets. Their prayers were answered in Chapter 13, when Miss Riley provided them with a book called “Principles of Guided Missile Design”. That was only step one, though, because the boys still needed to know trigonometry, calculus, and other higher math skills to understand the concepts in the book. These classes were simply not offered at the high school Homer attended. That school was all about football, and most students who weren’t athletes would take after their fathers and enter the mines after high school. The boys displayed amazing determination as they actively pursued new information and learning tools they could use to improve their