The Arguments In Homer Hickam's October Sky

Throughout the movie October Sky the main protagonist (Homer Hickam) faced several challenges that held them back and delayed their dream of building rockets. Most people would have given up after a failure. In Coalwood people do not go to college or leave the town and are destined to become a coal miner unless they are good at football. But Homer doesn’t want to be a coal miner and works to get a scholarship. He and his friends persevered (even after several rocket explosions and mishaps) and became successful. Striving to improve upon their failures, Homer enhanced his rocket with his friends and did what other people thought was the impossible.
The first major setback that demonstrated Homer’s perseverance was when the several rockets that he created which unsuccessful launched the first of which destroyed part of his house fence. Most people would give up shortly after because they would be afraid of getting into trouble with the mine’s superintendent who owns their …show more content…
While the police was investigating the forest fire they found a shell in the shape of a rocket which they suspected had started the fire. Since Homer and his friends had lost a rocket after launch. The police inferred that Homer’s rocket had caused the fire. Therefore they prevented the rocket boys from launching anymore rockets as they don’t want anymore damages to private property. But, after doing the math for the lost rocket’s distance using its flight time it seems that the rocket couldn’t have started the fire because it wasn’t in the vicinity. It traveled 1.2 miles away from the epicenter. Using a 50 feet long string Homer and Quentin found the rocket in the general location of where the math said it would be. The math proves Homer’s innocence and allowed him to continue firing rockets without displeasure from the town. The device that caused the fire turned out to be an aeronautical