Coalwood, West Virginia

From the rather extensive list of summer reading books we were subjected to choose from, I, like everyone else read two books in order to complete my summer assignment. The first, surprisingly my favorite of the two, was October Sky, written by Homer Hickam, whom I discovered after a quick Google image search, is not the same persona as Homer Simpson, to my disappointment. It tells the narrative story of your average small town boy, the author himself, Homer ‘Sonny’ Hickam, the son of a coal miner foreman in the coal-industrialized town of Coalwood, West Virginia, living with his bickering parents and a pompous older brother in the 1950’s. His father is a bit absent in his life, seeing how his job at the local mine takes up most of his energy…

There are many themes that show up in the book Rocket Boys. One of the most prevalent themes is how dreams and goals are set, achieved, and destroyed. Homer Jr faces many obstacles in his hometown of Coalwood that set him up for failure but he never gives up on his dream because of people around him encouraging him to never give up his dreams. Growing up in Coalwood, Homer was taught to go to school, and then work in the mines. Homer Sr, Homer’s father, wanted him to follow in his footsteps by…

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…

The early autumn of October is a beautiful time, there are four children memories about the rising rockets on October sky. There is a film about the agreement between four children and sky that is named October Sky, which is based on true story. This paper tells of this motivational movie about chasing the dream.There are four children who change their original destiny by researching manufactured rockets. There are many obstacles in the way of chasing dream, but they also keep enthusiasm. Even…

Extended Metaphor Assignment Rational John Hickam, the father of the lead character Homer Hickam in the movie October Sky, possesses many personality traits and characteristics which are developed, changed, and evolved throughout the film. The three evident key traits that he seems to have which have been modified throughout the movie are his values, his personality type, and his expectations. The format that I chose to represent the values of John Hickam is a drawing, as his values are one…

Sky high (2005) directed by Mike Mitchell is a It has a sentimental take on the epic hero journey that follows the typical epic hero story structure. The film centers around Will Stronghold, son of the two greatest superheroes in the world, the Commander and the Jetstream. The main problem will goes through is not having powers. In the film, Will Strongfield is just an average teenage boy, but that is a problem because his parents are the greatest superheroes in the world, the Commander and…

In terms of the word Appalachia there are both positive and negative connotations. There have been many stereotypes made about the Appalachian region. The positive ones are uplifting and speak about the culture. While the negative one talk about stereotypes that can be seen as offensive today. One stereotype that hurt the Appalachian region is that of how the area lacks education. Outsiders of the Appalachian region tend to believe these stereotypes, and the life of an Appalachian tends to…

Neumeier 1 Sam Neumeier Professor Mamary Intro to Liberal Arts 25 September 2016 Jeannette’s Identity Could the dysfunction of the Walls family have promoted the amazing resilience and strength of Jeannette through various daily challenges? One could argue that the unusual and destructive behavior of Rex and Rose Mary forced her into a few unique situations that resulted in surprisingly her acting as a resilient and successful adult. In moving back to Welch, Virginia, Jeannette lost what…

The Union navy quickly mobilized to set up a blockade of southern ports. The blockade largely prevented the south from selling or receiving goods, and it seriously damages the southern economy. The union was mad about being broken and the confederates were mad because Abraham Lincoln was president and he wanted to get rid of slavery. The strategies of the north and the south were that the union strategy took out the South's supplies and demand, the South's strategy was the south thought that…

The civil war was an ugly fight between the North and the South. The South wanted slavery and the North didn't, and this is why they didn't get along, so this is why the union and confederacy formed as groups for war. During the Civil war both North and south needed people for help to finish task and to help with things the white people couldn't do. The Northern and Southern armies had pretty different point of views for the Africans services. The South needed the Africans to fill in the…