West Virginia University

Last Fall my family visited Shenandoah National Park. It is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. It is only 75 miles outside of the nation’s capitol, Washington D.C. The first traces of humans on the land that would later become the park are estimated to be almost nine thousand years ago. Native Americans visited these Appalachian Mountains seasonally to hunt, collect nuts and berries, and to gather stone to construct tools. Europeans did not start to settle the land prior to three…

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…

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…

In the beginning of her memoir, Wall’s writes about her lifestyle in positive light, using words such as “adventure.” and “love.” On page 18 she writes, “We could live like this forever”(18), to describe her excitement towards sleeping under stars without any pillows. Another quote describe her bright outlook on living in the dessert is, “I loved the desert, too. When the sun was in the sky, the sand would be so hot that it would burn your feet if you were the kind of kid who wore shoes, but…

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…

on management I was already planning on putting in motion; for the County Commission, I just didn't have the same vernacular as the reading to express it. While government isn't exactly the same as the corporate system, the county commission in West Virginia is pretty close. That is because the county commission is the administrators for the rest of the county government. They are in charge of the budget, regulations,…

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…

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…

From 1852 to 1855, Lee served as superintendent of West Point, and was therefore responsible for educating many of the men who would later serve under him - and those who would oppose him - on the battlefields of the Civil War. In 1855 he left the academy to take a position in the cavalry and in 1859 was called upon to put down abolitionist John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry. Because of his reputation as one of the finest officers in the United States Army, Abraham Lincoln offered Lee the…