Obstacles in the Way

     I think that in the movie October Sky Homer was pushed to either become a football player or a worker in the mine. First he has to overcome the pressures of football and mine work. In this essay I will be telling you more about the obstacles in Homers way.

      I believe that his father, John, was a two faced character in this movie. He always acted like he loved the mine more then his own family, but then at the same time he would always come through and help out his family. During the whole movie his dad doesn’t think Homer is doing the right thing when he is working on his rockets. He wants him to become a worker in the mine so bad, so that he can be proud of him in hopes that one day he will have his job someday if he works hard enough.

      He overcame this obstacle being his dad by standing up to him and telling him that would never go in that mine again, and by not quitting on his dreams. He did the best he could to always try to explain to his father that his life is coal and that he wanted to go somewhere and be somebody. He got to his father, I think that he started to realize that his son is doing something worthwhile with his life and he started to support him.

      He couldn’t of done what he did without the town support, and certainly couldn’t have done it without the support of his friends. They were very important in his quest of rocketry. They helped him construct his rockets, and also helped him fly them. The town supported him in ways that they came to watch the launches, and they were behind him when he went to the Science Fair. His friends would help him get back on the right track when he was getting down and thinking about quitting.

      Another obstacle that Homer has to overcome was his principle, Mr. Turner, who was also telling him that the only way to get put of Coalwood on top is to be good at football, or else he would be working in the mine the rest of his life. He was against the

    Science thing because there has been nobody in Coalwood to win the Fair before because Welch was always against them. He overcame this by the help of his teacher Mrs. Riley. She helped Homer get books about rockets and learn the things he needed to know. She took care of Mr. Turner and got them into the Science Fair. She kept behind him, and kept him on the right path to do what he wanted to do.

    The police tried to stop them because of a fire that they thought was started by one of their rockets. Quentin and Homer took their time and figured out where their missing rocket would have landed. They tested their experiment and went looking for it. They found it exactly where they thought it to be, and then took it into town and presented it to their principle and to the police. This got them off and they did not get into trouble.

    Now you see that Homers mission to do something great with his life was not a very easy one. With the support of all the people that helped him, he overcame the odds and he succeeded.