October Sky

Have you ever had to go through many obstacles to get what you want. In October Sky, Homer first wants to build a rocket when he sees Sputnik travel across the sky. He has many obstacles that he has to go through to get what he really wants.

In his town they didn’t have any information on building rockets, so he had to ask the geek of the school for help. They later become friends. He first had to get the supplies necessary to build the rocket. They didn’t have much money, so they had to take apart a railroad to get scrap metal for money. He had to talk one of his father’s workers into welding it for him.

After he built his rocket and shot it off his teacher, Ms. Riley, said that they could take the rocket to a science fair. If they won that, then they could go to the national science fair, and if they won, they could get a scholarship to a top school for science. Homer was really excited about this, but his dad told him he could never build or launch rockets in Coldwater. They had to hike eight miles to get off of the property. After a few failed attempts at launching new rockets, they finally got it right, but they were arrested for starting a forest fire.

Homer then quits school to work in the coal mine after his father has an accident. He is still wondering how he started the fire when he goes on the search for their rocket. He finds the rocket and proves that he didn’t start the forest fire. He needs to enroll in school again in order to go to the science fair so he decides to quit the coalmine. He enrolls in school again and enters the science fair. He wins and is sent to Indianapolis for the big science fair. While he is there, someone steals his signed picture of a German scientist and his model of part of the rocket.

He gets it all figured out and wins the first place at the fair. He patches things up with his dad and graduates high school. He then goes on to become a NASA scientist who trains the astronauts. He got through all the obstacles he was faced with, even those more difficult than others.