Tom Hannemann

Period 4

            In the movie October Sky Homer is building rockets and trying to make it out of Coal wood.  There were some obstacles that he has to go through along the way.  He tries to make his way around so he would be able to get a scholarship of some sort to go somewhere in life other than the coalmine.

            His first major obstacle is his father who thinks the rocket idea is stupid and he should be doing other things like football and working in the coalmine.  Homer just ignores his dad and keeps going on with the rockets.  His dad never believed he could never do it, but Homer kept on going.

            The next obstacle was that the principal at the school thought it was a dumb idea for them be building rockets.  He then tried blaming a wild fire on the boys with the rockets, saying they started it.  They were banned from flying their rockets anymore, and so they had to quit.  Homer then drops out of school and works in the mine but realizes that’s not for him.  He then goes and figures out that there was no possible way that they could have started the fire.  Then the principal realizes for the first time that they can be good at something and enters them in the science fair.

            The only person that believed them from the beginning was the teacher Miss Riley.  She kept giving them ideas that they could do something with their lives and get out of the town of Coalwood.  They were the only inspiration the boys had.  She showed them how by giving them books and others materials needed for the rockets.

            In the movie Homer went through those majors obstacles but over came them.  He and his friends made something of their lives with hardly any help.  They got out of Coalwood without being football stars of any kind.  They did what they had in their heart and didn’t go by what people told them to do.