Conclusion

Conclusion

This is the last and final blog that I will do over the Rocket Boys. In this last blog, I am going to just summarize the recent blogs I have done and gone over some of the major key points that are highlighted throughout the book. On another note, I am going to go over and clarify the organization of the blogs in case if it wasn’t easily noticed.
Organization of the Blogs- For the first 5 blogs I went through who I thought were some of the main characters and what impacts they had on Homer and in the book itself. I kind of had a theme for the blogs and that was the impact/significance throughout the book. Through the second series of the blogs it was probably a little bit more obvious on the subjects towards impact rather than just character analyzes. For example, the 6th, 7th, and 8th blogs over sputnik, the rocket book, and Coalwood all made the main framework of the story these subjects were the story. After those blogs I blogged over authorial techniques, and in this blog, I went over and analyzed mainly the symbolic motifs throughout the story. Some of the highlights throughout the story was the first rocket, the rocket book, and when Homer won the National Science Fair.
In conclusion, the Rocket Boys is a book about a young teenager in a high school chasing a dream that he achieves, but in achieving his dream he overcame his limitations and succeeded with the defiance, and throughout the book there were many symbolic moments that affected the story in more ways than one.

Authorial Techniques

Authorial Techniques
In this post, I wanted to get more in depth about what strategies and tactics that Homer Jr. uses to get a point across to his readers. My goal in this blog is to go over the story and dissect the frame of the book.
Firstly, let’s talk about the mood of the story.
Mood- Throughout the story the mood is very passionate and inspiring. The reason that the mood is passionate is because Homer is chasing after a dream, a dream that not everyone has and is very hard to accomplish, furthermore, all throughout the book he is working towards that dream and, in the end, he accomplishes it. Next, the story is very inspiring, the story is inspiring because Homer overcomes many challenges and still succeeds in the end. Homer’s main challenge was his education, his education limited him in more ways than one. Also, there were a lot of stereotypes like how everyone that grew up in Coalwood was going to work in the coal mine.
Next, we’re going to talk about the symbols that are throughout the story.
Rockets- If you haven’t noticed yet, rockets are the one of the main symbols in this story. The Rockets serve as a symbol because Homer is using rockets to get out of Coalwood.
Coal Mine- In that the opposing symbol is the coal mine. The mine is what Homer is trying to get away from, they both are opposing one another because the Rockets would be the one thing that would take Homer out of Coalwood and the mine is the thing that would keep him in Coalwood.
Finally, the last major symbol that is constantly in the story, although it’s hard to distinct from the other symbols is Coalwood itself.
Coalwood- Coalwood is in a civil war. Every Parent in Coalwood is fighting for his or her child on how they will live their lives even before they are grown up. Each parent is fighting to keep them out of the mine or to keep them in Coalwood. This symbol does not really take full effect until the end of the book.

Summary: The mood and the symbolic meanings of the story are the key things that one should focus on because just focusing on these few things the reader can get a good understanding of the book. Although there are a lot more things to identify these are the main ones that I think are most important. 

Coalwood

Coalwood
To begin with I wanted to blog about the setting in which Homer and everyone in the story lived. These last few blogs have essentially been the framework or the makeup of the story, and Coalwood is a big part of Homer’s background. In this blog, my goal is to dissect the reality of Coalwood and how it affects the people who live there.
To start off with, all of the people who live there are people who work in the coal mine. Most of everyone’s head of the Home works for mine. A big worry for Homer in Rocket Boys is being stuck working in the Mine like his father. Being the son of the Head of the Coal mine Homer feels like he is obligated to work for the mine almost like it’s a responsibility. Homer takes note of how his father is always stressed coming home from work, how many hours he is away from his family because he is always at the mine and Homer doesn’t want that. Homer refers to Coalwood as not only a place but like a prison that traps you in and it’s almost like you can never get out. Homer comes to this conclusion when He realizes that most of everyone in Coalwood do not go to college and he wants to go to college but he can’t because of his prison.

On the other hand, Coalwood is a part of who Homer is and where has come from and where he is going. As he travels around going from science fair to science fair, he realizes that he misses Coalwood and that he misses the mountains and its people. Homer realizes this before he went to the National Science Fair that, “Coalwood, its people, and the mountains were a part of me and I was a part of them and always would be” (329). A good explanation of that is that you can take the boy out of the city, but you can’t the city out of the boy, this means that wherever Homer goes Coalwood will always be a part of who he is.  

Rocket Book

 The Rocket Book

Just like Sputnik the Rocket Book has been a very swaying component in the story of Rocket Boys. The rocket book wasn’t translated entirely as a symbolic meaning, but more as something that was very treasured like the idea of Sputnik.
The Rocket Book was given to Homer by his most favorite and dear teacher Mrs. Riley. This book came into thought when Homer was asking Mrs. Riley for some Potassium Phosphate for his rocket fuel and he didn’t know anything about Rocket fuel and he proposed a book about the Rockets. This book had a lot of formulas and math in it that Homer had no idea of understanding in it which is where Quentin came into the equation. A lot of the formulas were Trig and Calculus that gave them info from the best rocket fuel to formulas they used to calculate how high the rocket flew and formulas to calculate the telepathy of the rocket. Although there was a chapter dedicated to the Rocket Book it wasn’t referred too much, it was much glorious and helpful to the Rocket Boys than portrayed. The title of the book was “PRINCIPLES OF GUIDED MISSILE DESIGN” (199)”.
All throughout the book Mrs. Riley had wanted Homer to enter the Science Fair. When Mrs. Riley gave him this book Homer felt that Mrs. Riley had given him a book directly from God. At that moment in time, Homer felt like he could do anything because Mrs. Riley believed in him. The Rocket book was not just any regular book for Homer, but it was like a beaker of things that he could learn and explore with all of the books' information inside, in a way it had its own symbolic meaning. It had a meaning of hope, and the in the future, it would bring back memories of his favorite high school that taught him.

Homer H. Hickam continues to write 3 other books in the “Coalwood Series” the 2nd is the Coalwood way, the 3rd Sky, and Stone, and the 4th We Are Not Afraid. Rocket Boys is the first book in this series and one book in specific that is in a setting when Homer is home from college and he is talking with Mrs. Riley about doing his best and she sums up her whole philosophy towards his success in two words and she just says “Do Better”. I wanted to relate this back to Rocket Boys because since the very beginning she has been there doing support him and the Rocket Book is where it started for Homer.

Sputnik

Sputnik
For the next 2 blogs, I am going to blog about Sputnik and the Rocket Book. The reason I chose to blog over these two is because just like the characters that were blogged about Sputnik and the Rocket Book both had an impact on the Rocket Boys in more than one way.
Let’s start with Sputnik. As earlier mentioned, Sputnik was a Russian satellite that launched in the fall of the year 1957. Homer was watching TV when his hero appeared to show and was talking about how America would be able to rival Russia by making a satellite of our own and thus the Space Race had begun.  Shortly after, Homer organized a gathering to watch it fly by that starry night. In that moment he had a passion for acquiring some knowledge to be with Van Bran, Homer Jr. said, “I wanted to be with him” (30). So in essence Sputnik sparked this journey of wanting to build rockets, Sputnik had a Symbolic meaning not only for Homer but for everyone who looked up and watched it fly by the stars. When it flew by the stars someone could mistake it for a shooting star although it wasn’t one it sure had the effect on people that a shooting star would. The reason it had a symbolic meaning was because it was the first time that man as a race had ever reached the stars and reaching the  stars was a feat in it of itself and that meant that anything is possible.

The effect that it had on Homer was almost dumbfounding. The way that Homer stated it was, “Then I saw the bright little ball, moving majestically across the narrow star field between the ridge lines. I stared at it with no less rapt attention than if it had been God Himself In a golden chariot riding overhead” (32). Homer compares it to how it seemed like it was God Himself in a golden chariot riding overhead, this comparison explains how symbolic Sputnik was on Homer. One would also imply that somewhere else the effect of Sputnik had an impact on more than one life. 

Warner Van Bran

Warner Van Bran
The last and Final Character analysis of Rocket Boys is Warner Van Bran.
Although when reading the book there are very few references referencing to Warner Van Bran. The reason for an analysis on Warner Van Bran is because although he didn’t have a lot of narratives in the story Bran played a big role and impact on Homer. Van Bran was not only Homer’s childhood hero, but Van Bran was his role model, somebody to look up to and to strive to be like. In one part of the story, it does explain how Van Bran became a rising star with NASA to develop an edge on Russia at the start of the space race. Van Bran was a leading scientist at NASA and developed a lot of Satellites for the U.S.
Homer was able to easily relate to Van Bran is the aspect of wanting to be like him. Through the sight of seeing sputnik flying Coalwood on that starry night, Homer had a spark that lit a fire, this fire was his rocket Journey. In starting this journey he became known of Warner Van Bran, and thus, his journey began to become like his role model. It wasn’t until that he became very in depth with rocket making that he was admitted to do a science fair, which he won and eventually went onto to nationals and was actually in the presence of his hero. It all started with that night that Sputnik was going to fly over southern West Virginia. The very first time that Homer saw Warner Van Braun was on TV when he was at an interview confirming, “in a crisp German accent, that if he got the go-ahead he could put a satellite into orbit within thirty days” (30). This is when it all started for Homer Hickam Jr.

In a conclusion about Warner Van Bran, the reason that he is an important character in Rocket Boys is that he affects Homers goals because Van Bran is his hero. Everything that Homer works towards is to become more like Warner Van Bran and to work with him in making rockets. Homer's goal was to acquire a skill or a knowledge that would get him closer to Van Bran and that was rocket building.

This being the last character analysis, I wanted to take one last overview and by doing this I wanted to link all the character analyzes to the primary themes of the story. To start off with we have to identify the main theme of the story and those are in my opinion perseverance to overcome the challenges and to make something of yourself. Now, the characters who I analyzed were the main characters who embodied the theme: Especially Homer because he was the one who organized a way to make something of himself that presented a challenge which he overcame. Next was Quentin. Quentin embodied the theme in the way that he was a part of the Rocket Boys and the impact he had on Homer. After Quentin was Mrs. Riley. Mrs. Riley was a major supporting character for Homer in the aspect of the encouragement and dedication that she portrayed to help Homer overcome his challenges. Next to last was Homer's father. Homer's father, in my opinion, was the driving force that kept Homer from giving up because every day he saw his dad it reminded him of what his future would be if he didn't succeed in his journey. Throughout the book, Homer's father wasn't a stereotypical fatherly figure for Homer and that almost helped him in the aspect of wanting to be better than that of his father. Finally, Warner Van Braun. Van Bran supported the theme in the way of giving Homer a goal to aim for and not stop until he got there. Van Bran was his hero and Homer gained hope from the idea of one-day meeting Van Bran and at the end of his journey, Homer accomplished his dream. This is the basic idea of linking the characters to the main theme and how they supported the theme in my opinion.

Homer H. Hickam Sr./ Homer's Dad

The fourth character entry is going to Homer H. Hickam Sr.

I’ll refer to Homer’s dad as Clyde as which Elsie referred to him in the book. To start off with Clyde was a Hard working Coal Miner. Clyde was always busy working in the mine not giving a lot of his unfocused attention to his family but rather to all the other worries of the mine. Clyde would be considered as a “Hard Man” which means that he doesn’t have a lot of emotion and that he does what he has to so that his family is provided for. Homer’s main feeling towards his father was that he wasn’t loved by his father. Clyde lived through the Great Depression and went through a lot going through that. Clyde was always so proud of Homer’s older brother Sonny for his football accomplishments, yet when the football got suspended Homer didn’t see his father a lot anymore compared to what he used to. Usually, Clyde was up really early before any of his family and up later after everyone else went to bed. Although throughout the story he didn’t spend a lot of time with Homer, Clyde was tolerant with his rocket building.

Homer’s dad played a big role when it came to the success and the determination that Homer had. Homer’s success was reliant on his dad because a lot of his supplies were from the coal mine although most of the time Homer stole a lot of his Father’s supplies but every once in a while he would ask his father to keep good terms between them for Homer’s mother's sake. When it comes to Homer’s determination he acquires his determination from the ambition to be loved by his father, the reason for this is that throughout all of his life there was a lack of love from his father and through making rockets Homer feels that this might give him that chance for his father to be proud of him for something that he succeeded at. Finally, towards the end of the book there is a time that Clyde was brought to tears which Homer never saw in his life and Clyde told Homer that he loved him and was proud of him.