Homer H. Hickam, Jr.

Rocket Boys

In this series of 10 blogs, I am going to go over an analysis of different components of the book "Rocket Boys". I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, it is not only a memoir but an adventure reading it as a book.

The start of this series of blogs the first 4 to 5 will be character analyzes. Our first character analysis is the main character of the story: Homer H. Hickam, Jr.

Homer Hickam, Jr. grew up in Coalwood, Virginia. Son of Homer and Elsie Hickam, throughout the story Homer, is going through high-school when one night his childhood hero Warner Van Braun has designed a satellite that will be shot into orbit, soon after the launch Homer is watching the night sky when he sees it fly by like a shooting star. In this moment, he starts to plan for the future about making rockets like his childhood hero.  He soon starts to acquire a plan to start building rockets, starting a club and making new life friends.

Growing up in a coal mining town and the son of the Boss or the coal company, Homer feels obligated to work in the coal mines just like his father. Advancing further into high-school homer realizes that rocketry can get him out of Coalwood and also that the mountains are like weights on him to stay in Coalwood. Beginning to build rockets Homer has a problem getting access to the essentials for building rockets like the fuel and the nozzles. In secret Homer starts to steal some of the Coal Mines metal to make his rockets with. Only to be caught later and in big trouble with his parents, Homer also causes a welder from the Coal Mine to be fired for helping Homer with his rockets.

In the advancement of the rockets, they developed a firing range for their rockets so that they didn't harm any nearby buildings. As they built larger rockets, the farther the rockets traveled endangering the nearby town.

In the story, Homer is overshadowed by his athletic older brother's accomplishments. Even the girl that Homer likes is in love with his older brother. A big part of Homer's drive to succeed in building rockets is to feel accepted by his father and not to be the shame of his father. All throughout the book his father is not accepting or as proud of Homer as he is Homer's older brother’s football accomplishments.

Overall this is a very good book that is hard to put down, always keeps you on the edge of your chair, that explains what it is like to be a high-school boy that has a dream to make rockets, catches young love for a girl, meets new friends, and makes memories going through it all.