The Rocket Boys Analysis

The Rocket Boys is a timeless classic that has been a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into eight different languages. This memoir written by Sonny Hickman illustrates the arduous journey of a group of boys who want to build sophisticated rockets in a coal mining town. These Rocket Boys have large dreams that are fueled by a various pressures and ambitions. The fame and monetary gains by building award winning rockets that would allow them to go to college, the opportunity to work for Wehner von Braun and participate in the space race, and the people and authority figures around them all motivated the Rocket boys to find success in their quest to build rockets.

The Rocket Boys are encouraged to craft advanced rockets for they

Sonny’s mother, Elsie, plays a crucial role by prompting Sony to continue to build rockets so he can escape the Coalwood and the burdensome life that comes along with it. Elsie despises the coal mines and wants he intelligent son to have nothing to do with them. During times of questioning and depression, Sonny is constantly motivated by his mother to not give up and lose hope in his dreams. She provides him with tools and support among the community as she defends his actions while he constantly destroys things up. The ways that Sonny's father provides encouragement for the Rocket Boy’s success is not so clear, but he does help them with their endeavors through funds, supplies, and places to set off their rockets. Sonny is also driven to his success in order to prove his father wrong in his devaluing of him, and he wants to impress his father by his feats with the Rocket Boys. Other characters such as the miners who continuously craft and build the Rocket Boy’s more complex rockets with metal and welding. These craftsmen not only help the Rocket Boys with being able to build rocket sin the first place, but they also continue to push the Rocket Boys to launch rockets. It is not only them, however. The whole community plays a role in the success in the Rocket Boys, and if it was not for the newspaper reporters, the

From the very beginning, Miss Riley served as a fantastic science teacher who originally sparked the boys’ quest for knowledge concerning the sciences. Then she gifts the boys books regarding rocket instruction, gives them ideas about certain propellants from her in-class labs, pressures them to participate in the science fair, encourages the administration to start a new Calculus course for them, and simply inspires the Rocket Boys to continue with their discoveries. Whenever Sonny had an issue he would go to Miss Riley for answers, and she has a clear mentorship role with Sonny and the rest of the Rocket Boys. In fact, the only reason the Rocket Boys go to the science fair is due to her, and she keeps them motivated to acquire their highest aspirations and further engage in their Rocket Building. When Miss Riley finds out that she has Hodgkin's Disease, that is even more reason for the boys to impress her and make her proud so they push themselves even harder towards success. Without Miss Riley and her teaching, the Rocket Boys would not have had been as motivated to succeed in their journey to build complex rocket