Motivation in October Sky

By Samantha Treiber
College of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
March, 2011

I really liked the movie October Sky. I found it to be extremely interesting especially about the topic motivation. I had seen the movie before for my physics class in high school. But I felt like it was a great movie to really show motivation. In the movie many things in his environment motivated the main character, Homer, and they truly effected his actions. For one his father didn’t approve of his work and Homer really felt like he could not be another coal miner and that was hard for the father to hear since coal mining was his life. His father really wasn’t a direct motivator. Homer basically did not want to become his father so that motivated him even more to try and get away from the coal mining. I thought the relationship was very hard for both of them because they both had strong ideas about one another’s actions. However, this just motivated Homer even more to strive to be different and do what he loved to do.

I also liked the relationship between Homer and the teacher Ms. Riley. I found that her love for her job and to teach students and have them strive to be the best was great. I really hope that I could motivate students one day like her. Homer and his friends would of not strived to do well unless the teacher put something out there, the science fair and eventually college, out there to them. She gave them opportunities that others in the town shot down because everyone was in the coal-mining world. She saw outside the little town and the boys all saw that there were things and dreams outside of becoming a coal worker.