The Movie “October Sky” And How It Relates To Family Financial Struggles.    
I became interested in the October Sky Movie after seeing it because of the way it vividly relates to family and finance. Most families in the United States are struggling to meet the demand of daily living simply due to unemployment of underemployment. There are many cases of family dealing with relationship issues that inter-relate to financial hardship and un-balance financial structure. The family in October Sky Movie is a perfect example of many other families living in the United States today.     
   This is a brief statement about the movie The October Sky. I hope this will give an over-view of some of the characters in the movie and how the movie relates to family structures and dilemma.    
The October Sky Movie is about a boy by the name of Holmer Hickam who was fascinated by the historical event of the launching of the first man made satellite in space on October 4, of 1967 by the Soviet Union. The United States was planning to launch a satellite after the Soviet Union after the October 4, 1957 event,http://nikefreeskodkonline002.webs.com/. Dr. William, an American Scientist of West Virginia University expressed the hope of the United States Launching their own rocket soon. He was even more enthusiastic when Doctor William attempted to launch a rocket in space, but his efforts were met with failure when there was a problem in the launching process that disable the rocket from going up into space. Holmer Hickam was boy at the time and was not happy when he saw on the television the failure of the   rocket that launched by Dr. William of West Virginia University. He even wrote a letter to the scientist, Dr. William expressing that he was sorry for the failed event,http://billigenikefreedk.webs.com/, he farther mentioned that he also have had an experience with unsuccessfully launching a rocket into space.    
But the failure of a rocket launch into space by the United States did not stop the ambition of Holmer Hickam who was just in High School at the time and living in a coal mining town in Virginia where his family has lived for generations. Holmer Hickam was born into a family of four, his father, John Hickam, his mother, Chelsea Hickam, and his brother James Hickam. Holmer Hickam is the younger son of John and Chelsea Hickam, James Hickam being the older son. John Hickam has been living in this coal mining town for all his life and the only career opportunity for him is to work in the coal mining company to support his family. Chelsea Hickam is a talented actress who is very good at doing artistic drawing. Chelsea Hickam has find herself to be a housewife who takes care of the Hickam household while John Hickam goes to the coal mining company to earn income for the financial support of the family. It is not possible to find a job in town for artistic actress like Chelsea Hickam. The only job for her is to be a housewife because there is no employment for people with artistic talent. James Hickam who is the bigger brother of Holmer Hickam is a very good football player for the local High School and he was awarded a scholarship to a University for higher education base on his ability of being one of the best football players in the local High School.     
The community into which the Hickam lives happened to be a community where everyone knows each other. There is some sense of closeness among people in the community. The coal mining industry has created the atmosphere of oneness and support of each other especially when there trouble in the coal mine. Holmer Hickam has peer-up with some of his High School Friends and has made up a team to work on the rocket building,billige nike free. Holmer Hickam and his friends were referred to as Rocket Boys. With many unsuccessful attempts, their efforts were fading away, but with the help of people from the community and from Holmer Hickam High School teacher Mrs. Bradley, the rocket boys never give up their dream of building a rocket that would go into space.    
    The key family issues in the Hickam family are the support of the family emotionally and financially. The maintenance of the family tradition of working in the coal mine for family financial support is another issue that has been around for generations. The coal mining career has been the only financial support system until now. The change is difficult for some members of the Hickam family. John Hickam is a supervisor at the local Mining company, he is always stress-up from work, some of these stressful feelings come with him home to his family most of the times. His stressful feelings sometimes negatively impacted his interaction with his family. There was a communication gap between John Hickam and his wife Chelsea Hickam as Chelsea mentioned in the movie that John Hickam wants to be a hero and does not listen to her advice. Chelsea is worried about losing her husband to the brutal danger of the coal mine,http://nikeskofreedk.webs.com/. John has his own worries, his worries are that Holmer Hickam the younger son is going to waste his life by getting involve into false dreams and false expectations which will prevent him from being able to work on the traditional career of working on coal mine to support his family in the future. John Hickam is not worried so much about James Hickam, his older son because he has been able to earn a scholarship to the University through his football career. John believed that there is a very good chance of a better life for James Hickam.    
Even though the family especially John Hickam wants Holmer Hickam to focus his mind on a realistic career that could be a sustainable resource for the support of the family, Holmer Hickam wants to stay with his dreams of building a rocket that would successfully go into space. The rest of his family does not believe that Holmer has any benefit in building a rocket, his mother was a little supportive of him based on her understanding that building rocket make Holmer happy. John Hickam was not very happy in his life even though he has a very good wife and two sons at homes that provided a support system for him. He has experienced many lost from coal mine where he works for a living, and life as a whole was too difficult on the coal mine. But John Hickam never had any other option. He saw his grandfather and his father worked in the coal mine as he was growing up as a young boy. And he has been taught that there is no career chooses order than working in coal mine. Mr. John Hickam believed that without the coal mine, he can’t support himself neither his family.    
It is sometimes difficult to understand how family survive with too much pending issues involving scarcity of financial resources. In reality, most families do not survive extreme financial situation. Families go through stressful circumstances in dealing with conflict related issues that are mostly about family finance. Some families tend to go on living together with unresolved issues for the sacrifice of maintaining the family. Sometimes family go on living with unsolved issues, but on many occasions, there are emotional cutoff due to these unsolved issues. One way that family can cope with stress in the family is using differentiation technique which is distinguishing thoughts from feeling.   Holmer Hickam action of his desire of being a rocket scientist or rock boy when the historical tradition of his family for generations has been to work on the coal mine is an example of differentiation. In the movie, Holmer is faced with a huge challenge from his family and from his high school Principal who is embedded with the believe that no one town is able to do anything accept being a successful football play or working in the coal mine. Seen Holmer building up interests in rocket science was disappointing for the School principal. The most disappointed person of all was John Hickam, Holmer Hickam’s father who did believe that building a rocket was not one of a family long term tradition of working for a sustainable income for family financial support. The conflict between Mr. John Hickam and his son is based on what career to choice can better support the family financially.     
The building of emotional system, which is the share support by each member of the family, is very important for the survival of families. Unfortunately in our society as we see today, lots of emotional systems have been broken down by social stresses related to financial hardship all across the United States. In the movie, emotional system happened to worked well with the Hickam family. An example of the functionality of emotional system was perfectly displayed in the movie. In the movie, The October Sky, father John Hickam depended on Chelsea Hickam to take care of the home while he works, as well as mother Chelsea Hickam depended on John Hickam to financially support the family with his income from the coal mine. Chelsea depended on John to bring in money for the family financial needs, John depended on Chelsea to manage the home for the family domestic needs. The children in the family also depended on the mother and the father to support them in their school and other community events. The children have to give back to their parents by following rules and guideline of the family and meeting with family expectations of each other. Conflicts come into the family when member or members of the family come short of the expectations of each member of the family,nike free sko. An example of family expectation of each other can be reiterated by the roles of a wife and a husband in marriage relationship. Role expectation in marriage can create conflicts when the male come in the household holds his tradition role of expectation of his wife which contradict that of the wife expectation. Example of that is; the husband with the old traditional roles of expectations, and the wife with the modern role of expectations (Anderson, Stephen A. & Sabatelli, Ronald M. Family Interaction,pp 174 ) Balancing these roles base on mutual understanding between the husband and the wife creates harmony in the relationships between family members, which can help the family manage the stress of financial hardship.