Rocket+Man

by Ray Bradbury
 * ﻿ Rocket Man **

BRIEF SUMMARY: Doug, a fourteen year old boy, dealt with the fact that his dad was constantly running back and forth from outerspace and only came back every three months for a short lived visit. The story begins when Doug and his mom are waiting for his dad's arrival back home. Once his dad does arrive, Doug sneaks into his parents room and slips out with his dad's black uniform. Doug is determined to be a Rocket Man one day, so he collects the dust from his dad's uniform and trades the vials with other boys to get jewels etc. The following day, his dad is out in the garden, digging hard into the dirt. During the night, Doug, his dad and Lilly are out on the swing and chatted while most of the time, Doug's dad looked up at the stars almost the whole time. On the third night, instead of looking at the stars, the family went to a television carnival. For the first time ever, once they got home, Doug's dad puts on his uniform and gives the family a show. By this time, Doug's dad usually goes off again on another trip. Yet, this time around, the whole family goes off on a trip.They run around California and Mexico for awhile and the two men chat and chat and chat. They talk about family stuff, not about being a Rocket Man or rocketships. Doug's dad brings up the subject subtley, however, and makes Doug promise him that he'll never be a rocket man. Doug discovers the hardships that his dad has to deal with by being a Rocket Man, how easy it is to die in outerspace and why his mom always acts like he's not around or living during this time. After their return from their travels, Lilly prepares a Thanksgiving meal in high hopes that this'll convince her husband to stay for good. Yet a helicopter passes by and Doug's dad soon finds himself wanting to go back to outerspace and acts as if nothing happenend. The next morning, Doug's dad decided that he's going to stay after the next trip. He promised he'll stay for good and never leave again. These hopes and promises mean nothing in the end, because his dad was killed in outerspace and died in the sun - something Lilly anticipated for ten years. Doug and his mom rarely go out anymore during the day and live nocturnally for a long time after they found out about Doug's dad death.

SETTING: It takes place in America during the future, some time after 1997. PROTAGONIST: Doug is the protagonist in the story; he deals with the missing family member. ANTAGONIST: Rocketships and outerspace are the antagonist because they were what pulled Doug's dad into a never ending cycle of going back and forth from outerspace and ended up being the cause of his dad's death. FORMS OF TECHNOLOGY: rocketships, electrical fireflies, rocking beds, interrom radio, centrifuge machine, automatic bakers and servers, robot cleaners, electrical breakfast maker, mechanical book reader, stereonewspapers, air flue MAIN CONFLICT: Man vs. Self in homesickness for family/Earth and the desire for adventure which have a never ending battle in Doug's dad's heart THEMES: Importance of family are neglected and sacraficed; Sacrafice of family was inplied; Struggles against nature of human desires and satisfaction; Yin and Yang when one believes something good is about to happen but the situation bounces back and turns into a sad ending; No matter how hard you try to ignore things that remind you of a person that died, there will always be something that reminds you of him/her. This is represented by the sun.

INTERNET SOURCES: [] [] [] IMAGES: DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 1. What triggered Doug's Dad to stay home for good at the end of the story? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #78cb72; font-family: Georgia,serif; overflow: hidden;">2. Why does Lilly treat her husband like he's invisible? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #78cb72; font-family: Georgia,serif; overflow: hidden;">3. Why does Doug's Dad restrict him from being a Rocket Man like himself? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #78cb72; font-family: Georgia,serif; overflow: hidden;">4. Why does Doug want to become a Rocket Man if he knows he will have to be away from his family?

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #78cb72; font-family: Georgia,serif; overflow: hidden;">ALLISON ZHENG and Joe Swadlow