Literary Techniques Used In Sonny's Coalwood

Often in novels, the author is able to personify and use the setting as an imperative aspect of a story such that it could almost take the form of a character. For Homer Hickam Jr. (Sonny), Coalwood was not only his hometown, but it became his motivation to continue building and launching his rockets. Every house in Coalwood was occupied with families of coal miners, and for someone to participate in another activity besides football was rare and often discouraged. “Only coal mining was more important in Coalwood than high school football. Sputnik, and anything else, was going to always come in a distant third” (Hickam Jr. 27). It was known that if a male student didn’t receive a football scholarship, than they were either going to join the