Student Question
What happened to the black phones in "October Sky" and why?
Quick answer:
In "October Sky," Homer's mother removes the black phones from the house after a mine accident involving her husband. She reaches a breaking point after her husband ignores her pleas not to go into the mine, resulting in him sustaining serious injuries. Her actions symbolize her frustration and anger towards the mine and her husband's obsession with it, reflecting her desire to disconnect from the source of her family's turmoil.
After Homer's mother returned home with his dad from the mine accident, she laid him down in bed and simply walked downstairs and ripped the black phone out of the wall and threw it out into the yard. She then walked upstairs and tore the other black phone out and sent it hurtling outside to join its mate.
It would appear that she had simply reached a breaking point after begging her husband not to go down into the mine and him overruling her wishes again, because he simply had to go down. After he emerged with a smashed up head and eventually having lost an eye, she's had it with the mine and with his involvement in it.
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