Summary

An unnamed first-person limited narrator tells the tale of Rose Hill’s annual Rocket Night, a school ceremony where the least liked child is blasted off into outer space in a small rocket. A boy is chosen to be shipped off.

The custodian has placed food and water in the rocket, and the children of the school forcefully place the unwilling boy into the rocket as well. Before taking off, the boy asks for one of his pencils, but the request is denied. He is launched off and the narrator forgets about the boy before nightfall.

Analysis

This story is an allegory for the idea that children who are different are sent away from the mainstream, popular side of society. In the story, unpopular children are shipped away on rockets, but that does not change the fact that outcast children in today’s...