Exact Answer: Three Months
The world revolves around practical factors that can be seen, felt, experienced, and touched. Yet, there is always a creative aspect to anybody’s life and the creative factors come in various forms. Some choose non-fiction novels that create worlds from scratch. Many legendary authors have created stories and characters that have been living in the minds of readers for years now.
Reading books are one of the best ways of gaining knowledge and also getting out of the real world for once without anything logical. There are many novels written since the beginning of the era and some of them are still on the bookshelves of most of the libraries. Many novels are read as long stories, while some are short stories that can be read as bedtime stories for kids.
Among many other novels in the world, The Illustrated Man is one of the best collections of science fiction short stories, and one among them, The Rocket Man is very popular among many continents. In this story, there are three characters, and one of the characters is Doug’s Dad.
According to the story, he is out in the space for at least three months.
How Long Would Doug’s Father Be Out In Space?
| Timeline | Time |
| Date of publication of “The Illustrated Man” | 1951 |
| Airing Date of the radio series that dramatized a few stories from the novel | 1955-1957 |
| Date of the movie adaptation | 1969 |
The Illustrated Man is one of the best science fiction short stories mankind has ever known. These stories were written by an American writer, Ray Bradbury. This novel was first published in 1951. The origin of the novel and its author is the United States and the genre of the novel is science fiction. Most of the books published are printed in hardback, and they are also published on the Internet.
The novel was published by Doubleday and Company, and it has about 256 pages. The book was also made into a movie adaptation in 1969, which starred Claire Bloom and Rod Steiger. This movie does not present all of the 18 stories, but only “the Veldt”, “The Long Rain” and “The Last Night of the World”. Some of the novels were also dramatized for a radio series, X Minus One, which was aired in 1955-1957 radio series.
All of the stories were fresh, yet only one story was already similar to one published elsewhere, yet Bradbury changed the content a bit. He was also the author of another set of stories named “The Martian Chronicles”. Among 18 stories, “The Rocket Man” was based on space and astronauts.
Why Does Doug’s Father Stay Out In Space For That Long?
This story consists of three main characters, Doug, Doug’s Dad, and Doug’s mother, Lily. Doug is the narrator of the story, Doug’s father is the protagonist and Doug’s mother is the antagonist. Doug’s Father is always torn between outer space and his family as he loves space so much and is an astronaut. Lily is the antagonist because she wants to keep Doug’s dad on Earth.
The main theme of the story is based on the connection between adventure and peace and comfort and danger. Doug’s Father is also called “The Rocket Man” because he is the one who keeps going back to space three months at a time. He returns to the Earth only for three consecutive days to visit his family. Doug is also very much inspired by his father and also wants to go to the space. Yet his mother is against his father going to the space and wants to put an end to it.
Conclusion
Doug’s father tries to quit this constant battle because he misses his family and this has nearly destroyed Doug’s dad’s relationship with his mother. In the end, he promises his wife that this will be his last mission and leaves for his final mission of three months and bids goodbye to his son and wife for what he thinks is the final time.
Yet, tragedy struck and Doug’s father dies as he moves closer and closer to the Sun. He dies after his rocket falls into the Sun and after that, his wife and son keep away from the Sun for the rest of their life, turn nocturnal.