From the beginning of our existence, humans have dreamt of flying. Laboriously toiling, we try to accomplish our fantasies of flight, only to often result in failure, like Icarus flying too close to the sun. Since the mythical tale of Icarus, humankind as a species, have done many amazing feats, as well as not doing as great as we could have because of our own overload of ambition, which leads to the question; ‘Was Icarus a hero or a failure?’. Icarus was a failure; after meticulously working on sets of wings forged out of seemingly impossible building material, Daedalus and Icarus himself had finally achieved freedom from the labyrinth, but Icarus proceeded to ignore his father’s wishes, letting his own wants get the best of him, and he ultimately, drowned in the sea because of his lack of planning and carelessness. Icarus’s failure to channel his inner restraint and ambition will be compared to other famous figures in literature, including Julius Caesar, Don Quixote and Amy Tan. A way of putting ambition and channeled restrained into an object or force always reminds me of fire, because of …show more content…
In the time of where the story took place, the driving force of determination wasn’t a seen as a productive trait to have, and was seen as lust for power and success. Caesar, killed by Brutus and the conspirators, wanted to become the ultimate ruler of Rome, showing a want for success. Brutus also portrays this ambition by his dreams to be a nobleman of Rome. Although both of these characters died tragically, they both had the drive to succeed and also planned how to achieve what they wanted, which is incredibly important. A major downfall of Icarus was his inability to plan out what he was going to do to succeed, unlike Caesar and Brutus. The ability to plan is linked with success, and since Icarus has failed, he had missed the excruciating important detail of