In the story, the “police preferred to ignore / the confusing aspects of the case” (Field 3-4) and the witnesses thought that a “gang war” (Field 5) was more interesting than a man who flew. Field shows how apathetic modern people can be to such a great feat. After such a spectacular adventure, Field’s Icarus began what can be called a rather mundane life as he “rented a house and tended the garden,” with tending a garden seen as something the retired do (Field 9). Instead, Field presents “what if” Icarus had not drowned and simply swam away to safety and began a new life. He starts the poem from where the original story had left off – the drowning of Icarus.
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Edward Field used this approach, as well as some modernization, as he weaved an even more tragic end for the famous Icarus after the myth. One way is to ask “what then?” on top of “what if?” Many a child has wondered what happens after “happily ever after” in a fairytale, or what happens to a character after the story is over. There are two main ways that a story is told anew other than simply modernizing its details. The two writers employed two very different approaches to Icarus. Edward Field and Anne Sexton decided to retell the story of Icarus and put it into poems. Writers can take advantage of this lack of details and do with fashion the story as they wish. In fact, not much is known about Icarus himself some stories cast him as a young boy while others show him as a young man, and other details such as his personality are unknown. The story of Icarus is so famous, but it is very straightforward compared to other Greek myths, and not too many actual details are known of his flight, what went into his head, etc. Another reason is similar to the a style that historical fiction writers have of using the undocumented parts of famous stories, gaps in the timeline for example, and weave it with their own imaginations. One way to look at it is that the story had so long been touted as a warning story against child disobedience that the nuances and other angles of the story have long been lost. Instead, it is part of a larger story concerning Daedalus, the Labyrinth that he created for a king, and the Minotaur, the death of which led to the father and son duo’s exile. The question, then, is “why retell the Icarus story?” The tragic tale of Icarus is not in itself the main story. The story could also be seen as a warning against the ego no matter how great or powerful you may seem, you must always still remain aware of your own mortality. This story is usually presented as a cautionary tale for children who refuse to listen to the advice/instructions of their parents. Soon enough, his wax wings started melting and poor featherless Icarus, flap as he might, fell into the ocean to drown. As they were flying, however, despite instructions from his father to be careful not to fly too near to the sun or the ocean, Icarus became either bored with their straight path or too exhilarated by the flight and did just those two things. Some interpretations of the story say that Daedalus had made wax wings, while others say that the feathers were only attached to a wooden frame with wax.
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To escape, Daedalus fashioned wings for the two of them, so they could fly out of exile and back to their home. Icarus and Daedalus, Icarus’ father, had been exiled because of something that Daedalus, a very famous and talented craftsman, had done. The story of Icarus is one that most even vaguely familiar with Greek mythology would know. Two poems, one by Edward Field and another by Anne Sexton, retell the classic Greek myth of Icarus and take the tragic tale most commonly used as a cautionary tale against disobedience and, with a few tweaks, turn the tragedy of the original myth into incomparable, albeit momentary, glory. Maybe it is because of a genuine interest, maybe because of questions that the original story failed to answer, maybe the writers were too frustrated with the plot or the moral of the original story, or maybe they simple thought of it as an exercise in creativity with a chance to appeal to a pre-built audience, not unlike an inside joke. There are some people, however, who look back at these classics and think “What if?” Thus, retellings of these stories come into being. Most people hear the stories as children, or in school, and merely shelve them in their heads as a nice story. There are those stories that everyone grows up with – the parables, the fables, the fairytales, the myths.