ShmoopTube

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Icarus, a la Shmoop.

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Touched by the sun...

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...but not in a good way.

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Parents do a lot of talking. They ramble on about homework...

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...chores...

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...and places you need to be.

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With all that chatter... ...it's not surprising that a few things

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fall through the cracks.

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Maybe that's what happened to Icarus.

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He and his dad, Daedalus, were escaping from jail...

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...with the help of a couple of pairs of wings...

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...that Daedalus had made out of wax and feathers.

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That's when Icarus ran into a little problem.

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Despite his father's repeated warnings to steer clear of the sun...

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...Icarus ignored them.

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And we think you can guess how that turned out.

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So why didn't Icarus heed all those warnings?

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Maybe it was because the advice came from his dad.

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Earth-bound kids have a habit of ignoring their parents...

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...maybe the offspring of the gods weren't much different.

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If the info had come from anyone else...

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...Icarus might still be floating around there somewhere.

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Maybe his listening skills weren't the problem.

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Maybe he just got a little too full of himself. Once he was flying, he may have lost sight

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of his limitations... ...or forgot that he even had any.

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It wouldn't be the first time that a kid got a little too cocky.

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But maybe it was none of the above. Icarus might have wanted to impress his dad...

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...by showing him that his wings were stronger than he thought...

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...because as much as parents drive their kids crazy...

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...it doesn't stop kids from wanting their parents to be proud of them.

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So was Icarus a hard-headed Angel Boy who refused to listen to his father...

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...or an independent free-thinker who got a little too cocky...

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...or just a kid trying to make his father proud?

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Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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