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World Literature Videos 44 videos

Arabian Nights
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Icarus 5397 Views


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Description:

Don't fly too close to the sun, Shmoopers.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:06

Icarus, a la Shmoop.

00:08

Touched by the sun...

00:12

...but not in a good way.

00:14

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

00:17

...chores...

00:19

...and places you need to be.

00:21

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

00:24

fall through the cracks.

00:26

Maybe that's what happened to Icarus.

00:28

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

00:32

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

00:33

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

00:37

That's when Icarus ran into a little problem.

00:40

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

00:45

...Icarus ignored them.

00:47

And we think you can guess how that turned out.

00:50

So why didn't Icarus heed all those warnings?

00:53

Maybe it was because the advice came from his dad.

00:57

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

01:01

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

01:04

If the info had come from anyone else...

01:06

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

01:09

Maybe his listening skills weren't the problem.

01:11

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

01:15

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

01:19

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

01:21

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

01:26

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

01:30

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

01:32

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

01:36

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

01:40

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

01:43

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

01:47

Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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