Unit: “The Fall of Icarus”

Goal: For students to understand and appreciate the “fallen man” archetype across a
variety of genres, including myth, legend, short story, poetry, music, and art

Unit Essential Question: How does knowledge of the fallen man

archetype enhance our understanding contemporary art and literature?

State Standards
Reading Literature

 CC.1.3.9-10.B: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text
says explicitly as well as inferences and conclusions based on an author’s explicit assumptions
and beliefs about a subject.
 CC.1.3.9-10.D: Determine the point of view of the text and analyze the impact the point of view
has on the meaning of the text.
 CC.1.3.9-10.E: Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events
within it and manipulate time create an effect.

Writing

 CC.1.4.9-10.B: Write with a sharp distinct focus identifying topic, task, and audience.
 CC.1.4.9-10.D: Organize ideas, concepts, and information to make important connections and
distinctions; use appropriate and varied transitions to link the major sections of the text; include
formatting when useful to aiding comprehension; provide a concluding statement or section.

Speaking and Listening

 CC.1.5.9-10.A: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions on grades

level topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and
persuasively.

UNIT LAUNCH
Students explore Pieter Bruegel’s “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”:

1. What do you notice? (colors, subject/s, details, composition, perspective, anomalies, etc.)
2. What does this painting remind you of?
3. What do you wonder about?

Part 1: Myth
Objectives:
(Reading-Based) Given the original version and a more modern version of the “Daedalus and Icarus”
myth, students will identify characteristics of the fallen hero archetype:

 “The Myth of Daedalus and Icarus” (Ovid, 8 AD) via Commonlit.org with interactive
comprehension, assessment, and constructed response questions.
 “Icarus and Daedalus” (by Josephine Preston Peabody 1897) via Commonlit.org with interactive
comprehension, assessment, and constructed response questions.

And/Or

(Listening/Viewing Based) Students can complete the TEDTalk interactive lesson.

Part 2: Poetry
Objectives:

1. Given “Les Musee Des Beaux Arts” by W. H. Auden, students will analyze and explain how the
diction and imagery contribute to the poem’s theme:
 Theme: In the absence of self-interest or an ulterior motive, the world tends to be
indifferent to the suffering of others. Thus, Icarus falls and dies alone.
2. Given “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith, students will analyze and explain how the
poet’s use of three distinct speakers and their different tones (third person objective, third
person limited, and first person) underscore the poem’s theme:
 Theme: The suffering of fellow humans often goes unnoticed due to poor
communication and a lack of perceptivity.
3. Given the poems “Icarus” by Edward Field” and “Icarus on Stone Mountain” by Henry Hart,
students will (1) explain how the poets use imagery and figures of speech to allude to the Icarus
myth and (2) analyze how each speakers’ point of view affects the tone, mood, and theme of
their respective poems
 Theme of “Icarus”: In a homogeneous society, the aspiring hero is not always successful
or understood.
 Theme of “Icarus on Stone Mountain”: When encountering oppression, the hero will risk
life and limb to find freedom.

Part 2: Short Story

Objectives:

1. Given Ray Bradbury’s “The Flying Machine,” students will explain how the author uses symbols
(dragons, Great Wall of China, modern flying machine, Emperor Yuan’s machine), figures of
speech, and imagery to develop and underscore the story’s themes.
o Essential Question: How does Bradbury’s use of symbol, figurative language, and
imagery contribute to the story's various themes?
 Theme 1: It is important to balance the invention of modern technology with the
safety and welfare of a society.
  Theme 2: A fear of progress can stifle the human drive for innovation.
o EXTENSION: Given the comic strip version of Bradbury’s “The Flying Machine,” students
will evaluate the artist’s use of text, setting, and narrative flow in representing the
conflict and developing the themes.
2. Given D. H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking Horse Winner,” students will analyze the author’s use of
symbols (horse, house, horse racing), figures of speech (metaphor), and imagery (visual,
auditory, tactile) to develop the protagonist’s central conflict and underscore the story’s themes.
o Essential Question: Analyze the visual and auditory imagery and explain its significance
in developing Paul’s character and foreshadowing his eventual demise.
 Theme 1: The pursuit of love via materialism is futile.
 Theme 2: A lack of maternal love can drive people to self-destruction.
3. Given Doris Lessing’s “Through the Tunnel,” students will analyze the author’s use of various
characterization techniques, as well as the symbolic natural settings, to reveal the protagonist’s
conflicts and eventual maturation (transformation).
o Essential Question: How does Lessing use direct and indirect characterization to develop
and reveal the protagonist’s transformation into a more mature person.
o Essential Question: How does the natural setting contribute to the protagonist’s central
conflict?
 Theme: Growing up is often a difficult and painful process.
4. Given Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World,” students will
analyze the author’s use of point of view to develop the story’s theme.
o Essential Question: How does the shifting third person limited point of view (children –
women – men – town – island) aid in characterizing the drowned man? Pay particular
attention to the drowned man’s effects on the different groups who encounter him.
 Theme 1: Humans have a tendency to ascribe their own meaning to the
unfamiliar.
 Theme 2: A truly great person has the power to inspire people toward self-
improvement.