Waiting For Icarus Comparison

The theme for this semester is “The Good Life,” but as the class read different poems, novels, and dramas, one will realize that “The Good Life,” can have multiple meanings. The dystopian novel, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and the poem, “Waiting for Icarus,” by Muriel Rukeyser has given me a good understanding of what the good life is about especially when one takes little aspirations and objects for granted. As the novel and the poem are being analyzed, the thoughts begin to evoke when thinking about what makes life sufficient enough to live. One may think of what is worth living for or what are things a person would die for. In both works, the main characters are attached to one of the other characters and even though both characters in the works could easily survive without any of these important people, both women risk their lives and have to
Looking at the author of, “Waiting for Icarus,” contributors have mentioned how, “Rukeyser was praised for the ruggedness of her technique, her experimentalism, and for the powerful utterance which, from a woman, seemed unique,” just like in the poem, “Waiting for Icarus”, when she tells the story of a lover who is overthinking everything that happened between the lover and Icarus (“Muriel”). Rukeyser tends to write about the experiences she encountered through involvement in the issues of today’s society which also relates to, “Waiting for Icarus,” when the lover is anticipating Icarus’ return and how many people in their lifetime wait for something that is never going to return. Sadly, Muriel Rukeyser died on February 12, 1980, which led to the end of her whimsical and sentimental writing career (“Muriel”). When analyzing an author, it becomes much more evitable to determine where her writing style comes from just like the author of Station