In "Sinners in the hands of an angry God", Edwards argue that the natural elements such as the sun, the earth, the air and animals were created by God not to please us and for us to make whatever we want with them. He created them for us to serve Him with them and nothing else.
I believe that based on this context, Faustus is being compared to Icarus.
In Greek mythology, Icarus was the son of Daedalus, who created a labyrinth where Minotaur was kept imprisoned. Daedalus and Icarus were too prisoners of the same island, and they wanted to escape using the wings that Daedalus made. However, Icarus flew too high near the Sun, and the wax on his wings melted and he fell to his death.
This is a line in Laurence Shames’ “The More Factor.” In this essay, Shames argues that Americans have always valued the idea of having “more”. He states that this was intrinsic to the development of the nation during the years of the Wild West. People wanted more land, more riches, and were prepared to sacrifice everything in order to obtain it. He also argues that this desire for “more” has meant that Americans have forgotten about other values, concentrating on quantity instead of quality.
Shames also argues that the idea of “open space,” of unlimited land that could be grabbed, generated ambition, but it also generated a metaphor. That is, a metaphor of unlimited potential and growth. This metaphor is still associated with the idea of “conquering frontiers.” However, he argues that as hopes of growth are now put on the economy, we have to realize that growth is finite, and that we need to reexamine our values and future goals for the country.
