Essay on DISSAPOINTMENT

Percy explains that as Cardenas had no intention of discovering the Grand Canyon, his expectations of the sight he beheld had not yet formed. This allowed him to form his own opinions on the sight instead of being influenced by previous explorers' recountings. He uses the example of a Boston man who takes family on a vacation to the Grand Canyon. He first studies brochures and fliers. Then, satisfied with what he sees, he signs him and his family up for

Percy gives three examples to prove his point. His first example describes a tourist’s plans to go see the Grand Canyon. Oftentimes, tourists have preconceived expectations about the wonder, and feel that they are let down with a dreary sight rather than the miraculous wonder they have fantasized. The second example Percy uses is of a couple who, while wandering through Mexico looking for an “unspoiled” place (a place which

This relates to experiencing a site that you have previous knowledge of but have never actually seen it in person. He relates this to tourists coming to see the Grand Canyon for the first time after only seeing postcards and hearing secondhand stories. They have a preconceived expectation of this which ultimately completely rules out having a sovereign experience with such a place comparing to the ultimate discovery of a place.

In which he uses the act of explaining his ideas through stories. Percy first introduces the reader to the story of the Grand Canyon, and about how tourists are not able to have the same experience as its founder, Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, once did. Through this he explains the underlying truth that it is rare that an individual can have an authentic experience. Due to the fact that most experiences one encounters are prepackaged, and in some cases, individuals are double deprived of have an authentic experience because of spoliation. Percy later goes on to describe a story of a college student and a young Falkland Islander boy involving a dogfish, this story in the same sense is describing how the college student is not having an authentic experience because he is being forced to know everything about the fish, but on the other hand the young Islander just found the fish dead on the beach and decided to dissect it out of curiosity. But how this connects to Percy’s argument is how the Islander boy is having an

Question: Explain how events such as the Vietnam War and Watergate affected the American public’s opinion of the U.S government.

A glaring irregularity in the steady stream of supporting statements Percy puts forth is the example of a tourist couple that gets lost in the mountains and ends up ”…in a tiny valley not even marked on the map. There they discover an Indian village.” At a glance, this is a perfect example of true discovery! It is everything that Percy wants the reader to have! But as the reader keeps reading, he quickly realizes that he has fallen into the same trap the aforementioned tourists fell into. “The couple know at once that this is ‘it’….Yet it is more likely that what happens is…a rather desperate impersonation…an actual loss of hope.” After the winded reader gets up from the height from which he just fell, he realizes that the couple, as Percy says, “…[Has] the experience in the bag.” Discovery itself is a tourist attraction. It is this example that indicates that there is no other way to regain sovereignty than through the individual’s own perception. No amount of literal discovery will create the subjective experience of discovery. This conjecture is verified when Percy later points out that the couple wants their expert friend to see the village “not to share their experience, but to certify their experience as genuine.” The couple wants to bag and tag their “discovery,” effectively

When looking for things to do in our lifetimes, we tend to look at what other people do in order to take inspiration and do whatever they did for ourselves. However, there is a point where instead of naturally discovering what life has to offer for ourselves, we instead rely on how others experienced it and use that as a guide to shape our expectations for something. In Walker Percy’s writing “The Loss of the Creature”, he explores a concept he calls, “loss of sovereignty”. What he means by this term is that people will surrender free thoughts of their own and rely instead on what other people's brains think, then live off others thoughts instead of their own. To add explanation, people surrender their own thoughts and expectations, Percy says, “The consumer is content to receive an experience just as it has been presented to him by theorists and planners. The reader may also be content to judge life by whether it has or has not been formulated by those who know and write about life” (3). This shows that if the person experiencing something new in this world for the first time, they will fear that they would not know what to look out for. So they rely on others, especially the so-called “experts” to guide the road for them instead. The overall message Percy argues when it comes to Part I of “The Loss of the Creature” is that people will not let their own natural thoughts dictate what they personally think about experiencing something and instead, use others experiences to

Since the Grand Canyon has transitioned into a picturesque element over time, people often forget to examine the beauty of it for their own selves. Since they are unable to think for themselves, Percy goes on to saying, “Why it is almost impossible to gaze directly at the Grand Canyon, the thing as it is, has been appropriated by the symbolic complex, which has already been formed in the sightseer’s mind…Seeing the canyon is made even more difficult by what the sightseer does when the moment arrives, when sovereign knower confronts the thing to be known” (482). Percy makes evident of the problem with the symbolic complex. The symbolic complex is what is preventing people from thoroughly seeing the complete picture. The Grand Canyon is another prime example that if people were more interested in educating themselves before jumping into preconceptions, then it would be easier to appreciate the full

In the essay “The Loss of the Creature”, Walker Percy highlights his observations on how people perceive the world. He argues that we have lost original, self-driven learning because people only measure their experiences based on other people’s expectations. He states how these preconceived expectations of our experiences give way to a symbolic complex. This complex is set by what people or “Layman” believe the experts have set. Therefore, their experience is only validated if people feel that they have met those criteria. He believes that people can only have a true experience if they forgo all those preconceived expectations and biases. Only then can people truly experience something at face value.

The Declaration of Independence, a key to American beliefs, had been around for one hundred years, at this time. With this in turn, the celebration of being a free country and having civil rights was ringing about. Freedmen, former

Not going to lie, but I put an immense amount of trust into other’s experiences and allow them to dictate my own. I have travelled to different places for the sole purpose of “reliving” another person’s experience only to be disappointed when I get there. The ideas expressed in Walker Percy’s, “The Loss of the Creature” parallel my adventures towards misfortune. As Percy Walker writes in his essay, “The thing as it is, has been appropriated by the symbolic complex which has already been formed in the sightseer’s mind” (Percy 472). Percy argues that having preconceived notions about places or ideas, creates a “symbolic complex” in our minds. I have always been told that Disney World Florida is “The most magical place in the world.” I

Perception about the real experience and understanding the beauty of the world made me think about myself. Percy’s “Loss of The Creature” resembles the forgotten value of true experience of world and how people are overlooking the true meaning of things and just looking at the symbolic complex. I came up with an understanding from Percy’s thought that people can only have a true experience of something if they can get rid of all prejudices and experience its present by ignoring everything one has previously already heard about it and look at it from a whole new perspective. Especially in our society today, people are so caught up in taking pictures, talking on their phone, and social media that when a moment presents itself we are oblivion to seeing the true beauty of it. I would say that I am a common reader. I personally read the text the way the author presents it to me, and agrees with everything they say. I never question the text; I always just assume its right. I don’t look deeper into the subject the author presents to me. I am a student, and I am currently not looking to be a sovereign knower. Reading “The Loss of the Creature” I’d preferred and tried to read it as a complex reader, because in that I way I can truly get ahold of the message Percy is trying

On May 24, 1869, Major John Wesley Powell set off to explore the Grand Canyon and discovered its beauty to educate the world about this vast landscape. Before his discovery, it had been known as Big Canyon, neither are appropriate titles. Grand is an understatement to describe this canyon. Majestic would be a better description as it is defined as lofty dignity as well as sublime beauty, which greatness can’t be measured or imitated. The extraordinary splendor of its landscape can’t be compared and its history is just as impressive. It is considered one of the seven wonders of the world with reason.

I’ve always wondered what L.A. would be like in the later years, and instantly I saw how things would start to change. There would be places that would have so much chaos and confusion I wasn’t really aware of at first. Restaurants, movie theatres, and parking lots would be so overcrowded. Every morning I would go to school and there would always be traffic. Some people had to go to work and some people would drop their kids off to school. Every street light, every freeway, every highway there was traffic. Then around 3pm, most people would be

When you mention New York to anyone, they automatically think about Times Square. This beautiful place with skyscrapers, Central Park, and a unique transportation system. However, if you were to ask me what I think about New York; I believe the skyscrapers block the sun, Central park is just a regular park for dogs, and the subway trains rarely run consistently especially in the mornings. I have lived in New York for 18 years, and I have yet to understand what everyone likes about the “ Big Red Apple.”