Loss of the Creature Analysis

“The loss of the creature” is a strong essay in which the writer, Walker Percy has expressed his vision of world in a different way. He makes an argument about how having prepackaged idea about something, can create a symbolic complex in individual’s mind, causing them to lose the true essence behind it. Percy presents examples after examples making them connection of how one has lost an experience through various symbolic complexes and by the means of trying to achieve that experience. Percy writes that understanding can be reached through the true experience. People can only have a true experience of something if they can get rid of all the social biases and prejudices, and experience it by ignoring everything one has already heard about

In his article “The Loss of The Creature,” Walker Percy presents the case that human or “creature’s” experiences are most often trivial because of our preconceived notions. Percy believes we can only truly enjoy these experiences if we leave the “beaten track.” Only then can we see the true beauty of the experience.

During this essay written by Walker Percy, it is clear that his overall opinion of experiencing new things is in the eye of the beholder and/or the hands of those around them and their social status. Percy uses many examples in his writing including that of an explorer, tourist, and local all seeing things for the first time either literally or in a new different light. In this essay, I will play on both sides of regaining experiences, seeing things on a different level then before or the first time. Regaining experiences is a valid argument brought up by Percy as it is achievable. While criticizing each side of the argument, I will also answer questions as to the validity of Percy's argument,

In New York City, it is very fast paced with individuals trying to get from one destination to another. The shops we enter are no longer about only buying products, but customers want an experience. The experience is having more services offered to customers, they don't just want to buy pants anymore, they want food offered in the store. One of the many shops doing this is Barnes & Noble, a bookstore company that is changing our experience in bringing a community together. Barnes & Noble has created this "community bookstore" by adding a Starbucks and hosting special events for customers. Barnes & Noble has become a social setting for consumers, where our experiences in bookstores have changed.

Realism wishes to “revolt against the exotic subject matter… and for this reason it is also commonly referred as bourgeois realism.” One finds this aspect of realism as well in “The Lady with the Dog” in which

The literary movement of realism addresses material in an accurate way that is true to life, regardless of the moral boundaries which may be broken. Several authors have undertaken efforts to define this movement in the most accurate and concise way possible. Theodore Dreiser, in “True Art Speaks Plainly”, strives to identify those components which are necessary to literature that is classified under the realism movement. William Dean Howells’s “Editha” is a literary work that reflects this definition of realism. Dreiser’s arguments regarding the presence of immorality in literature as a precondition for artistic honesty find an example in the actions of the protagonist of Howells’s story. Theodore Dreiser’s “True Art Speaks Plainly” defines realism as literature that speaks the truth regardless of its moral substance, and this definition is observable in Howells’s “Editha” through the corrupt motivations of the protagonist, the critical portrayal of nation states at war, and the ugly manipulation utilized by the protagonist.

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

Automatically, the reader knows that serious issues are about to be discussed and that the outcome may not be positive. This novel challenges the material ideology discussed above. It does this by bringing the issues to the forefront and reporting on them in a fictitious yet realistic manner. The reader is not led to believe that the ending will be happy, he is supposed to expect the consider the harsh realities of the world throughout the piece.

“The Loss of the Creature” is an anecdotal essay by the American Southern philosopher Walker Percy. Percy has a different view of life and expresses his views distinctively through his writing. Throughout the essay, he emphasized on the effects of having prepackaged or preconceived notions about the world and people around us can determine how an individual sees the world. These notions, which can come from social or societal expectations, can lead to symbolic complexes in an individual’s mind, leading to the false appreciation and gratification. In order to demonstrate his point, Percy uses hypothetical characters in theoretical situations to prove how people use symbolic complexes to measure up to their expectations.

Walter Percy’s essay, “The Loss of Creature,” criticizes society’s expectations and outlook on life. “A certain value” (469) for experiencing life has slowly diminished, and yet people are unwilling to “recover” (470) this “loss” (474) according to Percy. He illustrates and condemns various efforts to capture, or “recover” personal sovereignty throughout the essay. From the American tourists in Mexico to the tourist in France, Percy questions these experiences and then proposes multiple methods we could possibly use to recover our loss. While his criticisms appear to act as solutions, Percy’s main objective is to startle us by daring us to think beyond our symbolic complex of what is expected. By “leaving the beaten track” (470), Percy

Critical Analysis #3 “The Loss of the Creature” by Walter Percy is about his views and beliefs on whether or not everyone receives the same experience from visiting a new place. The author believes that no one will ever get the same experience as the person who first discovered the land or object because they have expectations from hearing or seeing facts about it somewhere. Percy’s purpose in writing this essay is to argue how strongly he believes that people should live in the moment, not be afraid to get off the beaten path of life, and try things they never seen themselves doing before. The author uses examples, such as, how when Garcia Cardenas discovered the Grand Canyon, it was like nothing he has ever seen before, to make his argument.

Walker Percy’s “The Loss of a Creature” details his idea of what he calls the preformed complex: biases that people form as a result of experiences created by experts. Experiences such as a tour of the Grand Canyon, reading a sonnet in a college poetry class, or the dissection of a dogfish in biology class are all packaged and shaped by experts, according to Percy. Experts do this for sightseers so that they can better understand experiences the way experts want them to. In Mark Twain’s essay “A River Pilot Looks at the Mississippi” he examines the perception of the Mississippi from the perspective of the passengers of the steamboat and the pilots of them.

Though it is not as commonly known, loss of predatory animals can be just as bad, if not worse, for the environment than the loss of prey animals. The depletion of animals like bears, mountain lions, and wolves have affected the environment around us in more ways than one might think.

Some would say that photographs limit our experiences, that we are not able to actually focus on what we are viewing. Because we are so focused on the actual action of taking a photograph, we are stripped of the experience. In Susan Sontag’s “In Plato’s Cave,” she says that “It seems positively unnatural to travel for pleasure without taking a camera along. Photographs will offer indisputable evidence that the trip was made, that the program was carried out, that fun was had” (9). Here Sontag is saying that photographs provide evidence, that the trip was taken and that is it almost like the trip didn’t happen if the photograph was not taken. On the other hand, Percy would argue whether the traveler actually had any “fun”, because he says “it is not the sovereign

An instance of travel on the most elementary level is a journey to another location. In Home and Harem, Inderpal Grewal identifies travel as an institution of England. The voyage to new territories had sparked a new era filled with new opportunities and ideals in the European continent. Most importantly travel became an agent of English nationalism and was a key aspect in rise of imperialism. To expand England’s domain of influence became a collective journey and eventually being a subject of England was equivalent to being imperialist. For people that could not travel, the guidebook acted as the object of mediation between authority and those it was imposed on (105). At the Metropolitan Museum, the Egyptian exhibit is also represented under a certain niche monitored by authority. The “spectator culture” may vary based on prior knowledge, but the carefully fabricated environment showcases how the controller authorizes representation within their domains.