Summary Of 'The Loss Of The CreatureBy Richard Rodriguez'sComplexion'

“‘Race Politics” by Luis J. Rodriguez was about him and his brother living in a place called Watts. They journey over the tracks, trying to get the “good food” for their family. They go to the store, and find themselves face to face with five teenagers who knock the food out of their hands, and beat up the main character’s older brother, causing him to vomit. The teenagers leave, with them on the floor. The purpose for writing this essay is to identify syntax, connotation, and imagery within this poem, and decide what makes it important to the overall poem. The overall impression that Luis conveys within his work is the feeling of separation.

The author uses tone and images throughout to compare and contrast the concepts of “black wealth” and a “hard life”. The author combines the use of images with blunt word combinations to make her point; for example, “you always remember things like living in Woodlawn with no inside toilet”. This image evokes the warmth of remembering a special community with the negative, have to use outdoor facilities. Another example of this combination of tone and imagery is “how good the water felt when you got your bath from one of those big tubs that folk in Chicago barbecue in”. Again the author’s positive memory is of feeling fresh after her bath combined with a negative, the fact that it was a barbecue drum.

In the poem, “‘ Race’ Politics” by Luis J. Rodriguez, I have annotated several pieces of syntax, imagery, and connotation. This poem is about how two brothers, of the age six and nine, have a bad experience going over to a place called South Gate to buy groceries. I believe that the author uses these forms of elements to create emphasis and emotion on the story. These elements, I believe, helped the story have more of a connection with the reader and a first person view of what the characters in the poem had to go through.

In Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion, the play of light and shadow are reoccurring motifs that identify and relate to the general themes of remembering and forgetting. H. Porter Abbott has defined motif as “a discrete thing, image, or phrase that is repeated in a narrative”, where in contrast, a theme “is a more generalized…concept that is suggested by… motifs” (237). Abbott emphasizes that “Themes are implicit in motifs, but not the other way around” (95). In In the Skin of a Lion, Ondaatje emphasizes the class struggles endured by the immigrant workers and the internal struggles faced by the central characters. The motif of chiaroscuro, the play of light and shadow, reflects how the characters try to forget their past and personal burdens, and strive to recall joyful memories, which aides them in embracing new beginnings and creating new memories. I will argue that the motif of light relates to the theme of remembering and the motif of shadow identifies with the theme of forgetting. I will show these relationships by analyzing the imagery and context of four central scenes in which light and shadow play a significant role. Firstly, I will discuss the event of the nun falling off the unfinished bridge. Secondly, I will consider the candle-light vigil held for the deceased bridge works. Thirdly, I will discuss the working conditions of the tunnel workers in the section “Palace of Purification”, and lastly, I will analyze the concluding scene in which Patrick and Hana

In his essay The Loss of a Creature, Walker Percy argues that sovereign experiences are largely based on the intent on which you go into them with. This seems to bleed very much into the pursuit of higher education today. Which may present a lower level of effectiveness in academic program.

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 today’s culture people are not individuals they are consumers and they have lost their ability to have their own experiences. In “The Loss of the Creature” by Walker Percy, he talks about why people have lost their sovereignty and how they can get it back. There are a lot of things that people can do differently and regain their individuality back from the consumer culture that they live in.

How would you feel to be put on trial for a crime you did not commit? In the book, Monster by Walter Dean Myers, this is the case for a sixteen-year-old Harlem boy named Steve Harmon. Steve is on trial for felony murder because he has been accused of being involved in being the lookout for a robbery that took place on December 22nd in an uptown convenience store that resulted in the shooting of Alguinaldo Nesbitt, the convenience store clerk. Steve Harmon is innocent for the reasoning’s of he does not know who Richard Evans is, the convenience store was not empty, and there was no signal.

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.

Monster by Sanyika Shakur yields a firsthand insight on gang warfare, prison, and redemption. “There are no gang experts except participants (xiii)” says Kody Scott aka. Monster. Monster vicariously explains the roots of the epidemic of South Central Los Angeles between the Crips and the Bloods that the world eventually witnessed on April 29, 1992. As readers we learn to not necessarily give gangs grace but do achieve a better understanding of their disposition to their distinct perception in life.

Mopping unsanitary floors on hands and knees but looking out the window seeing joy-filled kids. Behind cold steel bars in a lonely cage, however able to relate to other prisoners who have faith for the future. The Monster masterpiece by Walter Dean Myers puts Steve Harmon—a sixteen year old black kid in jail—on the hot seat for the crime of robbery and felony murder of an innocent man named Mr. Nesbitt. On trial are two men--Steve Harmon and James King—that not only have a chance to be given a minimum sentence of 21 years and 3 months but a maximum sentence of life in jail. While being called a Monster by the prosecutor, Mrs. Petrocelli. this dark time for Harmon results in having no true place to escape where only doubt runs through his mind. However, the progression that Harmon makes, not only in jail but during the trial with his defense attorney, Miss O’Brien, allows us to understand that during many situations, doubt and hope intertwine.

Throughout literature many pieces of work can be compared and contrasted to each other. In “Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie discusses the challenges he faced as a young Indian adult, who found his passion of reading at an early age, living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He challenged the stereotype of the young Indian students who were thought to be uneducated while living on a reservation. Likewise, in the excerpt from The Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez shares his similar experience of being a minority and trying to break stereotypes of appearing uneducated. He shares the details of his life growing up learning a different culture and the struggles he faced becoming assimilated into American culture. In these two specific pieces of literature discuss the importance of breaking stereotypes of social and educational American standards and have similar occupational goals; on the other hand the two authors share their different family relationships.

Sometimes people hold on to our past which could cause us to lose understanding of others and in the world. For an example, the poem “To a dark Girl” by Gwendolyn Bennett is about how young black girls carry pain on the shoulders and they should let it go. This essay is about how the author’s use of tone , word choice , and imagery helps the following theme emerge in “To a Dark Girl”: that black girls should never hold on to their past.

When reading through the essay, the reader notices how the overall structure of this piece of literature changes from personal to political. This is executed through Walkers explanation of her personal encounter with Blue, later leading to her political explanation of animal and human discrimination. She begins her essay by observing Blue’s life and how he finds love but later loses it, ultimately going into a complete state of sorrow and anger. She goes to illuminate this fact by mentioning “I dreaded looking into his eyes-because I had of course noticed that Brown, his partner, had gone-but I did look. If I had been born into slavery, and my partner had been sold or killed, my eyes would have looked like that.” (p.866). This quote helps to show the emotional comparison she draws between humans and animals, specifically, how animals can feel sorrow, anger, and loss of hope. Walker transitions the structure of the essay from Blue’s loss, to humanities