Summary Response Paper: Walker Percy’s “the Loss of the Creature”

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

In “On Natural Death,” Thomas appeals to the readers by contemplating the subject of death with an academic approach that includes facts, data, and information. Thomas successfully transforms death from an awkward, emotional subject to a more comfortable intellectual one. This engages the readers by placing contemplation of death and dying within the confines of a more manageable and rational context. His gradual exhumation of death eases the audience into pondering the subject in the absence of emotional stress. The essay transitions from the death of an elm tree to that of a mouse. This is followed by Thomas giving a significant amount of attention to a scientific explanation of death, and then finally the description of the near death experience of a human. This use of an academic appeal moves the audience to a comfort zone with the subject of death and circumvents the common response of avoidance. The reader is simultaneously desensitized to the gravity of subject matter and given permission to consider death and dying without the normal societal negative stigma associated with the subject.

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 Walker Percy’s, “The Loss of the Creature”, Percy argues that individuals are not capable of having authentic experiences due to his idea of double deprivation, in the sense that experiences are prepackaged for the consumer and are also subject to spoliation. Also that individuals associate objects with a term in which makes that object subject to symbolic complex. Where it is not impossible but simply rare to see an individual capable of having an authentic experience. He also explains to the reader how most experiences one encounters are packaged for them, in which the individual cannot have an authentic experience. Furthermore, he explains how some experiences are also a victim of spoliation as well, in the sense that not only are individuals incapable of having authentic experiences but they are spoiled as well. Whereas one has in a sense lost their sovereignty due to not being able to formulate authentic experiences without

Thus, it is evident that deeply personal moments of one’s past are made significant by the bittersweet nature of life and the inevitability of death which are a part of the human condition. This also reflects the inevitability of growth from innocence to maturation.

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.

The novel is an extremely immersive experience owing to the protagonist - Percy Jackson - regularly breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the readers. It builds up suspense by foreshadowing the events to come, giving the readers a taste of the challenges awaiting Percy in the pages ahead. Percy is portrayed as the modern-day equivalent of classical heroes. Like the past heroes, Percy is treated differently by those around him, and has trouble fitting in with them. An absent father and a lack of knowledge of his own past help draw further parallels with the classical 'hero' figure. The significant people in Percy's life appear to know something about Percy that he doesn’t know and seek to protect him. Percy, however, is a stubborn

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

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.

As humans, we are granted experiences that both enrich and alienate us; bits of our lives are taken from us but others are added to make us whole. Though, sometimes, we are taken from the bits of our lives, and have to

What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be animal? The curious thing about the The Island

Many people consider themselves to have ADHD, but the real person who we need to consider to be capable of having ADHD, is Percy Jackson. There are many symptoms for having ADHD. As read on ADD/ADHD in Children Signs and Symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder in Kids “ Some Symptoms for ADHD are someone not having the ability to be able to sit still for more than 5 seconds, who never seems to listen, who don’t follow rules, someone who has difficulty paying attention to anything, or someone who will blurt out inappropriate comments at inappropriate times.” Two of the reasons why I believe Percy Jackson does have ADHD is because he can not pay attention, and he does not have the patience to find the lighting bolt.

But how misled I actually was—at least, in Walker Percy’s eyes. In his essay, “The Loss of the Creature,” Percy recalls a scene from The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter:

In her essay, “Am I Blue,” Alice Walker argues how humans disregard the emotional similarities they share with animals. Walker incorporates in her argument the similarities between her emotions as a human, and the emotions of animals. Additionally, she presents her argument through the structure of the essay, and through her use of language. Furthermore, the overall argument of this essay is not only eye-opening, but also persuasive considering that it leaves the reader with a life question; what standards am I living by?

In this ostensibly inanimate, impersonal universe, a garden is a miracle. All the more so is a garden slug, an animal that can extract sufficient energy from the garden’s vegetable matter to move from place to place under its own power. When one is in the right mood, watching the shimmering spotted slug slide over the mulch evokes the miracle of biology in all its splendor; the creature’s pulsating aliveness is hypnotic. But then one recovers his bearings and realizes that this is only, after all, a garden slug, and that the ladder of biology goes much higher. The miracle of life has culminated in one’s own species, man. Unlike the slug, whose nervous system has barely enough complexity to let it interface with the environment, a man’s nervous system, nucleated by the adaptive and inventive human brain, can abstractly model its surroundings and project itself consciously and creatively through time.