The Loss Of The Creature By Walker Percy

The novel Monster by Walter Dean Myers is the book I chose to read and do my essay on. The genre Walter chose for the book Monster is realistic fiction. The novel was published in 1999 which is a year after I was borning. The reason why I chose this Novel is because a teacher recommended the book to me a couple year ago but, I never got a chance to read it. I always assumed the book was good because it won three awards. The first award the book won was the National Book Award for young people’s literature. The second award the book won was the Michael L. Printz Awards. The third award the book won was called the Coretta Scott King Award Honor all in which the book won in the same year 2000. The book is told from the perspective of a young african american teenager named steve harmon. Steve lives in harlem where the story takes place. One night steve chose to hang with a bad group of friends and was in a robbery. During the robbery one of Steve’s friend kills the cashier. Now Steve is in jail and going back and forth to court hoping to be proven not guilty of felony murder. Steve and I lives are alike in many different ways although we come from different backgrounds.

The idea of what a monster is and how it pertains to modern day society has fascinated readers and writers for decades. Before taking this class, I was aware of what a monster is and the function it served in today’s society. Furthermore, after taking this class, I am now aware of what a monster truly is, and what really separates a monster from a regular person. The piece of text that I mainly chose to focus on and elaborate closely to demonstrate the aspects of a monster is appropriately named, Monster, by Walter Dean Myers. The reason I chose this piece of literature is because, Monster thoroughly elaborates what a monster is in todays society and how it functions in the modern day world. In this essay I will elaborate on

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 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

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 book I chose is called Monster by Walter Dean Myers. This novel won the Coretta Scott King award , the Printz award , and was also a National Book Award Finalist. Monster is the name and thing that Steve considers himself as he has gotten in a bit of trouble. This novel took place in Harlem New York in mid year of 1997. Steve harmon was in a drug store while some of the people he has been seen around the neighborhood with stuck the place up and murdered the owner of the store in cold blood now he is on trial for Felony 1 murder and this is the story of his trail. Our lives compare to each others in many ways. There are thousands of inferences that could be made

In Walker Percy’s essay titled “The Loss of the Creature,” Percy repeatedly attempts to instill the philosophy of realism in the mind of the reader. However, the manner in which he chooses to approach this goal is fairly peculiar, and uncommon among essayists. The essay is one of examples, mostly describing the pitfalls of expectation, and leaving much room for interpretation. It is felicitous that just as Percy desires to ingrain the value of the principle of discovery in the reader’s approach, the reader himself must discover the actual meaning of the essay. By looking through the examples, the reader soon picks out a

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

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.

Some people do not care or even notice killing a toad while mowing a lawn, but some do. In Richard Wilbur's poem, "The Death of a Toad", the speaker runs over and kills a toad while mowing his lawn and feels great distress for his action. The speaker shows sympathy for the amphibian as he describes the peaceful scene of the toad's fatal injury and his last minutes alive. Wilbur uses the formal elements of structure and syntax, diction, and imagery to help convey the speaker's sadness towards the death of a toad. From his "hobbling hop" (line 2) to his "antique eyes" (16), the speaker exemplifies his sympathetic feelings toward the creature's death.

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:

Mary Shelley creates an allegory between the community’s reaction to the monster and human nature. The monster physically appeared different from humans; therefore he was rejected by society to the point where he was the target for objects being thrown at him and scared the villagers to the point where they fainted. The monster acknowledges his difference when he said “its unearthly ugliness rendered it almost too horrible for human eyes” (104). The community’s reaction is an allegory to human nature to reject the one’s who are different. Ordinary people are raised to accept those who are like them and avoid the outcasts, therefore the monster is unable to find acceptance among the community.

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?