The Loss of the Creature by Walker Percy Essay

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.

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.

Walker Percy explored the different aspects of human behavior in his essay, “Loss of the Creature.” He saw people for being blind to the potential they have in the activities they do. The world is being seen through phones and pictures, never by the real experiences or by the naked eye. Humans will experience a vast amount of information in their lives, but too much exposure leads to boredom. Percy's opinion is to experience subjects on your own, to think about what is happening, instead of being told or shown, and to discover what has never been found before. Tours are useless, projects are disregarding towards their meaning, and his essay persuades people to look at life through a harder and beneficial way.

Walker Percy’s essay “The Loss of the Creature” through relatable hypotheticals points out a problem in many people’s lives. He enlightens readers that people have lost their ability to evaluate something’s worth by themselves, what Percy refers to as their sovereignty. Percy delivers his message through his essay without most of the technical jargon one would expect. In doing so the problem he points out seems less of a concept far from our understanding but one that the regular person can solve. To begin his inquiry of life and sovereignty Percy argues why a person can’t see the Grand Canyon for what it is.

Parental intrusion in youth sports is nothing new. There will always be adults who act inappropriately or disrupt the league. A lot of the problems lie with adults who use youth sports to gratify their own egos, adults who can’t deal with the emotional ups and downs of youth sports and there are even those who see the time and money spent on their child as an investment. There are a lot of reasons for out of control parents when it comes to youth sports. My purpose for this paper is to come up with a plan for a youth sports league that is seeing a lot of parental

Based on Percy's “loss of the creature”, one experience I have has that was not “authentic” would when I went to Yellowstone for a few weeks in the summer. It would be deemed as authentic because [there are trails, signs, and advertisements present in the park. This case flows the same trend as Percy states in the piece, when he speaks of how the Grand Canyon is not an authentic experience for visitors today. It is possible for someone to have an authentic experience of Yellowstone. It is quite easy to go backpacking through the wilderness, where there are few trails and no park rangers. In this way someone can experience what the area was before it became a national park; where there are natural herds of deer and elk, packs of wolfs, thousands

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

The Loss of the Creature written by Walker Percy argues that the current way of learning isn’t sufficient. Percy believes that studying on your own without the barriers a typical classroom setting instills can be beneficial. The author argues that the learning system isn’t perfect and states that a student in high school is merely a “consumer receiving an experience-package.” (page 9) According to Percy, the problem with being a consumer is that you lose your ability to think for yourself and rely on the equipment you use. Further stating in the passage “The biology student does not use his scalpel as an instrument, he uses it as a magic wand! Since it is a “scientific instrument,” it should do “scientific things.” (page 9) He says this to persuade the reader to agree that the way information is given to pupils is flawed. Furthermore, the essay’s questions of the learning system reveal that

People in society today have influences throughout their life that help structure and dictate their thoughts. Choices are made based on these influences, and when these influences begin to take shape as different labels, no real choices are made. People begin to compromise their right to think on their own and instead turn to the most convenient choice. This is how a great deal of society has acts today, choosing the easiest path just so that person can get a given task out of the way and continue on with their life. These influences are frequently seen in politics today. People become so wrapped up in political parties that they become more interested in who is running in which party, instead of which candidate, at any level of

Amongst the ideas exchanged in chapter one the idea that stood out the most was the reality that regardless of what talent you believe to have or actually contain it means nothing if you do not give everything you have to your craft. Anyone can love something but to have those feelings reciprocated changes the objective entirely. Growing up children wish to be firefighters, ballerinas, and everything in between but their wishes do not ultimately determine their futures. It has been said that a wish is an idea, and well, people carry on with many ideas, all of which don’t really amount to much without a follow through. The Creature goes on to talk about how she has been in plays and only wishes to be in plays, ignorant to the

Competitive children sports used to be community sports like Little League and AYSO with fun practices and trips to the snack shack, but now they have been taken over by competitive club sports, private lessons and far away tournaments. In the past 5 years the kids sports industry has increased from a 5 billion dollar industry to a 15 billion dollar industry. Many people think that the growth of children’s sports is benefiting their child for their future, but I believe that children should not play competitive club sports because of time loss, cost, and children being forced to play a single sport. Competitive sports take time away time from family, friends, community activities, and school.

Percy has a unique way in conveying his message to the readers in The Loss of the Creature. He explains experiences through the eyes of others in a perplexing way. By doing so, it illustrates to the readers that everyone has a symbolic complex. Prior to real experiences, everyone has schema of how things are before any actual experience. A true experience is made when one chooses to set aside what they have heard or seen in pictures and actually be in the moment. He formed his perspective on students by comparing a biology student in a classroom to a Falkland Islander boy. Additionally, the first part of his essay, he discussed the Grand Canyon experience and relating it to conformation of new experiences.

One major reading that contests this idea of sovereignty is the book Mohawk Interruptus by Audra Simpson, which discusses the trials of Native American populations and their efforts to reclaim their own sovereignty. Within Mohawk Interruptus, the people of the Kahnawá:ke tribe struggle against the colonial idea of American or Canadian sovereignty lorded over them, and through refusal of such “gifts” regain their sovereignty. “… Kahnawa’kehró:non had refused the authority of the state at almost every turn and in so doing reinstated a different political authority” (Simpson, 2014, 106). Through these rejections, the people of Kahnawá:ke and Kahnawa’kehró:non established that the current system of sovereignty does not work for them, as it is colonially based to oppress the Native American communities. Simpson uses these examples to make a larger point on the Western systems of governance and understandings of authority. Though this idea of sovereignty, Simpson argues, was a way to appropriate land and incorporate or destroy opposing cultures.

Children assume right away that they have responsibilities when they first hear about or participate in a sports program. However, these children also have rights when they compete. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education’s Youth Sports Task Force, developed a “Bill of Rights” for all these young athletes. They believe that these rights provide a great foundation for building children into adults the right way. These rights include: 1. Right to participate in sports. 2. Right to participate at a level commensurate with each child’s maturity and ability. 3. Right to have qualified adult leadership. 4. Right to play as a child and not as an adult. 5. Right to share in the leadership and decision-making of sport participation. 6. Right to participate in safe and healthy environments. 7.

Like many parents and coaches, the goal of putting their kids in sports is to win medals, make the traveling team, or even win the city championship. Daniel Gould says “We’re starting kids too young, we’re specializing them too early and we’re sending them into competition before they’re ready.” Most parents today intervene too soon, it is hard for parents to watch their kid fail, so they will do everything and anything to help them get better. Parents should know what is expected of them when they enroll their children.