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.
Percy tells the story of a famous explorer, Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, who was astonished by his discovery of what is now known as the Grand Canyon. Percy briefly describes The Grand Canyon, and then he asks a question that might confuse readers at first. Percy asks, “Does not one see the same sight from the Bright Angel Lodge that Cárdenas saw” (Percy 1)? The anticipated answer that most readers would say is yes, but as one reads on, Percy argues otherwise. In following up on his question, he attempts to make his point clear by assigning the label “P” to Cardenas’ Grand Canyon experience. (Percy 1) He argues that when sharing the value of “P” with millions of sightseers, each person doesn’t receive the same experience of Cardenas, result in one-millionth of its worth. By using values to demonstrate worth, Percy says that experiences can be added to and taken from them. Next, Percy
1. Monster is a novel written in a screenplay format with Steve’s journal entries mixed in throughout. Do you think this is an effective format for the book? Why or why not?
Accordingly, the nature was one of the Romantic themes adored by numerous readers during this era. The author’s description of untamed environment and striking sight inspires and impresses the readers. Soothing and relaxing people through these illustrations, author takes them away from the impersonal society. For example, The Most Sublime Spectacle on Earth by John Wesley Powell vividly displays the spectacular views of Grand Canyon to make readers forget the depraved reality. “The carving of the Grand Canyon is the work of rains and rivers,” Powell stresses that Grand Canyon is the splendid work of nature, not the artificial work of
“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 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. An overarching theme throughout the essay is that one’s pre-formed expectations and can lead to the loss of the essence behind it. In order to demonstrate his point; Percy uses hypothetical characters in theoretical situations to prove how people can truly experience something if they get rid of all social biases and prejudices, and neglecting what they heard about it.
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.
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
This type of exposure to wilderness is merely an extension of the many desires that are inherent in the American culture to which society is dependent. In other words, wilderness has become part of the consumer society, the same society that deep ecology claims to aim to reconceive. Guha refers to this as a consequence of economic and political dominance. This dominance leads to wilderness being a manifestation of American nationalism. Admittedly, the American national park system is one of America’s defining characteristics. Hence, Guha states that Western civilization is the ideal medium for both wilderness and civilization to live in conjunction yet this medium dismisses its economical and social consequences.
“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.
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
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.
The wilderness can be used to measure against the man made world, a “scientific yardstick.” Throughout the entire piece he is arguing that the importance is not what we can actually see or touch, but what we think of and
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,
I confess, I all too well know that living in the digital age, I have hindered my opportunities to immerse myself in nature like Henry David Thoreau. There is rarely a day that passes by that I do not use my cell phone or computer. Too often I forget that the outside world is more enigmatic and dynamic than anything that can be found on the computer or in the concrete jungle I enter when I go back home. I crave the mesmerizing and reflective space that nature has always provided since the dawn of time. Nature allows me to feel alone, but also become a part of something at the very same time. Thoreau beautifully claims, “We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all
In which he uses the act of explaining his ideas through stories. Percy first introduces the reader to the story of the Grand Canyon, and about how tourists are not able to have the same experience as its founder, Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, once did. Through this he explains the underlying truth that it is rare that an individual can have an authentic experience. Due to the fact that most experiences one encounters are prepackaged, and in some cases, individuals are double deprived of have an authentic experience because of spoliation. Percy later goes on to describe a story of a college student and a young Falkland Islander boy involving a dogfish, this story in the same sense is describing how the college student is not having an authentic experience because he is being forced to know everything about the fish, but on the other hand the young Islander just found the fish dead on the beach and decided to dissect it out of curiosity. But how this connects to Percy’s argument is how the Islander boy is having an
Through removal and technology, humans have started to become isolated from the wilderness and the nature around them. This view distinctly contrasts with Thoreau’s perspective. “Though he [Thoreau] never put humans on the same moral level as animals or trees, for example, he does see them all linked as the expression of Spirit, which may only be described in terms of natural laws and unified fluid processes. The self is both humbled and empowered in its cosmic perspective,” states Ann Woodlief. The technologies that distract and consume us, and separate us from the natural world are apparent. Many people and children ins cities have seen little to no natural-grown things such as grass and trees. Even these things are often domesticated and tamed. Many people who have never been to a National Park or gone hiking through the wilderness do not understand its unruly, unforgiving, wild nature. These aspects, thought terrifying to many, are much of why the wilderness is so beautiful and striking to the human heart. “Thoreau builds a critique of American culture upon his conviction that ‘the mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality,’” pronounces Rick Furtak, quoting Thoreau’s Life