The Loss Of The Creature By Walker Percy

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

Think back to the earliest Christmas you can remember. Try to remember the feelings you got when you got to open your presents. Not knowing what was inside the shiny gift wrap and the nicely tied bow. The excitement, the awe, and the joy you felt when ripping the gift wrap on your own presents. You did not know what to expect, but not knowing made this moment a true experience. Walker Percy’s essay, “The Loss of the Creature,” tries to explain the loss of true experiences because of media portrayal. The losses that Percy is mostly concerned about is “value P .” Value P is the experience and beauty a person feels in a moment. Walker says at the end of his essay, “…unless he also struggles for himself, unless he know that there is a struggle, he is going to be just what the planners

Perception about the real experience and understanding the beauty of the world made me think about myself. Percy’s “Loss of The Creature” resembles the forgotten value of true experience of world and how people are overlooking the true meaning of things and just looking at the symbolic complex. I came up with an understanding from Percy’s thought that people can only have a true experience of something if they can get rid of all prejudices and experience its present by ignoring everything one has previously already heard about it and look at it from a whole new perspective. Especially in our society today, people are so caught up in taking pictures, talking on their phone, and social media that when a moment presents itself we are oblivion to seeing the true beauty of it. I would say that I am a common reader. I personally read the text the way the author presents it to me, and agrees with everything they say. I never question the text; I always just assume its right. I don’t look deeper into the subject the author presents to me. I am a student, and I am currently not looking to be a sovereign knower. Reading “The Loss of the Creature” I’d preferred and tried to read it as a complex reader, because in that I way I can truly get ahold of the message Percy is trying

In “the Loss of the Creature,” Walker Percy explains his ideas of education through examples. His examples included a family’s vacation to the Grand Canyon and a biology student and English major experiencing new things within the

Walker Percy's essay, “The loss of the Creature” dives deeper into how human nature can be spoiled by preconceived notions and external influences. Percy surrounds his essay with the argument that humans tend to never truly allow themselves to experience and learn the world around them as there is always a lingering sense of mediated knowledge along with societal expectations. Percy eludes the concept of “symbolic complex” and how it has a detrimental impact on many individuals' ability to engage and feel their experiences. Percy uses “Symbolic Complex” for many scenarios throughout the essay, such as a tourist visiting the Grand Canyon. The visitor has seen the Grand Canyon so many times through photographs, postcards, and through books that

Percy tells the story of the famous explorer Garcia Lopez de Cardenas who discovered the Grand Canyon and was astonished by it. He paints a beautiful scene of a newly discovered land and then shortly after asks a question that would confuse readers of its relevance before his essay developed. He asks, “Does not one see the same sight from the Bright Angel Lodge that Cárdenas saw” (1)? The obvious answer that most readers would say is yes but as one reads on Percy argues otherwise. Following up on his question he attempts to make his point clear by setting the experience of Cardenas discovering the Canyon to have a value that he labeled “P.” (1) He argues that when the value of “P” is shared with millions of sightseers each of them doesn’t receive the same experience of Cardenas but a millionth of it’s worth. By using values to demonstrate worth, Percy says that

Percy is the person who sees the undeniable beauty that the Grand Canyon has, just like Garcia López de Cárdenas seen when it was first discovered. Percy seeks it’s true beauty. This all results in people missing “it”, everybody is missing the Grand Canyon’s raw beauty when it’s right in front of them. Percy just fears the loss of the raw beauty and sovereignty when he knows that amazing isn’t even the right word to describe the view. The Grand Canyon has something amazing attached to it’s view

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 Loss of the Creature” is an essay in which the author, Walker Percy has communicated his vision of world in an alternate manner. He makes an argument about how having prepackaged idea about something, can create a symbolic complex in individual’s mind, making them to lose the true essence behind it. He composes that understanding can be reached through the true experience. The experiences I like to share based on my essay is the time I flew on a plane, the time I when to Boston for the first time, and my first time on a cruise.

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.

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

This relates to experiencing a site that you have previous knowledge of but have never actually seen it in person. He relates this to tourists coming to see the Grand Canyon for the first time after only seeing postcards and hearing secondhand stories. They have a preconceived expectation of this which ultimately completely rules out having a sovereign experience with such a place comparing to the ultimate discovery of a place.

By this point in American history, photography was now considered a worthy discipline of academic study. Photography, photography as art history, and other related topics of photography were now parts of curricula across the world. It is critical to note that at this time in global history, the world is coming out of the turbulent, violent, revolutionary, and culturally potent 1960s. Young people and students, who were very much leaders and agents of change during the 1960s, were now being formally instructed about photography and the expressive, liberating

The violent markings of the photo album and its images, however, produce an equally powerful message that jars the memory as it disrupts and distorts the photographic chronicle of her life and that of her family and friends. The result is a complex visual experience that addresses the use of images in producing knowledge and making history.