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The Loss of the Creature by Walker Percy

            "I do not refer only to the special relation of the layman to the theorist. I refer to the general situation in which sovereignty is surrendered to a class of privileged knowers, whether these be theorist or artists. A reader may surrender sovereignty over that which has been written about" (Percy 304). Walker Percy describes two types of travelers in his essay which are the complex and common tourist. Methods of reading can also be applied in the terms of common and complex. In his essay "The Loss of the Creature" Percy works on a problem, a problem that effects the student and the tourist. The issue he tries to solve is not explained clearly and is left to much interpretation. For that reason, it can be hard to pinpoint the problem and make sense of what Percy is trying to explain. Percy, does however talk a lot about sovereignty and how it is lost by the common tourist. The loss of sovereignty can be the problem he is writing about. The loss of sovereignty can also be applied to the common reader. Sovereignty is lost when a reader subjects their understanding to those that write about the literature. Common and complex readers see Percy's essay in different lights, the light that the common reader sees is the one that causes the loss of sovereignty.
             A common reading of Percy's essay or any literature causes a reader to give up his sovereignty. As someone reads commonly, he or she gives up interpretation of what the writing is about to the expert or the person who knows. Percy explains this in following quote "It is a generalized surrender of the horizon to those experts"(304). Common reading is reading in which you blindly follow to what the expert is saying. To compare this to a common tourist, a common tourist goes through the beaten track. "It may be recovered by leaving the beaten track"(299). He or she is going through all the traditional means of visiting a place such as the Grand Canyon.


Essays Related to The Loss of the Creature by Walker Percy

1. Loss of the Creature

Walker Percy, the author of The Loss of the Creature, saw the world in a very unique way. ... Percy starts the essay by discussing that through preconceived notions and the loss of sovereignty people loose the ability to have experiences. ... (Percy 47) What Percy is describing is much a part of human cognition and extends to many facets of our everyday lives. ... Percy would argue that I have not "seen it."" ... In theory, Percy is correct. ...

  • Word Count: 1961
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. Loss of the creature essay

In "The Loss of the Creature,"" Walker Percy makes an argument about how having a prepackaged idea about something, can create a symbolic complex in an individual's mind, causing them to lose the true essence behind it. ... Because the student already feels a loss of sovereignty, he won't feel passion for the subject nor will he be able to spark the change Freire speaks of. ... This loss of sovereignty is apparent, Percy argues, throughout our lives. ... Walker Percy would view high school as a place where students go to find themselves but in reality lose more then they came with. ...

  • Word Count: 1235
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

3. The Creature

The essay, "The Lost of the Creature" written by Walker Percy is about the lost of sovereignty and buying into the symbolic complex. In order to explain these examples Percy explains a loss of sovereignty in this world, and how people try to make situations measure up to the symbolic complex. ... He states that in this world there has been "a radical loss of sovereignty" (Percy, 593). The creature that has been lost is the sovereign individual, Percy gives many different ways that the sovereign individual has been lost, how it can be recovered and how what seems to be recovery isn't alway...

  • Word Count: 996
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

4. The Death of the Creature Critical Essay

-Walker Percy, The Loss of the Creature With this opening paragraph, Walker Percy concentrates the essence of an entire essay into two neat lines. ... What does the title The Loss of the Creature mean? Walker Percy seems to ask throughout his essay how man can enrich his life, how he can truly, honestly enjoy and understand the surrounding world and all it has to offer. ... Not according to Percy. ... This has the dual effect of bringing the same loss of exclusiveness that occurred with the Grand C...

  • Word Count: 2207
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Losing Ones Voice in the World

The Loss of One's Own Voice in the World In "The Loss of the Creature," Walker Percy writes that understanding can be reached through a so called true experience. ... The thing that bothers Walker, as said before, are objects and people losing their value in the world. Every time people look at the canyon they give up their creature or identity in the world and this is what concerns Percy the most. ... The student and the Falkland Islander, the young couple on vacation, and the Grand Canyon, are all examples of people or places either losing their inner creature or of people trying t...

  • Word Count: 898
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

6. The Loss of the Creature - Improving Education

Walker Percy in his article, "The Loss of the Creature" examines how through previously established inclinations and the surrender of our jurisdiction or as he stated our sovereignty, people lose the capacity to experience life, and its components, in new and creative ways. ... Percy says, "It might be recuperated by leaving the beaten track." ... Percy also talked about the loss of sovereignty or power. ... Percy says, "The entire skyline of being is staked out by 'them,' the specialists. ... For Percy, students are not able to appreciate the common astonishment of revelation. ...

  • Word Count: 628
  • Approx Pages: 3

7. The Loss Of The Package

Author Walker Percy is one of those individuals. ... He loses the ability to process the creature itself and observe life naturally. ... Although some of his arguments are valid, Percy's arguments would only work in an impossible utopian society. ... Lets look at Percy's comparison of the Falkland Islander and the biology lab student. ... What we need to improve it is the kind of scrutiny put on it by people like Percy. ...

  • Word Count: 877
  • Approx Pages: 4

8. The Pain of a Postcard

I assumed most everyone enjoyed a postcard, but writers Annie Dillard, Walker Percy, and John Berger contradict the simplicity of a postcard making it far more arduous. ... Walker Percy, in his essay The Loss of the Creature establishes that preconceived notions formed by items such as postcards ruin a person's experience of the Grand Canyon. ... (Dillard 204) Dillard's "natural obvious" can be very easily compared to the "symbolic complex" of Walker Percy. ... Percy refers to "the loss of sovereignty" as a general surrender to the experience, losing power over the experience let...

  • Word Count: 1582
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

9. IT

I would go so far as to say that Walker Percy, in his essay "The Loss of the Creature-, would agree. ... No, in fact, to interpret Percy in this context exclusively would be to denying the bigger picture that I felt Percy was trying to impress upon us. ... Percy contends that the unknown is much more thrilling than the known. ... Percy has other opinions of why people allow themselves to be "out-. ... Percy has several opinions on how to regain "the creature-. ...

  • Word Count: 2070
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Grade Level: High School

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