While walking through a naturally made path I was engulfed by the sounds of animals scurrying by, the streams flowing, the wind through the trees, and the smell of nature all around me. Even though, much like the tourist receiving a guided tour, I was on a frequently used path, I was alone in the woods. This held a higher value to me then other times when you could hear the sound of cars on the near by roads, smell the fumes from the exhausts, and hear the sounds produced by the small population of people who were sharing the experience with me. .
Percy complicates that situation further by pointing out a second way that the tourist did not have the same experience as Cardenas did. "The thing [Grand Canyon] is no longer the thing as it confronted the Spaniard; [Cárdenas].
It is rather that which has already been formulated - by picture postcard, geography book, tourist folder, and the words Grand Canyon."" (Percy 47) The tourist is biased a second time by his own preconceived notions of the sight he is about to see. Percy explains that unlike a child who, for the first time, picks up a rock in the backyard and is consumed by the experience of discovering a new object, the tourist does not see the Grand Canyon in this way. He has already formulated expectations on what it would be like to experience the Canyon. They will be used for comparison to the actual experience and to determine the magnitude of the experience. Percy stated, "The highest point, the term of the sightseer's satisfaction, is not the sovereign discovery of the thing before him; it is rather the measuring up of the thing to the criterion of the preformed symbolic complex."" (Percy 47) What Percy is describing is much a part of human cognition and extends to many facets of our everyday lives. One example from class that is almost universally relatable is going to see a movie after you have read the book or going to see a movie that has been remade.