Walker Percy’s “The loss of the creatures” is an intriguing critique of the downfall of basic
elements of human experience in a modern community. Percy argues that our fast-changing
world leads to disconnection from the natural world, and each other, showing a loss of selfrespect and a feeling of truly being alive. Percy employments the word “Sovereignty” as being
able to encounter things without supposition and impact over the involvement. This paper is a
call to reclaim what has been lost and reconnect with the essential elements of the human
experience. People can reclaim their individuality from the consumer culture in which they live
by doing different things. Percy uses example scenarios to show his reader how the world has
lost its sovereignty to thinkers and planners of the world. Percy’s point is failed to discover any
viable solutions to the problem that he suggests.
Percy starts with people losing the ability to experience new things because of preconceived
notions and a loss of sovereignty. He begins by giving us examples on Tourism. Percy uses the
example of a tourist visiting the Grand Canyon and the couple drove to Mexico City. Percy tells
us how the Cárdenas value P about the canyon is different from millions of tourists that visit the
canyon. He shows us this meaning by using complex language such as symbolic complex, “The
symbolic complex which has already been formed in the sightseer’s mind, seeing the canyon
under approved circumstances is seeing the symbolic complex head-on” (47). Everyone
possesses this complex unknowingly. He is suggesting that people view the world through a
complex set of symbols, associations, and expectations that they have accumulated over time.
The usage of the word "symbolic complex" by Percy is significant here. He is implying that
humans see the world through a complicated collection of symbols, connections, and
expectations that they have built up through time. These symbols might be cultural, societal, or
personal in character, and they influence how individuals perceive and interpret their
surroundings. In the case of sightseeing, the symbolic complex may contain expectations about
how the attraction should appear, how it should make the sightseer feel, and what cultural or
historical relevance it should have. Percy also tells us that we have lost our sovereignty to give a
preview of what to expect. Percy claims “This loss of the sovereignty is not a marginal process,
as might appear from my example of the estranged sightseer. It is a generalized surrender of the
horizon to those experts within whose competence a particular segment of the horizon is thought
to lie” (55). This quote implies a dependence on external forces, which can have significant
implications for how we engage the world around us. Percy suggests that these are the
consequences a result of larger social and cultural forces that shape our perceptions and
behavior. The quote suggests a complex phenomenon that requires careful consideration and
implication for how we understand ourselves and the world around us. Percy also uses education
by showing us that education is controlled by instructors and planners to give us directions on
where to go.
Percy disciplinaries education by talking about biology students. He describes that students in
fixated on getting grades in class that they are unable to fully appreciate the literary work they
read. He makes connections between tourism and education with scenarios of giving the reader a
perception through his language. Percy explains “The situation of the tourist at the Grand
Canyon and the biology student is special cases of a predicament in which everyone finds
himself in a modern technical society a society, that is, in which there is a division between
expert and layman, planner and consumer, in which experts and planners take special measures
to teach and edify the consumer. The measures taken are measures appropriate to the consumer:
the expert and the planner know and plan, but the consumer needs and experiences” (61). Percy
argues that this problem yet not limited to the situation of the tourist or the biology student, but
rather a prevalent issue in a modern community. A community where experts and planners take
specific measures to teach and edify the consumer. He tells how these experts have created
consumerism in a way that an item has been tagged with a category. Percy describes sovereignty
and how unknowingly we have surrendered it to the planner as a consumer. Percy uses
significant terms in his writing to provide his language and to inform readers about the “loss” of
a “creature”.
Percy uses the term “Creature” to refer to tourists having an authentic experience in his reading.
He uses the term “creature” for humans and shows us how we have surrendered our sovereignty
unknowingly to thinkers and planners. Depending on a dialectical criterion to which we all need
approval before taking the first step. Percy also uses the term “Double Deprivation”, He tells
there are two deprivations. Percy informs “The very means by which the thing is presented for
consumption, the very techniques by which the thing is made available as an item of needsatisfaction, these very means operate to remove the thing from the sovereignty of the however”
(62). First deprivation occurs when individual sovereignty is compromised. Thus, this happens
when they are unable to fully engage with the creature in a way that is meaningful to them. Percy
tells “The second deprivation is the spoliation of the thing, the tree, the rock, the swallow, by the
layman’s misunderstanding of scientific theory” (62). He explains when an individual’s
experience of these tangible and intangible objects that filtered through external forces such as
the symbolic complex. Percy tells we are only able to experience limited and reductive, only able
to see in terms of preconceptions or associations placed on by external forces. The double
deprivation in Percy’s claim as it highlights our experience of the world can be shaped and
limited by external forces.
Ultimately, Percy presents us with a loss of our sovereignty unknowingly and approaches the
world with an open and receptive mind, in to fully engage with the richness and complexity of
the world around us. Percy reminds us of societal norms to fully appreciate the unique and
authentic experiences that the world has to offer.