Mansi Deshmukh
Professor Teddy Chocos
English 102
“I do not refer only to the special relation of layman to theorist. I refer to the general
situation in which sovereignty is surrendered to a class of privileged knowers, whether
these be theorists or artists. A reader may surrender sovereignty over that which has been
written about, just as a consumer may surrender sovereignty over a thing, which has been
theorized about. 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.”
After going through a rough phases in life, Walker Percy reflects his though into a
collection of essays called “The Message In the Bottle.” The essays covered many
important questions in life that are not known to many individuals. One of the extracts in
the essays is “The Loss of the Creature.” The Loss of the Creature explains how every
path is a taken path and it is a path you are surrendering to. Every moment in our lives is
already planned and you are following the beaten track. Moreover, in the essays Percy
criticizes how human beings are happy with being “average” and not trying anything
new. Percy talks about how a common man is living the life someone else already has
and everybody subjugates to someone and no one is his own boss.
When Percy talks about “I refer to the general situation in which sovereignty is
surrendered to a class of privileged knowers, whether these be theorists or artists”, he
means that every individual surrenders their power when they are aware that the person
they are interacting with is more knowledgeable then you. Due to human nature, the
person is either intimidated or is wanting to seek more knowledge in order to succeed in
the coming future and hence you choose to surrender.
Mansi Deshmukh
Professor Teddy Chocos
English 102
In the essay Percy talks about a “complex thinker” and a “common thinker” and this is
what differentiates between a leader and a follower. A complex thinker looks in deeper
into specific details in order to gain sovereignty while a common thinker learns the basic
knowledge without fully understanding it. A common reader also lacks determination and
motivation and hence always falls behind in comparison to a complex thinker.
Percy explains this in quote above about how consumer grasps whatever information is
given to him. Every step taken by the leader is preplanned and the leader makes the
consumer do whatever he/she wants him to do. A very literal example would be
companies todays advertise products in such a manner where the consumers are
manipulated and are convinced to purchase their products without having to think twice.
Apple is a good example where customers who have sworn by apple products will
purchase the Iphone 5 no matter what due to the seller’s powerful convincing strategies.
Hence, the consumer surrenders sovereignty and purchases the Iphone 5 even though he
or she might not need it.
The world is always divided into many class groups and it is our choice as to wether we
would want to surrender our power and be a common thinker or step ahead and think out
of the box. Although there are many forces around us that would force us to lose our
track and take safe choices, we must always push ourselves an extra mile in order to be
recognized as a person who is extraordinary.