Name: Jianwen Kang
Course: English 1101
Instructor: Teddy Chocos
You Are The Only One
“The loss of the creature ” takes something happens in our real life as
examples to tell people that we should be ourselves other than to be the one
who others expect us to be.
There is an example of people visiting Grand Canyon. Before people go there,
they usually do a lot of homework to get to know Grand Canyon. They create
their own images of Grand Canyon by learning its history and introduction,
checking reviews from people who had visited there, seeing pictures took from
photography... Grand Canyon already been formulated in their mind. When
they are in their destination, if they see things conform to the preformed
complex, they would be satisfied and pleased. However, if things are different
from their imagination, they would be disappointed. People always seek
approval for what they have experienced, want experts to "certify their
experience as genuine".
Same scene occurs when students are learning. They are not supposed to be
"a consumer receiving an experience-package", but sightseers to discover and
experience and find out what they truly believe. A specimen showed in class
could be a guidance or intriguer for you to explore the nature, but you can't
seen one specimen as of a race or a species because the nature is consist of
vast different individuals, each one has its own character.
Undoubtedly, Percy believes that students should "come to himself not as a
consumer of experience but as a sovereign individual". They should not only
accept what teacher and textbook tell them, but also should know they need
and the way to explore what they just learned. Their experiences may not as
the same as you learned in class, but that is what they really learned. They
should be in charge of themselves, not just a robot accepting other's
experience and feelings.
Coincidently, Bartholomae expressed a similar opinion when he is talking
about identifying ourselves. People need to identify themselves, although
things like social class, race and gender... are given and you can't choose
them, but "to create identify, to define the terms of your individual style, is to
negotiate these categories". You can always negotiate them. You can choose
what kind of person you want to be, which social class you want to be in. Life is
all about how you made it, and you are the one and the only one to make this
decision.
Bartholomae believes that given such as "social class, race, gender , no one
can escape them or think about themselves outside their categories", but to
identify ourselves, you can always purse your unique categories. You will feel
"Now I'm really living" as Percy encourages us to be. We have our own right to
manage our happiness, feel what we feel, experience what we experienced.