People's Personal Experiences And The Ways example essay topic

"The Loss of the Creature", by Walker Percy is a short and informative piece that mostly has to do with people's personal experiences and the ways that people react to their experiences. Percy uses several examples to further explain the ways that different experiences can be perceived by different people. Although many people try to achieve maximum intensity through each experience, it is often better to take each experience as it comes and have no expectations of the power of the experience. Percy begins his piece with an example using the Grand Canyon as his focus. Percy claims that one who views the Grand Canyon "face to face" for the first time is in actuality just confirming the fact that the canyon exists. The visitor has preconceptions about the canyon and already knows what to expect.

Although Percy is correct to say this, I feel that Percy has gone too far in saying that the first natural view of the canyons (that of Garcia Lopez) is the most powerful. Each person's experience is unique and can only be judged powerful by the person who is experiencing. For me, I don't measure my actual experience to any preconceptions; they are all unique and are measured on a distinct scale. "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 performed symbolic complex". Here, Percy states that when we are experiencing something, instead of perceiving it based on its own qualities, we try to see what we have already learned about that place or subject.

Percy also explains that people are often reaching to experience that first and natural view when in fact it is impossible because of the impact of society. If one attempts to go off the beaten track to achieve the natural experience, they are just being different, not better or worse. There are many examples of how someone's first and natural experience differs from an experience with preconceptions. Music is an area where a natural experience, one with no preconceptions can be achieved. I can recall the first time that I listened to one of my favorite songs, Blue Sky, by the Allman Brothers Band. The music overcame my senses and left my body tingling with emotions.

Although this feeling continued to occur each time that I would listen to this song, I had expectations. I heard the song differently, not with more or less power, just differently. Percy also talks about the way that people share their experiences. "They wanted him, not to share their experience, but to certify their experience as genuine". Although he makes a good point, I feel that people's experiences shouldn't be questioned. The power of people's experience depends upon how he or she feels, not upon the reaction of others.

It is very important to realize that each person's experiences are unique. Each person feels differently about the same experiences. If you sit two people down next to each other, and put them through the exact same movie, each will feel differently about the movie. Some people hate what others love.