Reading “The Loss of the Creature” by Walker Percy was challenging in many ways, but it was also thought-provoking and interesting. The story obviously was an expression of annoyance and frustration of today’s society through descriptive examples by the author, and his viewpoints on human beings and their ways of experiencing things really made me think. It also left me with some questions, such as:

1. Why do human beings feel the need to be reassured that what they are experiencing is indeed unspoiled and authentic(as in the case of the couple travelling to Mexico City)?

2. Why can’t people just experience things for what they are, with no complaints or what ifs?

     The parts of the reading I struggled with were some of the vocabulary words Percy chose to use, certain ways he described things (such as “value P,” the “sovereign knower,” and the “surrender of title”).

     This reading can definitely be related back to the discussion of cliche, in that Walker Percy’s style of writing is to use several specific examples of points he is trying to get across, all of which are typical things that might happen in people’s everyday lives. The way the people react in each of their situations is cliche in that they feel insufficient and need proof that what they are experiencing is perfect and therefore something to be envied by others. Their experiences are not acceptable to them unless the travelers are made sure that it is “too good to be true” and “now they are really living.” Whether we admit to it or not, we as human beings are a very selfish and self-conscious society – this is the reason Walker Percy’s writing is cliche.