The Struggle For Originality Essay Research Paper

The Struggle For Originality Essay, Research Paper Walker Percy’s essay, “The Loss of the Creature” describes the experiences that each person goes through as either a genuine experience driven by own desires, or one that is already preconceived by experts. Percy believes that people can only learn from experiences that are driven by pure personal desire, and not experiences already preconceived by experts. Percy describes the “loss of sovereignty” as preconceived notions of an experience with the help of experts. W.E.B Du Bois, on the other hand, wrote an essay called, “The Souls of Black Folk” that contradicts Percy’s term of the “loss of sovereignty”. Du Bois strongly believes that with the help of experts, people can then learn what they need to get

ahead in life. Percy presents a type of tourist, which is the “simple tourist”. The “simple tourist” helps Percy to describe someone who succumbs to the “loss of sovereignty”. In Percy’s view, someone who is a “simple tourist” goes along with what the expert’s comment on. They stay on the “beaten track”. When he describes the “beaten track” he means the road that everyone follows put forth by experts. People follow the “beaten track” knowing what lies ahead of them, and thinking that it is the best way to go. Experts take away the “sovereignty” of humankind because they take away any surprise or challenge of a learning experience. Du Bois views the “beaten track” though, as the best way to learn. The educational system that he strongly

recommends is a path that he said a person must take in order to succeed in life. That path describes Percy’s view of the “beaten track” because it is a journey that Du Bois suggests that all young people should take. This definitely leaves out any room for them to wander off into their own interests if they should conform. The students of Du Bois’s essay characterize one of which fits as a “simple tourist”. Du Bois said, Nothing new, no time saving devices, -simply old time glorified methods of delving the Truth, and searching the hidden beauties of life, and learning the good of living. The riddle of existence is the college curriculum that was laid before the Pharaohs, that was taught in the groves by Plato, that formed the trivium and quadrivium, and is to-day

laid before the freemens’s sons by Atlanta University. And this course will not change…(Du Bois, 235). Because they are expected to follow what expert say, their path is already predestined for them. The students suffer from a “loss of sovereignty” because the experts want the students to learn through the educational package that contains the preconceived notions of the expertise. Du Bois said that nothing will change in the educational system, thus, the students never get a chance to explore other than what experts expect and give them to learn. Percy would describe Du Bois students as “simple” students who are letting expert opinions control what they do, and how they perceive information. The expert’s guidance help to “form [the thoughts] in the sightseer’s

mind” (Percy, 566), thus, it takes away from the genuine experience. Percy would describe Du Bois students as “simple” students who are letting expert opinions control what they do, and how they perceive information. Percy would disagree with Du Bois that “old time glorified methods of delving the Truth, and searching the hidden beauties of life, and learning the good of living” is through being a “simple” student. One cannot be forced into liking something if they are truly not interested in it, but Du Bois argued that education is something that is necessary without taking into consideration the students desire to learn. Percy though, argued with an example that, “A student who has the desire to get at a dogfish or a Shakespeare sonnet may have the greatest