The Struggle For Originality Essay Research Paper — страница 2

difficulty in salvaging the creature itself from the educational package in which it is presented” (573). Percy suggests that the “educational package” gets in the way for a student to explore because within the educational system, there are always rules which can limit and deny the student their genuine experience of exploring on their own. Percy sees that, “…the citizen of Huxleys’s Brave New World who stumbles across a volume of Shakespeare in some vine-grown ruins and squats on a potsherd to read it is in a fairer way of getting at a sonnet than the Harvard sophomore taking English Poetry II” (Percy, 572). The student’s action was all motivated by personal desire, and thus, received the most from the experience. There was not any expert to tell the student

that that was the correct thing to do. Though Percy would define Du Bois’s students as “simple”, Du Bois would have no doubt in describing his students as “complex”. Du Bois believes education is the basis for everything in life, and it is essential to survival in the world. Du Bois would see that if a Negro gets out of the hard life, he/she would be leaving the “beaten track” that exist in their culture and history of the Negro life. Du Bois would deem the experiences on the “beaten track” as something out of the ordinary because the ordinary Negro life does not include education. The black students are expected to work hard jobs to support their family, which leaves no time to go to school. Working for money to support the family is the “beaten track” for

the people in Du Bois’s essay. Du Bois predicts that if a student pursues in an education seriously, they would be able to move ahead in life and get off the “beaten track” predestined for them by society. Du Bois stated that, “The function of the Negro college [is to provide]…the rich and bitter depth of their experience, the unknown treasures of their inner life, the strange rendings of nature they have seen, may give the world new points of view and make their loving, living and doing precious to all human hearts” (248). Du Bois infers that the educational system leads the person off the “beaten track” by expanding their views through the eyes of experts. This characterizes the “complex” tourists, which Du Bois would categorize students into. Percy though,

believes otherwise. It is difficult to clearly differentiate who is wrong and who is right in the two essays. Both Percy and Du Bois stand by their statements strongly, but through personal experiences, when education is forced upon the students such as myself, it is hard to absorb all the information being taught, therefore, my interest in learning is lost. Percy sees that as a “simple tourists” characteristic. Like my parents, Du Bois suggests that education provide a successful future. The black students who have not had the chance to experience college should view education as getting off the “beaten track”, but slavery, and hard labor which is their daily life is the “beaten track” that most follow. To Percy, I am “simple” because some of my experiences are

influenced by experts, but to my parents I would not be considered “simple” because I am doing something that is not common in their lives. Going to college is out of the ordinary, just like the Negroes. There are so many situations that need to be taken into consideration before categorizing people into “simple and complex”.