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 int...
