Percy's 'The Loss Of The Creature'

Akia Harris
Honors English In “The Loss of the Creature,” Percy focuses on how one perceives something before actually witnessing it based on the opinions of others. The value of the place or idea is already preconceived due to the fact that we are so caught up in time that we overlook the entire experience as a whole. Or being that we are so focused on the option on an object from someone else, we miss the whole concept or what it’s true meaning or “beauty” as Percy state’s is. We lose the ability to make our own decisions because we base them off of someone else’s viewpoints. Using an example of a movie that I experienced shows Percy’s point.
In the movie, “The boy in the stripped pajamas,” 8 year old Bruno has a great deal of loss of sovereignty. Set in the times of World War II, and the son of the commandant o a concentration camp, he knew little about what was really going on. Understanding that he was only 8 years of age, it was obvious to why his father kept such things from him. Oblivious to it all. Until one day, he and his family moved from their old home into more of a secluded area, not knowing less than a few feet away were
a concentration camp.
His father showed his propaganda videos of these camps before.
In doing so, these videos distracted Bruno from the severity of the reality of the situation. Showing clips of happy people, wonderful enjoyment and it seemed as though a concentration camp was the best place on earth to be. Being impressionable from his father, he got the preconceived notion of the camp before he got the chance to witness it himself. His mind was so corrupted of the vision his father gave him that it was hard for him to grasp the concept of what the camp truly was. This relates to the story of the couple who stumbled across the Mexican village. “Although Taxco and Cuernavaca are interesting and picturesque as advertised, they fall short of “it”. (Percy 462) This is showing the preconceived notion. But when they got there, it was everything
but.
While wandering, out of curiosity, Bruno stumbled upon the concentration camp. He met a young Jewish boy around his age. At first, he seemed as though he was not processing what was going on. But as time went on, he was taken aback when he realized the condition of the younger boy. He constantly questioned him about the food and fun that his father showed him in the videos. Filled with many horrors of hundreds of malnourished people, filthy atmospheres and overall beyond poor condition, the boy tried explaining it to Bruno that it was not what his father made it out to be. But due to the fact that it was already set in his mind, it took Bruno a while to process. In the end, Bruno ends up sneaking into the camp trying to discover the fun his father described to him and ended being killed in a gas chamber with hundreds of Jews.
Percy’s ideas recover “the real” by referencing how the people were so caught up in how others perceived it; they missed the true value themselves. Or they see no real value in it due to the fact that they already have an idea of what the place is or is to be discovered. He uncovers that the creature is innocent and pure. It is undiscovered and undefined. Which leads to the question, can we ever truly see real beauty? In the movie, there was never a chance for poor Bruno to discover the real in his situation, because by then it was ultimately too late.
Work Cited
Bartholomae, David, and Tony Petrosky. Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin 's, 1999. Print.