Congratulations on being accepted to State College! I'm happy you made the decision to come here. State College has numerous great opportunities to offer its students. You also told me that you are enrolled in English Composition 101. One of the pieces of literature you will encounter in this course will be "The Creature's Loss," by Walker Percy. For your preparation for the course I can summarize and give you my explanation of "The Loss of the Creature". Throughout the essay Percy tries to explain how any person with expectations or "packages" will not be able to fully accept and learn from any experience. “The Loss of the Creature” begins with the definition of beautiful, which is a key point throughout his essay. Next, he moves on to the example of a tourist family and their experience (through his eyes) at the Grand Canyon. He describes his theory of the tourist and the discoverer; “A single tourist receives the value of P, or only a millionth part of the value of P” (p. 1) The value of P, being the experience and beauty that that person has reaped. Following the tourists was a couple who came across an undisturbed Mexican village. The couple thoroughly enjoyed their first experience, but couldn't wait to return with their ethnologist friend. When they got back with him, they were so caught up in what his reaction would be; there was a total loss of sovereignty. Due to their differences in interest in the village, the couples' return trip was a waste. The second part of the essay includes a Falkland Islander who comes across a dead dogfish lying on the beach. Also, explain how a student with a Shakespeare sonnet has no chance of being absorbed by a student due to the surroundings or classroom layout. The two students receive wrong messages, on the one hand we have the biology student with his "magic wand" made of scalpels, on the other the English student with his sonnet in his "package of many fabrics". Both students are unaware of the real experience they might be having, and the teacher might even give the dogfish to the English student and the sonnet to the biology student because they will be able to explore and learn more within the different environment, and without the environment and expectations (p 6).