More Resources

Walker Percy, The Loss of the Creature

Walker Percy, The Loss of the Creature

Read The Loss of the Creature and check your comprehension by answering the following questions. Then “submit” your work.

1. Which of the following was not listed as a way to “recover” the Grand Canyon?

leaving the beaten track

viewing it above and through fellow tourists

viewing it in a time of disaster

touring on a donkey

2. Why does the hypothetical couple on vacation in Mexico want their ethnologist friend with them?

to validate the authenticity of their experience

so they can show they know more than an expert

because they are sick of the other Iowans

to bore them with factoids about the natives

3. In the second section, what two objects are the hypothetical students attempting to apprehend?

a Shakespearean sonnet and a dogfish

a psychology textbook and a diamond ring

a dinosaur skeleton and a WWII monument

a Spanish play and a violin

4. Which of the following problems does Percy explore when discussing the term specimen?

A specimen has no individuality.

A specimen has no freedom.

A specimen can never be perfect.

A specimen can never stand for what it is not.

5. According to Percy, why might a person carve his initials into a tree?

to show that he is a rebel

to show that he is more powerful than the tree

to show that he can write English

to show that he is more than a consumer