The Message In The Bottle Analysis

In the book The Message in The Bottle by Walker Percy, he brings out many topics that really make one question their vision of the world and themselves. One big argument he brings up in his second chapter, “The Loss of the Creature” is that as individual beings, humans are losing their sovereignty. Sovereignty is our ability to think independently, to make our own assumptions and to be in control of own our perceptions of things. He believes that many individuals have lost their sovereignty due to preconceived ideas they have built up, such as the ideas derived from the television and its symbolic complex. The symbolic complex are thoughts or ideas formed through visuals or sounds that are created by those we think are "experts or planners." When this symbolic complex comes into play, individuals who are exposed to anything new in their life, already have preconceived notions of what their experience is going to be. These outside sources really influence one’s opinion to the extent that, they can alter people's life experiences. Percy’s argument is quite valid, and I strongly agree with him; everyday we are losing sovereignty, especially
We are constantly being brought up with ideas that are not our own. In my specific example about television, when our first hand experience does not live up to that advertisement companies deliver the televised “ideal” our experiences are brought down; at that moment, we lose our sovereignty. Although we may be bombarded with many sound, or visual effects that create an exaggerated expectation, there is a greater need to hone in on what we know is true. The reality is that in life, in television advertising, there is no “one size fits all,” that is our biggest mistake, is thinking and giving in to the idea that the experience of an individual, can be satisfied in the experience of