The "sovereignty "of which Percy speaks of in the essay is the right of seeing and knowing. When the sightseer arrives at the canyon, he "waives his right of seeing and knowing and records symbols for the next forty years". The sightseer does not confront the canyon like Percy says; he takes pictures of it instead. By doing so, he has, in a way, surrendered himself (like the majority of the tourists) to the symbolic complex in his mind. …show more content…
This is why the sightseer cannot see the Grand Canyon it for what it is. Rather, when the sightseer goes to visit the canyon, already he is expecting to see certain aspects of the canyon that he has seen in picture postcards, geography book, tourist folders, and the like. He is not delighted or amused from "a progressive discovery of depths, patterns, colors, shadows, etc." but "measures his satisfaction by the degree to which the canyon conforms to the preformed complex". His need to preserve the "memory" of the canyon disallows him to fully appreciate the