Questions for Reading #1

Percy progresses through his essay adding example to example, and providing multiple examples for the situation. Yet he manages to do this without repeating himself or sounding redundant. His thoughts progress from being simple and commonplace, to more abstract and far-fetched. He start with everyday people and moves to more educated people who have a different view on things and different ideas of how to deal with the places they visit. Take the tourists to the Grand Canyon and compare them to the Mexican travelers.  The people that go to the Grand Canyon are everyday tourists who go to the places they are told they should see, as Percy is talking about.  They go there to enjoy what they are supposed to enjoy.  While Percy does not distinguish between the two different tourists, I view the Mexican group as travelers.  They move around teh country and when they get lost they embrace it.  This is his simplest progression.  Or, with the example of the students, he starts with a highschool biology class and goes to a college level reading class. He does this as a way to show the progression of ideas. At first people see it as ruined to a certain extent, but eventually see it in a different light that is more educated and understanding of what is going on. It shows that this is going to happen and there is nothing people can do about it. All the beautiful hidden treasures and such that people discover are meant to be shown to the world.  This includes places or objects.  This is how the world gets to what it is today by sharing information.  As Percy progresses through his essay it slowly becomes more evident that without sharing knowledge with everyone we would be stuck in one place our whole lives, literally and figuratively.