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Susan Douglas is a writer who is outside the confinements of formality, dignity, and even absolute credibility. Walker Percy seems entirely dependent on all these things. At first it would appear that these writers have nothing in common, this is not true, these essays are much more alike than actually apparent. Their differences, while strong, are matched equally by several general characteristics that cross between each piece of writing, and even a common thread between their topics.

Douglas’s "Narcissism as Liberation" seems at first to be the polar opposite of "The Loss of the Creature". Without a doubt these two writers have different approaches in catching the reader. Douglas tries to endear herself to her audience by making pop culture references, and outwardly showing her frustration: "I’m worth it, insists Cybill Shephard in her brattiest na-na-na-poo-poo voice as she swirls her blonde hare in my face"(117). Cybill Shephard is hardly a reference that people will recall 50 years from now, whereas Percy's references to Hemingway, and Tennessee Williams will last far longer than that. Statements like "swirls her blonde hair in my face"show a certain amount of frustration. The fact that she’s angry certainly makes the issue personal. In contrast, Percy stays above the reader his entire essay.

The sarcastic tone in the above statement holds throughout the essay with phrases like "yippie-kiyo-kiyay" (117), and "Lyndon Johnson in drag" (122). Nothing even close to this enters into the Percy essay; should he use humor he may run the risk of no longer sounding sophisticated. No such quorum exists for Douglas; her tone again and again shows a personal attachment to the issue that Percy wouldn’t go near. This point is made clear from the onset. The opening statement of each essay sets its tone. Susan Douglas has her "na-na-na-poo-poo" (117), and Percy has his grandiose "every explorer names his island Formosa, beautiful" (Percy 565), a bold generalization to say the least.

Although, if one looks a little further into Douglas’s opening paragraph one will find the same type of general implication: "every women I know has the same reaction" (117). This referring to her violent response to the "I’m worth it"campaign. Even though she bases the statement on her personal knowledge, it implies, without a doubt, that absolutely every woman reacts to these commercials in the same way. Right off the bat we see a parallel between the two essays. As we read on another similarity is made clear.

They are both talking about culture and its faults. Percy talks about a culture of consumers and experts; Douglas talks about a culture of narcissists, and advertising agencies. "Narcissism as Liberation"however makes it blatantly clear that it is referring to specifically American culture. Its always "America’s multibazillion-dollar cosmetics business"(117), or "Americans were desperately insecure" (119). Percy (while managing to hide it a little better) is also talking about American culture. All of his negative examples, those that miss the sovereign experience, "the Bostonian" (Percy 566), "The student" (Percy 572), the "American couple"(Percy 569) are All-American. This must be a fault in American culture if all those that fall victim are American. Each essay not only talks about American culture, but also shows incredible disdain for it.

Percy's use of "The actual loss of hope" (Percy 569) definitely gives the reader the impression that he is unsatisfied with the situation, as do phrases like "a desperate attempt" (Percy 569), and "waives his right of seeing" (Percy 566). His dislike of the culture can also be seen in his constant calls for that "rare man" (Percy 565) to rise above it all. A desire to see the culture break out of this trend, shows indefinitely, that he is not fond of this phenomenon.

Susan Douglas shows her dislike for our culture (at least for it’s narcissistic nature) in many ways. The sarcastic tone of her entire essay shows this dislike " …those hideous, loudmouthed feminists who thought sisterhood, and political activism mattered" (117) is a satirical statement that shows exactly how little she thinks of those who would perpetuate this narcissistic behavior. The point can be seen more clearly with "you could almost hear the skin cream moguls in their boardrooms yelling yippie-kiyo-kiyay" (117). Yippie-kiyo-kiyay is not a statement that one wouldn't necessarily attach to anyone they thought highly of. Of course, with the cosmetics industry being one of the main parties who exploit America’s narcissism, she has no troubling insulting their intelligence thusly.

Her passionate dislike is made clear as we venture deeper into the paper. She summarizes her argument with wording that can’t help but show personal frustration, she even begins a series of personal statements with "I’m tired of…" (131), "I’m real tired of…" (131) This certainly shows a personal disparity, almost a "loss of hope" (Percy 569).

Douglas’s grammar even shows this at times: "It wasn’t enough to put some Lubriderm on your face-my God!-" -"(122). Here we see the interjection of "my God"(a statement that proves her anger to begin with) in the middle of a sentence under the maximum amount of emphasis possible, surrounded by dashes, followed by an exclamation point. This comes right in the middle of yet another example about a cosmetics commercial that pays on our narcissistic tendencies.

Susan Douglas picks apart a lot of cosmetics ads, breaks them down, and shows us exactly how they sell their products by praying on the insecurities of the American female. That’s another thing the two essays have in common, they both repeat the same point with 7 or 8 separate examples. In "The Loss of the Creature"we see through several examples exactly how ones could loose sovereignty. "The American couple"(Percy 569), "young man" (Percy 571) who "goes to France"(Percy 571), "the Harvard sophomore"(Percy 573) all these scenarios basically stress the same point, just applied to different situations. Likewise Douglas’ rants about "the dimple free upper thigh" (119), "Hanes" (120), "Victoria’s secret catalogs" (130) all seem to have the same basic emphasis on The media’s perpetuation of the women that "conforms to unrealistic cultural ideals" (130).One of the main advertising techniques that she describes is the use of "pseudoscientific jargon"(123) by these cosmetics companies to pedal their wears. Terms like "micro-capsules" (123), and "Biomimitism"were supposed to sell women anti-wrinkle cream. Treating your target audience like morons isn’t going to sell your product, is it? This question is answered by the mere fact that commercials like this still exists today; as Susan put it "the ad strategies established then are still in high gear"(119). These campaigns must have been successful if there were "no shortage of them" (123). If a large portion of women in the 1980’s bought into this nonsensical jargon spouted out by scientific experts, then can’t they be compared to Percy’s "Consumer"(Percy 571)? The Consumer surrenders sovereignty, and simply accepts the word of the "Expert" (Percy 571). If these women simply swallow this so-called science being given to them, don’t they "surrender sovereignty over that which has been theorized about"(Percy 572)?

So we see that throughout the essay they are both talking about faults in American culture. They even have the same technique in using repeated examples to stress the severity of their point. Perhaps most incredibly we see that in at least part of each essay they cover the same cultural phenomenon. If we use this as a point of reference we may be able to go even a step beyond that. Percy continually calls for "that rare man"(Percy 565) who can rise above the status of consumer and "knows that it has to be recovered"(Percy 565). "Narcissism as Liberation" continually calls for women to "be on with it"(121). It encourages women to stop falling for these offensive and downright degrading advertising techniques. Can’t this be considered a call to "that rare" (Percy 565) woman?