The themes of control within Susan Douglas's "Narcissism as Liberation," Ralph Ellison's "Extravagance of Laughter," and Walker Percy's "Loss of the Creature" are explored.

Although they use different terminology Susan Douglas, Ralph Ellison, and Walker Percy mention and emphasize the importance of control at several points throughout their essays. It can be concluded that all three authors believe that it is important for the individual to maintain control over their own self for to sacrifice control would be to lose the individuality that makes a person. The methods society uses to control the individual varies, according to each author. …

…of managing one's self to match what society and what society deems as appropriate. If only individuals learned to see past what society mandates as "normal" we could liberate ourselves from the prison of culture's unreasonable ideals and see beauty or idealism as we ourselves deem appropriate. The importance of control is emphasized throughout all three essays, and the loss of control of an individual's self is what separates him from the rest of society.