Plot Summary: Percy Jackson is a twelve-year-old boy, diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, who has been expelled from six schools, the latest being Yancy Academy. During a school field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York city, his pre-algebra teacher, Mrs. Dodds, attacks Percy, revealing that she is one of the three Furies. Percy's mother Sally allows his stepfather Gabe Ugliano to mistreat them both because Gabe "takes care of them" financially. To get away from Gabe, Sally takes Percy on a trip to Long Island for a three day vacation.
In the
middle of the first night, Percy's closest friend and former classmate at Yancy
Academy, Grover Underwood, who is revealed to be a satyr , warns him that the "Kindly
Ones", The Furies, are trying to kill him. Sally drives them both to Camp
Half-Blood, a camp for demigods where they can train. On the way there, they
are attacked by a Minotaur, which grabs Percy's mother by her
throat. She dissolves into a golden shower of light, while Grover and Percy
narrowly escape and enter the camp. There, Percy passes out and is taken care
of for a few days by Camp Half-Blood.
Percy is
moved into the Hermes cabin, under the care of Luke Castellan, the cabin's
counselor. The Hermes cabin is established to be the place where all demigods
with unknown parentage are placed. Clarisse, a daughter of Ares, says newcomers at camp have to have
their heads dunked into a filthy toilet and tries to dunk Percy's head into a
toilet with her friends. However, the water responds to Percy and Clarisse, her
friends, and Annabeth are drenched instead. For revenge, during a game of
capture the flag, Clarisse and her siblings attack Percy. He steps into the
adjoining river and is healed by the waters while Poseidon's trident appears
above his head, revealing him to be the son of Poseidon. Unfortunately, it also means that
Poseidon has broken an oath that he, Hades and Zeus took after the Second World
War to refrain from having any more children with mortal women, as the children
can become too powerful and become a threat. Such an example is demonstrated
when Chiron mentions the story of Thalia Grace, an unfortunate daughter of
Zeus. Percy is granted a quest to find Zeus's Master Bolt which Chironi, one of Percy's tutors at the camp,
believes Hades has stolen. Zeus, however, believes Poseidon had Percy steal the
bolt.
Percy has
ten days before the summer solstice to find the bolt and is given magic flying
shoes by Luke before leaving on the quest with Annabeth and Grover. Percy
decides to travel west to reach the entrance to the underworld in Hollywood.
They encounter a lot of monsters during the trip but they still manage to
safely return the bolt to Zeus.
Theme: The theme of this story is friendship and that you
have to fight even in the worst situations and not give up hope. For example,
Percy's friend Grover is always by Percy's side even though he is really scared
at times. The same goes for Annabeth even though she doesn't really have a good
relationship with Percy she is still by his side helping him. Also Percy
was in a lot of pretty dangerous situations that in most cases put his life in
danger but in the end he got through it. To me these are two pretty awesome
themes that go absolutely perfect with this thrilling story.
Favorite Quote: My favorite quote in this perfectly-paced
story is "If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's
fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this
ever happened." I like this quote because even though the story is fiction
this quote stresses the seriousness of the story and its characters. This
quote pulls you read the book of how the quote is written. It is filled with
suspense and a beautiful sense of despair. That's why I love this quote.
It makes me think and I love a good challenge.
