Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Eric Stern

Character Sketch

In Percy Jackson and the Lighting Thief, by Rick Riordan, Percy displays various characteristics that show his courageousness and bravery. Percy is a half-blood which means that he is the son of a god, who is Poseidon (the sea god), and an immortal (his mother). This means that water is his friend and will not hurt him, only heal him. The storyline of this book is Percy Jackson and his friends, Annabeth and Grover must find Zeus' Master Bolt and return it to him before the Summer Solstice. If this quest is not completed, a huge war would break out between the gods.

Initially, Percy Jackson depicted many notable personality traits that I found interesting. In the beginning of the book, Percy was portrayed as being a loser who had only a handful of friends. Percy, similar to friends of mine, has dyslexia and ADHD. Dyslexia is a general term for disorders that involve difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and numbers. This does not affect intelligence. Percy, tried to make the best of his school career even though he was kicked out of some odd number of schools each year.

Secondly, Percy demonstrates heroic traits in his adventure returning the Master Bolt back to Zeus. For instance, Percy is very loyal to his friends as shown when he rescues them countless number of times from danger. Namely, when Annabeth and Grover let Echidna take a picture of them and turn them into a statue of stone for eternity. To save his friends, Percy uncaps Riptide (his pen that turns into a sword) and kills Echidna. Bravery is another characteristic that Percy exemplifies. When Percy is at the top of the Gateway Arch (above the Mississippi River), a Chihuahua transforms itself into a chimera and tries to kill him. Fortunately, Percy sticks to his gut and jumps down and falls in the Mississippi River. "But my impact with the water hadn't hurt. I was falling slowly now, bubbles trickling up through my fingers" (212). Percy was saved by this act because he had faith that his father, Poseidon, was watching over him.

Clearly, Percy Jackson shows his courageousness in this book. In every fatal situation that Percy gets involved in, he finds an option to save not only himself, but his friends as well. He can easily be considered as a Christ figure and a hero because he shows his willingness and desire to accomplish things that he thought he could never complete.