Literary Analysis; Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Literary Analysis; Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Any author of reading material will always try to appeal to the readers from any generation. Readability and fun are supplements to the majority of the literary works. The book, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan, is based on Greek Mythology and narrates a story about Percy Jackson, a young teenager. The author employed several literary devices, styles, aspects etc. This essay will predominantly determine the techniques used and to what extent did the author applied them to enhance the success of his work. Therefore, the focus aims at examining such literary techniques as the story’s setting, the character details, the narration style, the author’s tone, story’s diction, and its delivery of sharp details.

The title

The book’s title can conventionally refer to someone who has stolen lightning. However, we find Percy, the main protagonist, showing up in the Underworld with his backpack carrying Zeus’s stolen master bolt. Later, we understand that Luke had taken the Hades’s helm of darkness and the master bolt. Thus, the “lightning thief” is Luke. The author uses this aspect of theft to keep the readers throughout the central conflicts revolving around the theft of Zeus’s master bolt.

Setting

Setting as a literary device is very vital when depicting the environment or world where the characters find themselves in. Rick Riordan, the book’s author, utilized a variety of setting aspects to have some fictitious places incorporated with reality. It induces a sense of mystery to the readers; thus, the story becomes more enjoyable.

The setting starts at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in Manhattan; a densely populated borough in New York City, where Percy Jackson – the protagonist – faces his first challenge. Mrs Dodds, his teacher, turns into a Fury, also known as a Kindly One, who has to be defeated or else Percy dies. The protagonist defeated Mrs Dodds after Mr Brunner, his teacher, gave him a pen which turned into a sword for slaying the Fury. However, he started doubting himself when no one is seemingly not remembering the teacher at all. He found out that there is something wrong, especially when Grover, his bad-lying friend, seemed to be aware of what is going on, though he is trying to cover it up.

The setting moves from the museum to a fictional place called Yancy Academy, where the protagonist is enrolled. Here, the protagonist finds out that Grover and Mr Brunner are keeping secrets from him. Percy and his mother (Sally), along with his friend Grover, went to the Camp Half-Blood, a place for demigods. On the way, they face an ambush by a Minotaur. Minotaur captures Sally and is dissolved into a golden light, as his friend Grover gets knocked down unconscious. After observing his mother disappearing, Percy, in a fit of rage, attacks and slays the beast with its broken horn. Percy drags Grover into a farmhouse in Camp Half-Blood and passes out screaming for help. When he wakes up, he finds himself in a tent where he is receives healing. He learns he is a demigod and his father is Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. Rick Riordan then moves the setting to Los Angeles where Percy, Grover and Annabeth find the entrance to the Underworld battling monsters along the way.

The author then changes the setting from reality to fiction; as Percy and his friends travel to the Underworld to get back Zeus’s master bolt. Percy, at this point, finds out that Hades’ Helm of darkness is also missing, however, Percy is deemed to have taken it. Percy then flees from the Underworld with his friends where he finds that Ares is the culprits behind the thefts and challenges him to a duel to obtain the items. Percy then returns the items after winning the fight, and Hades sends his mother home. The setting continues in Camp Half-Blood, where he learns that Luke is the mastermind behind the thefts. Luke poisons him after he disagrees with joining him. The story’s setting ends when Percy wakes up in Camp Half-Blood and is given a choice to go home or stay at the camp.

Character

Rick Riordan created a variety of roles in the story. The characters which he chooses are very memorable, and the reader tends to like them immediately as they quite accurately represent the Greek mythology. One of the notable figures in the story is Perseus Jackson, mostly called Percy. He is the son of Sally Jackson and Poseidon – Greek god of the sea. He travels to the Underworld with his friends to save his mother and prevent an all-out war between the Greek gods. His character changes from the beginning to the end of the story. He is both the narrator and the protagonist.

In the beginning, he is a 12-year-old student at Yancy Academy, New York, a privately sponsored school for troubled kids. His mother equally handles his relative appetite for food. Also, he has dyslexia and Attention Deficit – Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Later, it is clear that Percy is a demigod, the Greek god’s son. Thus, his “dyslexia” is attributed to his brain’s ‘wiring’ to enhance the reading of Ancient Greek’s letters (Riordan 88); whereas, his ADHD is related to heightened senses and “reflexes of the battle-field” (Riordan 88).

Percy is a descendant of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, the ‘big-three’ gods. Therefore, his powers have high prevalence as compared to other demigods. Being Poseidon’s son, he is capable of breathing under the water and controlling vast amounts of the water since the majority of his powers are revolving around water. Besides, he is capable of communicating telepathically with any creature or animal with traits related to a horse, and sea creatures – since Poseidon, as a god, is the creator of horses.

Narration style

The first-person narration style is used widely in the story. Percy Jackson is telling us the story of his 6^th-grade year and the summer that followed that year. He ‘warns’ the readers that the story he is going to narrate is ‘a dangerous one’. He describes everything, including his life’s welfare and his feelings about other characters. To the readers, it seems like Percy’s diary is being read.

The tone of the story

Percy’s tone is hilariously sarcastic and ironical a bit. This is seen from the book’s Table of Contents, with such titles of chapters as “We Get Advice from a Poodle” and “I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom.”. For instance, the phrase “I Become Supreme Lord…” is declarative, then, “…of the Bathroom” is a more declarative lead; thus, surprisingly takes the readers and catches them off-guard.

Diction

Rick Riordan mostly employs the use of simple words in the story. Typically, the readers targeted are no more than 12-years-olds. Therefore, phrases and wordplays are relatively elementary. Any older reader with more reading experience could find the choices of words to be just intellectually insulting.

Use of sharp details

Another aspect of Rick Riordan’s literary work is that it is sharply detailed. His aim is to have the readers induced with abilities to understand and imagine everything happening as precisely as he saw it. Therefore, a lot of details have been presented, which describes the setting on wherever Percy goes. Moreover, Percy, at some point, was brief in his narration. For instance, there is a moment when says: “Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.” From this statement, the readers are visualizing him ditching Grover at the terminal. The readers understand Percy’s feeling of guilt since he uses the terms of the situation as “confession”.

In conclusion, the author applied a mixture of literary techniques that does his work to be appealing to the readers. Even though the story is deemed to be targeting children, the fun, humour and other information being relayed in the story enables it to traverse generational boundaries and suit all the interested readers, be it young or old. The story’s literary work is phenomenal as attributed by its outstanding setting from the real world to a fictional world, the choice and development of characters, first-person narration style, the tone, the choice of words, and the sharp details relayed.