Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Lightning Thief, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity, Heroism, and Normalcy
Family
Friendship and Belonging
Godliness vs. Humanity
Summary
Analysis
The next morning, Percy moves to cabin three. He gets to choose his own activities, but he’s miserable. He feels like he’s been singled out just as he was starting to fit in. Many kids seem afraid of him. He has one-on-one sword lessons with Luke, and Annabeth seems irritable and annoyed during their Greek lessons. One night, Percy discovers a mortal newspaper in his cabin that’s open to an article about Percy and Mom’s disappearance. It suggests that Percy may be to blame, and someone circled the tip line number. That night, Percy has another horrendous dream. He watches two muscular men fighting and knows he must stop them, but a storm blows him back. One man tells the other to “give it back,” and Percy can hear an evil voice underground telling him to come down.
Being a child of a Big Three god means that Percy is no longer just another child of an absent god—he’s both a curiosity and a liability. Because he’s not supposed to exist, the bullying ramps up, and kids do everything they can to make Percy feel unwelcome. Annabeth’s sudden shift to being curt and rude suggests that she takes it seriously that she can’t be friends with Poseidon’s kids. Her insistence shuts her off from what could be a valuable friendship.
Themes
Percy falls into darkness in the dream, and he wakes up. It’s early morning. There’s a storm brewing outside, and Grover appears, insisting that Mr. D wants to see Percy. Percy is sure he’s going to be punished for being Poseidon’s son. Grover insists that the storm will pass around them, but Percy notices the other campers watching the storm uneasily. Mr. D and Chiron are playing pinochle. Mr. D insults Poseidon, spits that he’d love to either burn Percy or turn him into a dolphin, but instead, Percy must be gone by the time he gets back from the emergency meeting on Olympus. He disappears. Chiron invites Percy and Grover to sit, and then asks Percy what he thought of the hellhound. He says that Percy will see far worse before he’s done with his quest.
Percy’s identity as Poseidon’s son makes him a target. In this case, figuring out who he is and answering important questions about himself isn’t a good thing—it sets Percy up for failure and feeling bad about himself. Mr. D’s willingness to be so openly cruel to a child reflects the difficult relationships between the gods. In his mind, Percy is nothing more than a proxy for Poseidon himself, and so it’s no big deal to behave this way. This illustrates how the gods think of their half-blood children: as proxies and tools, not necessarily as people.
Themes
Percy asks what the quest is, but Chiron says that the details are fuzzy. Percy suggests that Poseidon and Zeus are fighting over something stolen. Percy shares what he’s picked up from Annabeth and says he’s been having weird dreams. Grover is thrilled, but Chiron insists that Percy must talk to the Oracle first. He confirms that Poseidon and Zeus are fighting, this time over Zeus’s missing master thunderbolt—which Zeus believes that Percy stole. He has good reason to believe this: Poseidon has done things like this before, he just claimed Percy as his son, and Percy was in New York over the holidays when the winter solstice meeting took place. Percy insists that Zeus is crazy, which makes the clouds roll over camp.
Percy and the reader are well aware that Percy didn’t steal Zeus’s master thunderbolt; he didn’t even know he was a demigod at the time it was stolen. This should, in theory, be obvious, and so Zeus’s unwillingness to consider this illustrates his own fallibility. Zeus is more interested in blaming the easiest target than he is in getting at the truth, a shortcoming that reads as distinctly human—and yet, once again, Percy cannot say anything bad about the gods without consequences.
Themes
Percy is adamant that this is nonsense and asks if Poseidon really had someone steal the master bolt. Chiron sighs that stealing isn’t Poseidon’s style, but he’s too proud to convince Zeus he didn’t do it. Thus, Zeus wants his bolt by the summer solstice in 10 days, and Poseidon wants an apology by the same time. The world will be at war if no one finds the bolt, and Percy will be the first one Zeus strikes down. It starts to rain, and Percy feels as though Zeus is punishing the camp because of him. Chiron says that if Percy fetches the bolt, it’d be a great peace offering. Before he can tell Percy where he thinks the bolt is, though, Percy must accept the quest and consult the Oracle. Chiron sends Percy to the attic.
While Zeus jumps to conclusions, Poseidon is overly prideful. All gods and goddesses, this suggests, have some sort of major character fault that keeps them from thinking rationally and making rational, well-thought-out decisions. That Percy can see how irrational the gods are being puts him in a unique position to fix things. Though he’s just a demigod, he may have the power to help the gods see the errors of their ways—and help them become better people in the process.
Themes
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Percy climbs into the attic, which is filled with “Greek hero junk” and pickled parts of monsters. Most gruesome is a shriveled female mummy in a tie-dyed sundress and beaded necklaces. She sits up, and green mist pours from her mouth. In his head, Percy hears the mummy introduces herself as the spirit of Delphi and ask him to approach. He forces himself to calm down—he understands that the mummy is just a receptacle for ancient, inhuman power and asks what his destiny is. The mist forms into Smelly Gabe and his friends. Gabe says that Percy will go west to face “the god who has turned.” One guy says that Percy will find and return what was stolen, another says that a friend will betray Percy, and Eddie says that Percy will fail to save what matters most. The image dissolves. The Oracle doesn’t elaborate.
When Percy understands the true nature of the Oracle, it shows that some elements of the divine world are easy to understand. They may not make total sense, but because Percy is naturally a part of this world, he instinctively understands how they work. That Gabe and his poker buddies are the forms to relay Percy’s destiny suggests that Percy’s quest is a game as much as anything else—and Percy might be a pawn, not necessarily a player in control. This shows that the gods like to play with and control others, something that Percy will have to come to terms with as he learns more about this world.
Themes
Percy returns to Chiron and Grover, but he only relays the Oracle’s first line. Chiron says knowingly that the Oracle’s words have double meanings, so Percy shouldn’t dwell on them. Then, Chiron walks Percy through what he must do: the thunderbolt must be in the Underworld with Hades. Terrified, Grover tries to insist that the bolt could be elsewhere, but Percy finds that he’s excited, not afraid—especially if Mom is in the Underworld too. Percy does feel awful about needing to take Grover with him, since he knows he’ll fail, according to the Oracle. He asks why they can’t just tell Zeus or Poseidon that Hades has the bolt, but Chiron explains that the gods can’t go into the Underworld, while heroes can go anywhere and challenge anyone—this is why the gods operate through humans. Percy says that he’s being used, and he feels simultaneously resentful, happy, and angry.
Here, Percy receives confirmation that he’s a pawn and not necessarily a thinking player: the gods need humans, and demigods to do their dirty work for them. Further, Chiron also confirms that rational, open communication doesn’t necessarily work the way Percy thinks it should when dealing with divine conflicts like this. What does work are games, deceit, trickery, and heroics. While it’s possible to find instances like this in the mortal world too, this makes Percy feel very out of his element. He knows that open communication works, so it’s a shock to hear that it won’t apply to this situation.
Themes
Percy lists all the things he has to do and then turns to Grover. He says he can’t ask Grover to go, but Grover says that he’ll go to repay Percy for saving his life. Percy is relieved enough to cry; Grover is his oldest friend. He asks Chiron where they should go. Chiron says that the Underworld is always in the west—now, it’s in Los Angeles. Percy suggests they take a plane, but Grover shrieks and Chiron points out that in the air, Percy is in Zeus’s territory—he’d die. Chiron says that Percy can take two companions, and that Annabeth has already volunteered. Annabeth becomes visible, stuffs her Yankees cap away, and says she’s going.
While Grover agrees to go more out of affection for and loyalty to Percy than anything else, Annabeth goes because she wants the opportunity to prove herself and be a hero. Annabeth’s mindset will clearly have to change over the course of the quest if the trio hopes to be successful—unlike the gods, Annabeth can’t be selfish. She’s a demigod, meaning she’s not infallible, so she must extend herself to the others and rely on their friendship in turn.
Themes
