Family Theme Analysis

Family is a somewhat difficult subject for Percy and his demigod friends, as well as for the actual gods in the story. Every character, no matter how divine or mortal they might be, has a difficult relationship with at least one family member: Percy hates his stepdad, Smelly Gabe, and he resents his father at times; his friend Annabeth has a rocky relationship with her dad and stepmom; and the sibling relationships between the gods Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades are fraught at best. Though familial relationships in the novel are overwhelmingly tense and marred by feelings of jealousy, abandonment, or distrust, The Lightning Thief nevertheless shows that love, kindness, and honesty are what hold families together—no matter how convoluted or seemingly broken families may be.

Up until Percy discovers that he’s a demigod, his father’s absence doesn’t meaningfully bother him or impact his life. This is mostly because Percy has a loving, strong, and supportive relationship with his mom, despite her seeming bad taste in romantic partners. Mom is so kind, loving, and supportive of Percy that the absence of other family members simply isn’t worth worrying about; he has all the support he thinks he needs. Once Percy arrives at Camp Half-Blood, however, he discovers that he’s in the minority when it comes to having loving family at home, and when it comes to not experiencing a sense of abandonment in regards to the demigods’ divine parents. Luke, who’s the god Hermes’s son and the head counselor in the Hermes cabin, never mentions his mortal mother—but he’s openly bitter about the fact that Hermes has expressed little or no interest in him. This state of affairs isn’t at all abnormal at Camp Half-Blood: most gods, it seems, spend little time worrying about the children they’ve had with mortals. And yet, being gods and goddesses, the divine parents of the demigods nevertheless demand piety and reverence from their half-blood children—even those they’ve never met. Percy learns quickly that it’s not a good idea to say anything bad about the gods or his growing frustrations with his dad. At first, Percy doesn’t know who his dad is and so must wait for a sign, a waiting period that’s understandably frustrating and heartbreaking. Then, when Poseidon finally does claim Percy, Percy thinks of Poseidon as nothing more than a powerful, demanding presence, not like how Percy believes a dad should be. In other words, young demigods have little power to advocate for better treatment or more attention from their divine parents—and trying to advocate for oneself could feasibly result in punishment from the gods.

Although anger and difficulties among family members are most evident in the young demigods at Camp Half-Blood, Percy also takes great care to note that the demigods aren’t the only ones dealing with a traumatizing family history. Most notably, Percy must deal with the aftermath of the Titan Kronos’s attempts to eat his children, including Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. This event happened thousands of years ago, and the gods were successful in undermining their father’s efforts—and yet, the effects of Kronos’s actions reverberate even in Percy’s present, as Kronos attempts to regain power and free himself from his Underworld prison. Meanwhile, in the Underworld, Hades chafes under the rules insisting that he can only join his brothers in Olympus during the winter solstice meeting. Like any seemingly forgotten and misunderstood brother, Hades longs to prove himself and earn the respect from his brothers that he’s never had. And unfortunately for all the gods, fractured, unhappy, or jealous relationships among family members is the norm, not an anomaly—and Hade’s sadness and unhappiness are proof that in difficult family situations like these, everyone suffers.

Despite the prevalence of these dysfunctional family situations and the implication that such messiness and unhappiness isn’t going to change any time soon, the novel nevertheless suggests that on a more individual level, it is possible to improve one’s relationships to family members. Improvement happens, the novel suggests, when people are willing to be honest, apologize, and commit to their own improvement. Because Percy has such a strong relationship with Mom, he’s in a unique situation to be able to advise Annabeth in regards to her rocky relationship with her dad and her dad’s wife, who despises Annabeth for putting the other children in the family in danger. Because of this, Annabeth has been a year-round camper at Camp Half-Blood since she was seven years old. However, Percy is able to convince Annabeth that it’s worth it to try to improve things with her dad—he’s the parent with a better chance of being involved in Annabeth’s life, after all. Annabeth takes Percy’s advice to heart and apologizes to her dad for her past bad behavior—and fortunately, her dad is willing to accept the apology and commit to having Annabeth home for the school year.

Even more cathartically for Percy, he finally gets to meet Poseidon when he returns Zeus’s thunderbolt to him. Importantly, as Percy enters the throne room and greets his father for the first time, he notes that Poseidon looks distant and unreadable. In Percy’s opinion, this is far better than an upfront apology or a proclamation of fatherly love—neither he nor Poseidon, Percy realizes, are sure how they feel about their relationship to each other. Distance, Percy believes, is the most honest reaction they could give each other, as it leaves room for them to build a better relationship in the future. Through this, The Lightning Thief makes it clear that when it comes to family, honesty—even if the honest answer to how one feels about a familial relationship is “I don’t know”—is far superior to meaningless displays of affection. This may not give people or gods the loving, close relationships they desire, but it nevertheless gives individuals the room to find out who they are within a family and work to improve their relationships with other family members.