The Lightning Thief Identity

Percy can't choose to be half-blood. It chooses him. His mom tries to choose a normal life for him for years, but the situation is beyond her control. Percy's destiny is wrapped up in the fact that he is half-human and half-god. When he tells us that being a half-blood is dangerous, he is talking from the perspective of someone who has just returned from a quest. We're getting his perspective on the quest after he's completed it and is able to reflect on it.

Sometimes it's easy to forget that Percy is just a kid. Grown-ups like Sally and Chiron are able to help him see what he doesn't know, to see past the rules and standards of the mortal world where being "normal" is a really good thing. What does being "normal" mean anyway?

What does Chiron mean here? Isn't Percy a half-blood? We thought we established that already. Chiron seems to refer to another aspect of Percy's personality that he hasn't figured out yet: his mortal parent. The identity of a demi-god is very dependent on who his/her mortal parent is.

Gulp. We've always thought of the stories of Greek gods as being myths. But Chiron makes an interesting point here. The gods in The Lightning Thief are definitely not myths. They're present all the time, listening and fighting and weighing in on matters. They are so foolish and rash sometimes, they almost seem human. Being labeled as "myths" seems to wipe away any sense of true identity from the gods. This label almost makes them less powerful.

Annabeth is a good guide to a very confused Percy. By virtue of finding and entering Camp Half-Blood, Percy learns a whole lot about himself and what he is capable of. However, it takes another half-blood, Annabeth, to really help him understand what being at Camp Half-Blood means. Percy has spent most of his life as a loner – he doesn't know what it's like to be part of a community.

Percy's self-esteem is mighty low in the beginning of his story. He has no friends beyond Grover, he never gets to stick around, he can't "get" school and what he learns there, and he's always getting into huge trouble. He's an outsider, a loner. But his mom sees through the "normal" measures of intelligence and personality that claim Percy is troubled and stupid.

We're seven chapters into The Lightning Thief, and Percy is only just beginning to grasp what is going on, why he's really at Camp Half-Blood. Why is it so hard for him to understand that he is half-god? Compare the way Percy finds out that he is a half-blood to the way Harry Potter of the Harry Potter series discovers that he is a wizard.

Again, Percy is a bit hard on himself. He's really good at beating himself up and at seeing himself as being a loser. He's got to learn how to really open his eyes and see the possibilities of something like canoeing. He's still measuring himself by the mortal world's standards.

Annabeth is a brave chica. She recognizes that the safety of Camp Half-Blood is actually about too safe for her. If she is a demi-god, she wants to act like one. She doesn't want to be pent up in a camp, not using her abilities. As a demi-god, she's already a social outcast in the mortal world. Staying at Camp Half-Blood forever makes her and other demi-gods feel like outcasts in immortal world, too.

You bring up a good point, Echidna. One of the biggest things that Percy has to learn over the course of his quest is faith: faith in himself and faith in the gods. And, boy, does he do a good job of learning this. How does faith work? Can you just say you are going to believe in the gods and then believe in them? How does Percy gain faith in himself and in the gods?