Monday March 23

2015

Making or Facing an Important Choice in Percy Jackson and the

Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Certain decisions made by characters can affect the whole outcome of a story. The

outcome of these important decisions will affect the character throughout the rest of that

character's life. Many people, in real life and in stories, have to face or make an

important choice during their lives. These next few paragraphs will be about three major

decisions made by three characters in Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning

Thief. These three characters are: Percy Jackson, who had to decide between staying at

Camp Half-Blood to train or to start his quest to get his mother back as soon as possible

while bringing his friends along, Sally Jackson, who had to decide between living with

abusive Gabe to block out Percy’s smell or risk living somewhere else where the

monsters who wanted to kill Percy could track his scent down, and Poseidon, who had to

decide between staying with Percy and Sally or going back to Olympus where people

depended on him to do his job.

Right off the bat, Percy Jackson had a major decision to make. His decision was to go try

and get his mother back as soon as possible after she was taken by the Minotaur, or to

stay at Camp Half-Blood and train first. The quest to save his mother would be very

dangerous, something even the bravest of the bravest would have trouble doing, and he

and his friends could easily get killed trying to complete this quest. One reason why it

was so dangerous was because of all the frightening legendary Greek monsters that stood

between them and getting Sally back. Some of the monsters include Medusa, and a

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Hydra, which could both easily kill them. If Percy stayed behind to train, he could learn

how to better combat these monsters and better complete the quest. After all, Camp Half-

Blood is a great place for demigods to train and learn safely. The problem with staying

was that he could run out of time to rescue his mother. If Percy would not have decided

to bring his friends along, he probably would have not been able to complete the quest.

Both Annabeth and Grover protected and saved Percy many times during their journey.

Overall, Percy made the right decision going on this quest as soon as possible, and he

made another good choice letting his friends come along with him.

Sally Jackson, Percy’s mother, made the decision to live with Gabe so that she could

protect Percy from the people and/or monsters who wanted him dead. If Sally did not

have someone as smelly and gross as Gabe, many monsters would have tracked down

and found Percy, probably kidnapping or killing him. It is said in the book that Gabe’s

disgusting smell blocked out Percy’s distinct son-of-Poseidon smell. Sally sacrificed a lot

to stay with Gabe just so she could protect Percy from the dangers of their world. She

gave herself in to abuse and many other horrible things just to protect him. If you think

about it, Sally could have chosen to not live with someone as smelly, abusive, and

disgusting as Gabe, but that would be at the risk of her son’s life, as monsters could now

smell him. Many monsters were searching for Percy so that they could get rid of him,

because he was a threat. Sally went through a lot to protect Percy from the dangers of the

world, and she made the right choice for Percy, even if it meant giving herself up to all

this abuse.

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Poseidon was in love with a mortal. This mortal’s name was Sally. They had a son named

Percy. Poseidon was happy living with these two, but he had a major decision to make:

stay here with Sally and Percy, or go back to Olympus to continue ruling over the sea.

Zeus was angry with Poseidon, and if he would have stayed behind with Sally and Percy

any longer, Zeus would become even angrier. Poseidon had a job to do up at Olympus,

people were counting on him, and he knew he had to get back to it, but it would be a hard

decision to leave behind the ones he loves. Anyways, Zeus was getting real mad at

Poseidon for spending too much time with Sally. Also, a new law was made that gods

could not have contact with their children, so Poseidon was not allowed to stay with

Percy any longer. Percy never knew his father, so when Percy got older and met his

father, he was angry with his father for not being there for him, and Percy would

probably never forgive him with what he had done. Poseidon also broke the law that the

three major gods could not have children with mortal humans, and this angered many of

the gods. This is the reason why many of the gods dislike Percy so much, and the reason

why Zeus was so angry with Poseidon. Poseidon was faced with a dilemma, and he had a

very important choice to make. He eventually made the choice to go back to Olympus.

The choice he made may have not been the best choice for Sally and Percy, but it was the

right choice for the millions of people counting on him to do his job.

These characters all made an important choice that will affect them throughout the rest of

the story, and throughout the rest of their (and other people’s) lives. Percy made the

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choice to save his mother as soon as he could and bring his friends along to help, Sally

made the choice to live with Gabe so that she could protect Percy, and Poseidon made the

choice to leave Sally and Percy so that he could go back to being a god at Olympus. All

these people made important choices that had a huge effect on the story. Overall, these

choices shaped the story to what it became. In the end, the story would have been a lot

different if these three characters would have made a different choice than the ones that

they made.

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