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Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

by Rick Riordan

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Percy Jackson's Challenges in The Lightning Thief

Summary:

In Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson faces numerous challenges throughout the early chapters. He struggles with academic difficulties due to ADHD and dyslexia, leading to multiple expulsions. Percy also grapples with his perception of reality, as his classmates deny the existence of Mrs. Dodds, a Fury he encountered. Trust issues arise with his friend Grover, who conceals vital truths. Additionally, Percy faces physical threats, notably surviving a Minotaur attack, which results in his mother's disappearance, and embracing his demigod identity.

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What challenges does Percy Jackson face and how does he respond in chapters 1–8 of The Lightning Thief?

Percy Jackson experiences several conflicts at the start of the story before he begins his quest to find Zeus's master bolt. In the first chapter, Percy describes his academic challenges and says that he has been diagnosed with attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia. These disorders make it difficult for him to focus in school and succeed academically. Although Percy tries his best to overcome his disorders, he cannot prevent being expelled from several schools.

On Percy's field trip to the museum, his math teacher, Mrs. Dobbs, reveals herself as a Fury and attacks him. Mr. Brunner throws Percy a pen, which turns into a sword, and he vaporizes Mrs. Dobbs. Following the incident, Mr. Brunner and Grover and refuse to acknowledge Mrs. Dobbs's existence. Later on, Percy eavesdrops on Mr. Brunner and Grover speaking about the incident, and Percy feels like he cannot trust his best friend, who is apparently hiding something. Percy responds to this challenge by remaining aloof and leaving Grover behind to visit his mother.

The most significant challenge that Percy faces at the beginning of the story is surviving a Minotaur attack and dealing with the loss of his mother. Percy is not able to save his mother but manages to kill the monster by stabbing it with its broken horn. Once Percy arrives at Camp Half-Blood, he finds it challenging to accept the truth about his identity and the reality that Greek gods exist. He also comes into conflict with Clarisse, who is one of Ares's children. Percy responds by embracing his identity and defending himself against Clarisse and the members of her cabin.

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What challenges does Percy face in chapter 2 of The Lightning Thief?

I would argue that the first challenge Percy faces in chapter two is an internal one, because his classmates do not believe that Mrs. Dodds was real, and since Percy can remember their former teacher so clearly, it has him questioning his sanity.

To make matters worse, his grades start slipping, and his mother soon receives a letter informing them of his expulsion from Yancy Academy. This challenge doesn't seem to particularly bother Percy, however, and the only final he is interested in doing well in is Latin.

Far more challenging to Percy is the conversation he overhears between Mr. Brunner and his friend Grover, during which Mr. Brunner tells Grover that all they need to do is keep Percy alive until the fall.

Mr. Brunner is the only teacher who Percy respects, and when he calls Percy aside after the exam to tell him that he agrees that Percy should leave Yancy, another challenge is posed, because Percy must overcome the deep sense of shame and embarrassment that he feels.

Once the bus that Percy and Grover take arrives in Manhattan, Percy faces the challenge of accepting a new reality when Grover finally admits that it is his job to protect Percy. Everything is changing and he must rise to the challenge of accepting a new set of circumstances.

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What challenges does Percy face in chapter 2 of The Lightning Thief?

At the beginning of chapter 2, Percy struggles with his perception of reality and feels like he is constantly hallucinating. Percy's version of reality differs from that of his peers, who do not remember Mrs. Dobbs being their teacher and believe that Mrs. Kerr has taught them since December.

In addition to his seemingly skewed perception of reality, Percy also experiences trust issues. His best friend, Grover, refuses to confirm his beliefs, and Percy can sense that he is lying to him. Percy's grades also begin to slip and he gets into more altercations with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. To make matters worse, Percy receives an expulsion letter from Yancy Academy.

Percy then overhears his favorite teacher, Mr. Brunner, speaking to Grover about him being in grave danger and avoiding the Kindly Ones. Percy also sees the shadow of a centaur and is even more confused about the identity of Mr. Brunner. During Percy's bus ride home, he confronts Grover about lying to him and is perplexed by the Fates he sees knitting at a nearby fruit stand when the bus breaks down. Percy fears that he is in danger, is upset that Grover is lying to him, and continually questions his perception of reality. At this point in the story, Percy does not realize that he is the son of Poseidon and must embark on an epic quest to stop a devastating war between the gods.

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What challenges does Percy face in chapter 2 of The Lightning Thief?

In chapter two, Percy faces a rather mundane challenge: school.  First, he learns that he is not going to be invited back to Yancy Academy as a result of his failing grades and increased fighting.  He also has to face exams, though he is especially worried about his Latin exam because he doesn't want to disappoint his teacher, Mr. Brunner, who has always seemed to believe in him when few others have. 

Percy also faces the potential danger posed to him by seeing the three knitting women at the fruit stand on the side of the road -- women we later learn, for sure, to be the three fates.  Further, he witnessed one woman snipping the thread with scissors as they all look directly at him, and Grover tells him that this always means that the observer is about to die.

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What challenges does Percy face in chapter 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief?

One of the initial challenges that Percy faces in chapter 2 is a result of the events that happened in chapter 1. Percy knows, or at least thinks he knows, that Mrs. Dodds was a real person, and he thinks that everybody is playing a mean trick on him. Percy is in emotional and mental turmoil, and his grades suffer as a consequence. He also struggles to control his anger. Another challenge that Percy faces is studying for his exams. This is a challenge for any student, but Percy has dyslexia, which makes reading even more troublesome. Percy decides to go ask for additional study help, but this allows him to overhear Grover and Mr. Brunner talking about him. Percy is confused, scared, and anxious about the pieces of the conversation that he heard, and he struggles with knowing that Grover is hiding something from him.

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In Chapter 4 of The Lightning Thief, what challenges does Percy face?

In Chapter 4, Percy is being chased by the Lord of the Dead and his minions. While Mrs. Jackson is trying to outrun their pursuers, she veers into a ditch and crashes their car. The car has been hit by lightning, and roof has cracked open. As a man with a blanket over his head approaches their car, Mrs. Jackson tells Percy to run towards a farmhouse to save himself. 

Percy helps his mother and Grover, the satyr who is in their car, to escape from the car as they are being pursued by a bull-man with bulging biceps. As the bull-man charges Percy, Percy jumps to the side. The bull-man grabs Percy's mother and puts his hands around her neck. She appears to dissolve before his eyes, as she does not have the power to sidestep the bull-man's attack. Percy is upset that his mother has disappeared.

As the bull-man is charging Grover, Percy calls attention to himself. The bull-man charges him, and Percy jumps off the monster's head. The monster slams into a tree, and the impact of the monster hitting the tree nearly causes Percy's teeth to fall out. As the monster is about to attack Grover again, Percy rips out one of the monster's horns. He then uses the horn to impale the monster in his furry rib cage. The monster also dissolves. Percy hauls Grover to a farm house in the distance and collapses on the porch. He hears the voices of Mr. Brunner and a pretty girl as he collapses. 

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In Chapter 4 of The Lightning Thief, what challenges does Percy face?

In Chapter Four of The Lightning Thief, Percy faces the challenge presented by the fact that he saw the three Fates in the chapter prior.  Both his mother and best friend, Grover, are terrified for him, and his mother drives frantically in an attempt to get Percy safely to Camp Half-Blood.  The fact that Percy saw the three Fates, Grover tells him, means that he is about to die: a challenge indeed.  As the group nears the camp's boundary, Percy realizes that they are being pursued by the Minotaur: a bullish beast that is frightening and terribly strong.  Percy's mother tries to hurry Percy toward the camp boundary, and the monster snatches her, and she "dissolved before [Percy's] eyes."  He gets angry now, and he takes on the Minotaur himself, eventually stabbing the monster with its own horn, defeating him.  Therefore, Percy's challenges in this chapter are largely physical, though he does have to begin to contend with his grief over his perceived loss of his mother.

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What challenges does Percy face in chapter 4 of The Lightning Thief?

In chapter 4, Percy faces a few different trials. One is an existential trial, in which he must come to terms with the fact that his life has been a charade, and the other is a life-or-death challenge in facing the minotaur. Percy doesn’t really contend with the full weight of the existential trial in chapter 4. He does defeat the minotaur, though only momentarily, through a physical battle.

Percy is confused at the start of chapter 4. He sees that his friend Grover isn’t disabled, he learns that he is a demigod, and he finds out that most of his life has been a ploy to keep him safe from Zeus and Hades. If that wasn’t enough to send his head spinning, he learns that he is being tracked by a monster bent on sending him the underworld. The entire thing puts Percy in a daze, and he doesn’t fully realize the implications of everything until much later in the book. This challenge is an ongoing one.

The challenge of the minotaur is one that confronts Percy immediately. Their car ends up being flipped, and Percy has to face the minotaur after it grabs his mom and sends her to Hades. Percy uses his red jacket like a matador and ends up jumping on the monster’s back as it charges at him. He breaks one of the minotaur’s horns when he falls off the beast. That horn is his only weapon, and when it charges at him, he uses it to spear the minotaur in the chest and kill it (though, we learn, only temporarily). Percy then passes out and wakes up in the safety of Camp Halfblood.

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In Chapter 5 of The Lightning Thief, what challenges does Percy face?

By the end of Chapter 4 of Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief, first book of the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series, Percy has just successfully battled the Minotaur. Though his mother has disappeared in a flash of light, Percy has also successfully rescued Grover by dragging him into the woods to hide. In Chapter 5, Percy wakes up after having battled the Minotaur and doesn't know where he is. He is soon told that he is at Camp Half-Blood; that the Greek gods of mythology truly exist; that he himself is a demigod, or half-blood; and that he has to remain at Camp Half-Blood or else face more monsters. All of these revelations plus his new surroundings present Percy with plenty of new challenges.

One of his challenges is accepting Greek mythology as true. After hearing Annabeth talk about recently visiting the gods on Mount Olympus by riding the special elevator of the Empire State Building to the 600th floor and describing the quarrel between the gods she had witnessed, Percy feels very overwhelmed. As he explains to Luke back in Cabin 11, "I don't belong here ... I don't even believe in gods."

A second challenge he must face is bullies, just like the bullies he has had to face at all of his new school. This time the bully is named Clarisse, and she's the daughter of Ares, the god of war. As a prank, Clarisse drags Percy into the girls' bathroom. But when she does, Percy feels "a tug in the pit of [his] stomach," and as he has this feeling, water shoots out of the toilets and showers, combating Clarisse and her friends with water, driving them out of the bathroom.

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What challenges does Percy Jackson face in chapter six of The Lightning Thief?

The biggest problem that Percy faces is the fact that he is a new kid at Camp Half-Blood, the camp where half-bloods (kids with one mortal parent and one parent who was one of the twelve Olympian gods) go to be trained as demigods. Not only does he have to learn the ropes, he has to face the other campers. Chiron shows Percy the grounds and tells Percy about the cabins, one for each of the twelve gods, where children of those gods lived.

Other problems stem from him being the new kid. He is placed in the cabin of Hermes, which accepts all newcomers, because he is undetermined, which means that he did not know which god was his father. That immediately sets him apart from everyone else who knows their parent already.

He also runs into a bully, Clarisse, and her lackeys. They are daughters of Ares, the war god. Clarisse drags Percy into the girls bathroom, intending to give him a swirly, but the water from the toilet shoots out, arcs over him, and hits Clarisse in the face. Water from all the other toilets and the showers soak Clarisse and her friends and force them out of the bathroom.

So despite the fact that he is at a camp for demigods, he faces the same problem that any new kid at any school or place would face.

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What challenges does Percy Jackson face in chapter 8 of The Lightning Thief?

Percy faces many challenges throughout chapter 8. The first challenge that we see is his struggle to find where he belongs in this new world. He has not yet been claimed by his father, so everyone is watching to see what happens. Percy becomes more bitter about this as time goes on:

"So okay, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something? Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my dad, who-ever he was, make a phone appear?"

Often, demigods specialize in a skill that is related to their immortal parent. So he begins exploring different activities such as archery (associated with Apollo) and metal working (associated with Hephaestus). He fails at everything he tries.

Eventually, he finds some success in swordplay, which is its own special challenge. His teacher is Luke, who is the best sword fighter in 300 years. Percy has never lifted a sword before, and first has to spar with Luke. Yet, in the end, he is able to disarm his teacher once, to the surprise of everyone watching. 

The most prominent challenge that Percy faces is the Greek demigod version of "Capture the Flag". He is on the team that consists of the children of Athena, Apollo, and Hermes. Luke, who is also on this team, assigns him to border patrol, which should be a fairly simple task. However, within a few minutes of the game beginning, five members of the Ares cabin come to attack him as revenge for shaming them. All are experienced fighters, and Percy is forced to defend rather than attack until he is pushed back to stand in the creek behind him. He becomes reenergized as soon as he touches the water and is able to stand his ground until his team captures the flag. 

After an incident with a hellhound, Percy is able to overcome his first challenge: he is claimed by his father, Poseidon. With his place now known, the other campers all have a newfound respect for him (although children of Ares aren't particularly happy about it). However, this does not mean his journey has ended. It has only begun.

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What challenges does Percy face in chapter 17 of The Lightning Thief?

I would say that Percy goes through two main challenges in chapter 17. The first challenge comes about halfway through the chapter. It occurs just after Barbara Walters shows her viewers a picture of Percy Jackson, stating that he is the delinquent youth causing chaos across America. Percy is then confronted by a group of rich kids with knives. They gang up on Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. Percy thinks he has things handled because he can use Riptide. Unfortunately, though, the aggressors are mortal, so Riptide doesn't help out that much. This forces Percy and the others to do the next best thing: they run. Unfortunately, they run to Crusty's Water Bed Palace. "Crusty," the owner of the store, turns out to be Procrustes, the Stretcher who once tried to kill Theseus. His goal is to get Percy and his friends to fit the beds by stretching them. Crusty manages to get Annabeth and Grover into beds and binds them in preparation for stretching. Fortunately, Percy is able to trick Crusty into a bed of his own. Percy snaps his fingers and says, "Ergo." That causes ropes to bind Crusty. Then Percy uses Riptide to cut off his head.

"I think I'll start with the top." I raised my sword.

"No money down! No interest for six months!"

I swung the sword. Crusty stopped making offers.

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What challenges does Percy face in chapter 21 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief?

Percy faces several challenges in chapter 21 when he arrives at Olympus with Zeus's master bolt. The first challenge Percy faces concerns winning Zeus's favor. Although Percy possesses the master bolt, Zeus is still extremely upset with him and resents his involvement in the entire ordeal. Zeus is portrayed as a stern, unforgiving god and threatens Percy several times. When Percy hints that something menacing was influencing Ares, Zeus immediately ends the conversation. He does not want to entertain the idea that Kronos is healing in Tartarus, steadily plotting to overthrow the gods.

The next challenge Percy faces concerns repairing his complicated relationship with Poseidon. Percy desperately wants to make his father proud and desires to have him back in his life. Percy is hurt that Poseidon refuses to accompany him home to see his mother and also feels awkward when Poseidon says his birth was a huge mistake. However, Poseidon offers Percy several encouraging words by saying he is proud of his accomplishments and referring to him as "a true son of the Sea God."

The third challenge Percy faces concerns defending his mother from Gabe. When Percy returns home, he recognizes that Gabe has abused his mother and thinks about killing him. Fortunately, Poseidon returned the package with Medusa's head inside, and Percy explains to his mother that she can solve all her problems by opening the box. Percy makes the mature decision to allow his mother to fight her own battles and leaves the box behind as he begins his journey to Half-Blood Hill.

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