Essay On Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief

Gods, goddesses, and religions as a whole, have been a fundamental concept of humankind ever since the beginning of time. These celestial deities were proclaimed to be the founders of the universe and all that is. In ancient times, humans preached about miracles and fates that were certain, but then turned another way and resulted in unexpected conclusions. This was all due to the manipulation of beings that were far greater than any other that has been seen. Supposedly, no mortals were able to be equivalently powerful as the gods and goddesses. Yet, in Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief, there were some that began to break this seemingly archaic law.

Twelve year old Percy Jackson is unlike any other in his class. Yes, he may have ADD and dyslexia, holding him back from getting good grades, but there is something else about him: Percy just so happens to be the son of a god. After he takes a visit to Camp Half-Blood, a base for demigods, or half humans/half gods, he

learns some information about his father, Poseidon. Zeus’ master bolt, his weapon of choice that produces lightning, has been stolen, and the god of the sea is the one to blame. Percy and his friends must now go on a journey to retrieve said bolt before the summer solstice. If not, Zeus will then declare war on his brother. If a battle of these proportions breaks out, many will suffer in the process.
Toward the end of the story, the reader learns that one of Percy’s friends, Luke, was the actual culprit who stole not only Zeus’ master bolt, but also Hades’ helm of darkness. Luke just so happened to be an underling of Kronos: a Titan whose children was the Greek gods and goddesses themselves. This goes to show that a human, or at the very least, a demigod, was able to manipulate who were said to be the most powerful beings that have ever existed.
Percy could have also neglected the father that left him and his mother, and let this war play out as payback to Poseidon. Yet, Percy knew in his mind, and in his heart, that he was meant for more than pitiful revenge. He was meant for this: greatness. This was his own fate. A sea nymph once told Percy, “Go on with what your heart tells you, or you will lose all (273)”. This suggests that if one were to not follow, and disobey, what their heart and soul was telling them, they would be deprived of whatever little morsel of faith, hope, and courage they had left.
In the face of fate, the prognoses that are prophesied are destined for certain individuals who are able to achieve the task at hand. Yet, this does not necessarily mean that the potential hero or heroine has to accomplish their goal with perfection, or any form of flawlessness for that matter. Otherwise, they would have not learned anything from the adventure they journeyed on, to the mistakes they made, to gain experience from it.
A prime example of this is Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars franchise. Luke Skywalker was trained to be a new Jedi warrior to help save the galaxy from the tyranny of the Galactic Empire. When he and the Rebel Alliance set out to destroy the giant planet annihilating weapon, the Death Star, his former mentor’s spirit, Obi-Wan Kenobi, advised Luke to “let go” and “use the Force”. The Force in Star Wars is the energy that flows throughout the universe, connecting all living things.
This is how one should adopt their destiny. They must have faith in whatever way they can, so that in the future, they are able to accept whatever reward or consequence lies ahead of them. Without one constantly putting their fate to the test, the universe itself would not be able to judge what actions are revealed to it.
There are certain instances where one is able to change the ways they interact with fate. This is so that they are able to accept their destiny and what lies ahead of them fully. The conditions that are set to be able to accomplish this task are not necessarily in favor with the one who is being assigned it. This is where “successful adjustments of fate” (Vickery 1) come into play. These tweaks and fixes are here to lessen the burden and help the hero/heroine, yet, still maintain the outcome that was predicted.
There are different explanations of destiny backed up by theories being experimented to help understand this ‘unknown force’. Many still do not accept the idea of a higher being persuading and manipulating every action that is presented toward them. This is common due to the natural stubbornness that most humans may develop throughout their lives. Others are quite the opposite. They will either be born into, or later adopt, a certain religion. Some humans will turn this devotion into a career, while others will only praise it from time to time out of respect and their beliefs. How each human reacts to something will determine whether or not they will appreciate or show distaste for it now and in the future. Elliot Aronson reveals the idea of unique hypotheses:
Reinforcement theory would predict that anything associated with a pleasant experience would be liked, whereas anything associated with an unpleasant experience would be disliked. But the theory of cognitive dissonance led us to the prediction that people who voluntarily undergo an unpleasant initiation to become a member of a group would actually like the group better than those who got into the same groups more easily. (5)
This “reinforcement theory” correlates with most cognitive human functions, feelings, and emotions. Usually, if one is met with an experience that they do not enjoy, they will later think of it as a negative occurrence.
Humans are willing to deny any beliefs that they regard in order to be accepted into a certain group of individuals. These people are purposely forcing themselves to distern ideas that they find enjoyable, just to be a part of what seems to be miniscule in accordance with the entire humankind’s population. They insist upon themselves that they were meant to be included with just a few people. This indicates that this is their own fate. Not all prophecies or destinies have to be accompanied with a long, perilous expedition; they could simply also be the way someone deals with problems in the real world. Perhaps, humans are not as individually crazy as some may think.
Psychiatrist C.G. Jung proposed the theory of the “collective unconscious”.
The hypothesis of a collective unconscious belongs to the class of ideas that people at first find strange but soon come to possess and use as familiar conceptions. This has been the case with the concept of the unconscious in general. After the philosophical idea of the unconscious, in the form presented chiefly by Carus and von Hartmann, had gone done under the overwhelming wave of materialism and empiricism, leaving hardly a ripple behind it, it gradually reappeared in the scientific domain of medical psychology. (3)
This implies that, deep within, all humans share a common process of thinking.

This could possibly be thanks to the humans’ proclaimed creators: the gods and goddesses. These deities could have originally designed humans to be a single-minded, obedient being. Yet, if one were to think about it, there is not much a collective group of people could do that a more powerful being could not.

Humanity may be more diverse today because the gods could have realized that taking care of these beings, that they brought into existence themselves, is much more than a hassle than anything else. This may be where humans started to gain their own independence and personality. The gods and goddesses sent people out into their own world and wanted to see where they would go and what they would do. The immortals set humanity out with one purpose: to make something great of themselves. This was once the original human destiny. This is, perhaps, the idealistic dream of all people who have craved

success.
Ever since humans first dawned onto the Earth, a majority of their population has relied on the concept of religion, or the belief where one must serve under and worship one or multiple deities. These ‘greater beings’ are gods and goddesses. A majority of religions are different, having their own types of rituals and customs, but on the most part, a common characteristic is that of the gods and goddesses possessing immense power, unlike that of any mortal. These humans learned themselves that they were no match for the owners of such grand abilities. Yet, when mankind is up against the wall, they begin to fight fire with fire, or in this case, gods against demigods. They believe that it is time to fight back their own creators. It is time for them to take back their own freedom.