GENDER CRITICISM

Percy jackson an the olympians addresses these topics only tangentially, doing good
things and concerning things through this lack of focus. Race comes up when Charon,
the ferryman across the River Styx appears. �He was tall and elegant, with
chocolate-colored skin and bleached-blond hair shaved military style�. The problems
with this are obvious. The fact that this is the only sentence that clarifies
Charon�s ethnicity, and the use of a food metaphor to describe it makes me cringe.
Beyond this, the fact that he is the only explicit character of color and that he
is greedy and associated with death reinforces some negatives stereotypes. However,
it provides a platform for him to improve his representation.
Women fare slightly better than people of color in this novel. When we look at
ratios of female allies to female enemies, it skews heavily towards the latter.
Sally and Annabeth are the positive female characters. Compared with the Three
Furies, Medusa, Echidna, Nancy Bobifit, and Clarisse, we see a lot more portrayals
of women in a negative light than seen positively. However, unlike with race,
Riordan accepts diversity in how Annabeth shoots down Percy�s immediate gender bias
when learning about the demi-gods. ��Then who�s you�re dad?� � �My dad is a
professor at West Point� � �He�s human.� �What? You assume it has to be a male god
who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?��. In a similar way, this
moment, along with Annabeth�s impeccable problem solving through the book sets up
women and girls as characters to be respected.

CULTURAL APPROACH

The advantage of Riordan writing the series from Percy�s perspective is that we get
to discover this world along with him. However, for readers who are already aware
of the old texts, the pentalogy serves as a unique comparison. In some cases,
Riordan captures the Iliadic personality of the characters, but in other cases, he
portrays them as completely different from their past selves because he believes
that the Western culture has a strong influence on these characters.

In the series, Mount Olympus is situated on the 600th floor of the Empire State
Building which is considered to be an American cultural icon and a center of
capitalism. It is only fitting that the mighty Gods would choose the Empire State
Building as their residence as a symbol of their dominance. Chiron, the instructor
of Camp Half-Blood which is the camp where all demigods come to train, summarises
it beautifully:

�Come now, Percy. What you call Western Civilization� is a living force, collective
consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of
it. You might even say that they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied
so tightly to it that they couldn�t possibly fade, not unless all of Western
civilization were obliterated�The heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the
gods� wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They are now in your
United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of
Prometheus in Rockfeller Center� like it or not�America is now the heart of the
flame. It is the great power of the west. And so Olympus is here.�

One can look at the series through a Marxist lens because the Gods are
representatives of the bourgeoisie class while the demigods represent the
Proletariat. The remains of the ancient feudal society have given rise to a modern
society with its own struggles and conditions of oppression. The Gods are still
just as selfish and view their demigod children as the means to an end. Just like
the bourgeoisie appeal to the proletariat in times of need and utilise their labour
to fulfill their own purposes, the Gods also call upon the demigods when they need
to get something done. For example, in �Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief�,
Percy is given the task of retrieving Zeus�s lost thunderbolt as a result of which
he gets caught up in the sibling rivalry among Zeus, Poseidon and Hades.
Zeus always wears a pinstriped suit and sports a neatly trimmed grey beard. His
eyes are stormy, representing the sky and its various moods. He spends most of time
brooding in his throne room in the Empire State Building. He retains his interest
of travelling the world in disguise. His persona is more of a CEO than a king in
the current era. He no longer gets involved in feuds, but he has become more
insecure with time. Now that he has recognised the potential of other Gods, he
fears for this throne more than ever.

On the other hand, Poseidon�s attire consists of a �Hawaiian shirt, shorts and flip
flops�, which is fitting since he is the God of the Sea. He likes to take long
walks on the beaches of Florida. Unlike Zeus, he does not mind interacting with
human beings and communicates with fishermen and tourists. Poseidon was always
rather moody, and he still is. If he wants to throw a temper tantrum, he causes a
hurricane which is a sign that his Godly insensitivity is still at play.

SOCIOLOGICAL

A framework through which Annabeth�s character can be viewed is that of Marxist

criticism, which revolves around a base of power dynamics and exploitative
relationships to maintain a superstructure of what is considered �normal� in
society. While Marxism is not inherently present in The Lightning Thief or any of
the other books in the series, there are a few themes from Marxist criticism that
can be applied to the story. One of the most obvious is the power dynamic between
the Olympian Gods themselves and their mortal children, the demigods. Throughout
the story, Annabeth makes several mentions of the Gods using their children to
settle their quarrels, and in fact this is the backstory behind the plot of the
whole book � Percy and his friends are literally sent on a quest to the underworld
to retrieve Zeus� lightning bolt which was apparently stolen by Hades.

As the book is narrated through Percy�s point of view, and its primary target
audience is male school-age children, unfortunately Annabeth is subject to the male
gaze on a few occasions. The best example of this is when at first, Percy only sees
her as a love interest and doesn�t acknowledge her achievements, expecting her to
think that he was �cool� for killing the Minotaur and subsequently being surprised
when she was unimpressed. This eventually decreases as the story goes on, although
in the long term Annabeth does end up in a relationship with Percy, which can
potentially be seen as a drawback for her character from a feminist standpoint.

PSYCHOLOGIC AL

The psychological conflict is a conflict that related to human mind and feelings.
lie feels that he cannot control his mind, it called by ADHD and dyslexia. The
school counselor told me this. was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting,
things...". Additionally, he could not read English words; but he could read the
Greek words. Sometimes, the English words are change Greek words. �...I tried to
see what she was reading But I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia
was acting up. Then realized the title wasn't even english. The letters looked
Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek, There were pictures of temples and statues
and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book...

HISTORICAL
The Lightning Thief centers on fictionalized versions of the gods that were central
to Ancient Greek religion and myth. Some elements of the polytheistic Greek
religion have roots going back to the Bronze Age, but worship of the 12 gods that
are now known as the Olympians (including Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, and Ares)
solidified in the Archaic period, with the establishment of the Greek city-states
like Athens and Sparta. During this time, the Greeks began to build stone temples
for the gods. In 146 B.C.E., when the Roman Republic conquered Greece, the Romans
adopted the Greek gods and gave them new names, as well as adopted Greek
architectural styles. Despite the rise of Christianity and the later move to
criminalize paganism in 381 C.E., the influence of Greek mythology, architecture,
and culture persists today. As Chiron points out in the novel, the style of
architecture used in Greek temples has influenced building practices throughout the
Western world�many U.S. state capital buildings, as well as the White House and
federal government buildings, are modeled after the Greek style, while even
Christian churches and cathedrals exhibit Greek elements. It�s also impossible to
understate the literary mark that the Greeks and their belief system left on the
world. Some scholars propose that the Greek myths, along with the Bible and the
works of Shakespeare, are the most influential literary and cultural works of the
Western world.

some mythological characters symbolize environmental issues in America,

particularly about the degradation condition and the effort of make them better.
They are Poseidon, Pan, and Satyrs.
Poseidon is the mythical character representing of water condition in America. The
function of Poseidon here is to repair the condition of polluted water in America.
In 2007, around 56% of America�s river was polluted by garbage and industrials
garbage. It has bad effect for citizen because float comes bigger after the snow
melting. In the novel, Poseidon is god of sea who has son named Percy Jackson. He
has power to control water where in sea or running water. Percy Jackson uses his
power to protect his friends in finding the lightning bolt from monster.

Pan is the mythical character representing wild area or forest. His condition
pictures the decreasing certain number of forest area in America. In 2008, the
American forest has been decreased because opening new land for the newcomers.
Also, it helps in developing the companies in America at that time. In the novel,
the Pan is one of great god who cares about area becomes clean (environmentalist).
�No. This makes me sad.� He pointed at all the garbage on the ground (p.67). And
the last character is Satyr who represents the environmentalist movement in
America. The American environmentalists are helping in preventing the global
warming by reforestation. It is one of bug step to make America better than before.
In the novel, Satyr shows that they love environmental clean because they always
throw the garbage in the right way and consume tin as their main food.

FORMALISTIC

Riordan tries to create an alternate reality where all the characters exist on a
modern timeline. He pictures that the characters have evolved with the times to
suit the needs of the current generation.

Ancient Greek mythology has undergone its fair share or adaptations. Their cultural
relevance till date shows that there is an element of truth and relatability in
these stories which, on the surface, appear to be based on traditional Gods and
heroes. Myths are supposed to adapt as they are handed down from generation to
generation. The epics, as told by earliest poets, may not appeal to all sections of
readers in the current day as they did before. Riordan is on a quest to preserve
the treasures of ancient Greek mythology through his works. Not only does he try to
entertain them, but he also tries to teach his readers and make them more conscious
about the time gone by.
He imagines a democratic-republic and questions contemporary class conflict rather
than creating a clear demarcation between the Gods and everyone else. Riordan
argues that while the Gods are powerful, they know that they exist in the current
era only because they have been kept alive in the Western thought. He refrains from
creating heroes who are only interested in their selfish interests. His heroes are
young, relatable and meant to show that everybody can be a hero if the situation
beckons. He also makes the Gods more accessible, unlike the ancient myths where
they were elusive and whimsical. Riordan also talks about doomed characters and
gives them a fresh storyline.