“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” (BrainyQuote 1) In the vast array of elements that combine to generate a fantasy novel, the one that unmistakably stands out is the archetypal characters that build the plot. These characters are predominant in the adventures, the magical powers and extraordinary plots and concepts. The word protagonist comes from Ancient Greek meaning "player of the first part, chief actor” or main character who comes into conflict with an opposing major character or force called the antagonist. The antagonist is the person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with the opponent or the protagonist of a drama or literary work. Rick Riordan’s novel, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, clearly depicts various archetypal characters with distinctive ideas of a juxtaposition between good vs. evil, the adventures of the hero on a …show more content…
Within this novel, the main character, Percy Jackson, is depicted to fit the universal archetype of a hero on a quest. Furthermore, Poseidon, Percy's father, shows the archetype of Magi with the guidance he provides Percy without him ever meeting him. On his quest to retrieve Zeus’ lightning bolt, the character of Luke also serves as a Hermes archetype and one of joker. He shows up right when the hero is about to make a breakthrough. Clearly, the characters demonstrate an archetypal prevalence that serves to develop the novel in the mythological type. With relation to modern life, Percy Jackson serves as an archetypal character that symbolizes goodness. He is a typical quiet young teenager with the additional issues of dyslexia and ADHD. He is an only child who lives in New York with his mother and step father. As the plot unravels, we learn that Percy, in his goodness, would do anything to protect his mother from
What is a hero? The book Mythology by Edith Hamilton has a lot of heroes and most of them have 2 things in common. The heroes are in their own ways superior whether it be strength, intelligence, and/or courage. The second thing they have in common is a quest that establishes their greatness and proving that they are good enough to be called heroes. The catch is that even though they may have the characteristics of a hero, not all of them are epic heroes.
The word protagonist comes from the Greek word protagistes, meaning “One who plays the lead role.” The protagonist is forced to adapt to various conditions, and overcome many obstacles. A separate character or an omniscient narrator usually tells the protagonist’s story, but the protagonist himself can also tell it. While there is normally only one protagonist, there can more than one antagonist. The antagonist is the character that opposes the protagonist, and is usually responsible for the obstacles in his way. One common literary technique that is often used to rapidly change an audience’s viewpoint on a story is the use of a false protagonist. A false protagonist appears to the reader as the main character (the protagonist), but is suddenly removed from the picture completely. This removal is often accomplished by killing the false protagonist.
When telling a story, it is necessary for there to be a main character which is usually a hero. They try to find themselves or fulfill a task in order to be true to who they are. While they are trying to find who they are or fulfill a task to stay true they conquer obstacles that are standing in the way for them to succeed. Some heroes succeed some fail. Odysseus from the Odyssey is a good example of a hero who fulfills his tasks in order to be true to who he is by having a quest or a mission to get back home after the Trojan war to his dear wife and family. He has obstacles trying to return and reclaim his home, Ithaca. The obstacles are, being held hostage by a Cyclops, Poseidon making the ocean difficult for Odysseus and his men, being held hostage by two goddesses, and when he arrives home he is faced with the suitors who try to take Penelope as their wife and taking everything from their home.
What makes a hero or a villain? A hero is defined as a person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life. By this definition, there existed countless heroes in America during the 1800’s in relation to slavery. There were many abolitionists, particularly from the North, that exhibited courageous attitudes. It was these heroes that taught the southerners, who believed their lives could only prevail if slavery survived and expanded westward, what they knew was morally right (3, 92).
Readers tend to idolize protagonists of stories. Atticus Finch, Huckleberry Finn, Harry Potter – they are all characters that possess a positive tone from the author. In pieces of writing associated with fantasy, however, it would only be more suitable to call these characters, heroes. Particularly in high fantasy, the hero ventures on an aptly named “hero’s journey.” However, the hero will always discover the “call to adventure” at the beginning of the story. At that point, the protagonist realizes that he or she possesses a unique ability. In high fantasy, that ability generally involves magic. Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea serves as a prime example of this notion. The protagonist, Ged, goes on a journey to quench his thirst for better understanding of wizardry. Another example of fantasy would be L. Frank Baum’s “The Dummy that Lived,” in which a fairy’s mischievous acts lead to a chain of trouble for the victim. Both Le Guin and Baum use magic in high fantasy literature to symbolize the need for maturity in a protagonist, or the creature casting the spell, and therefore promote the importance of responsibility to those who hold great power.
Percy Jackson lives a normal but hard life. The reader is able to determine that this is the ordinary world as Percy has not been told his true identity. Percy thinks he is an ordinary average teenage boy attending sixth grade at his sixth school, Yancy Academy which is a “private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.” Percy mentions that his life is quite confusing as well as he describes he has dyslexia and ADHD. These are the problems create a major issues as they affecting and make his academic achievement difficult. At birth Percy’s first father had left him and his mother. After his father left them his mother decided to get remarried. From Percy’s point of view this was not a smart choice as his step father treated her poorly. Percy is definitely unsatisfied and frustrated with her decision as he respects and cares about her a lot. Percy also greatly loves his mother as he defends her when she is disrespected by his stepfather. Percy seems to only have one real friend, Grover who is scrawny and “on top of all that, he is crippled”. He does not associate with other kids as he feels he does not belong with them. The reason he is in trouble at home and school could be that others don’t recognize and realize him as well as he does not understand his place. This is what the reader would classify as Percy’s ordinary world. From this point on, the story will further develop into the next stage call to adventure as the ordinary world seems to be a place the he despises.
The hero can be defined differently. In dictionary, hero means “a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities (“Hero”). Dictionary talks about general meaning of the hero, as we also know when we think about hero. Literary meaning of the hero goes little deeper. Literary hero is not only the main character who leads
The dominant factor in an epic is the heroic main character. This character often is the son of a god or goddess and is favored by the gods. Heroic characters are also always hounded by constant tragedy which drives them to fulfill their fates. Most heroic characters are high in social status and share close contacts with the gods. All of these qualities of heroic characters show up in the characters of Aeneas from The Aeneid and Gilgamesh from the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Percy Jackson is a true hero. Imagine if you had the chance to save your mother, but put your own life at risk. When Percy was given this chance, he never even thought about his own life. When he saved the world, he didn't care if he put his own life in immense trouble. When he met his half brother, he stood up for him, not caring if no one liked him after. It is clear that there is no way that Percy Jackson can be thought of anything but a hero, which is what he truly
Percy Jackson is the main character in this story, who is a demi god, who mortals are after. His name is short for Perseus and his father is one of the big three gods, Poseidon. He is suffering from dyslexia and ADHD, which could be deliberately added to the character by Riordan, to show he is meant to be a hero, and not to do well in school. This shows that school is not what he is good at, and he is destined to be a hero and save people. The character Grover, who plays Percy’s best friend, parallels a Satyr who is human from the waist up and goat from the waist down and is a companion of wine God, Dionysus, who we later learn, is the camp director for Half-Blood Camp.
What are the differences between heros and villains? A hero is someone who is willing to fight to the death to help someone else. A villain is soeone who will do bad at any cost, whether someone gets hurt or not. The epic poem, The Odyssey, has both heros and villains. The Odyssey is about a king named Odysseus who is fighting his way home to get back to his wife, and son, while fighting monsters and obsticals. The main character, Odysseus, could be considered botha hero and a villain because, he fights hard to get home while being brave, and determaned, but he kills along the way at no cost which makes him a villain. Therefore, Odysseus is mostly a monster because he could have let all of the people go and not kill them.
As every work that involves a hero does, the journey starts with the Call to Adventure. Percy’s individual call occurs when he is on a school field trip after he is life alone with his teacher Mrs. Dodds. Without any indication, she transforms into a fury and viciously attempts to attack Percy. While in the process of this she repeatedly asks him “where is the bolt?”. Muddled, he evades her until his Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner gives him a pen that when clicks, transforms into a sword. Throughout the movie, this remains as Percy’s Talisman, or an item with special significance to the hero. At this point, Percy is completely bewildered. He is not yet told why that event occurred, but when he is, he is not promptly ready to accept his mission. This rejection is known as the Refusal of the Call and is another aspect of the hero’s journey. Percy does not believe that he could be a demigod, for he views himself as an inept, dyslexic boy with ADHD. He readily is taken home by Grover to pack and explain to his mom that he has been “found”. Grover then reveals himself as Percy’s protector and reveals that he is a satyr. In the hero’s journey, this mythical mentor is known as the Supernatural Aid. Grover then tells Percy that he is being taken to a safehouse, Camp Halfblood, for kids like him. As Percy, his mother, and Grover near the camp, a minotaur appears and endeavors to capture Percy for stealing
My original thought when comparing Percy Jackson and the Olympians: the Lightning Thief the movie and Classical mythology was that there would be many more references to the myth of Perceus than any other myth throughout the movie in its entirety. That’s where I was wrong. After watching the movie again and researching the different hero myths my opinion has changed. My new thoughts are that the movie is not influenced by the myth of Perceus any more than other hero myths. The movie ties together many different heroes’ stories and mixes them together to make a wonderful story about a young boy. The movie was based on a book series written by Rick Riordan.
The fact that Percy Jackson has friends is incredible. It is an unshakable fact that any friend of his within a ten-mile radius will be in a life or death situation with him by dinner, and they are not always as lucky as he is. However, that is getting ahead of ourselves. Over the course of the five-part contemporary young adult series, Percy Jackson & The Olympians, the titular character, Percy Jackson, must embrace his Greek God parentage and save Olympus with the help of his fellow demigods. The aim of this paper is to discuss his Hero’s Journey throughout the series, provide an in-depth character analysis, and draw parallels between Percy and the three classic Greek heroes of mythology: Perseus, Theseus, and Hercules.
For a time, the main characters in a story, poem, or narrative were easily classified as either being a hero or a villain. A hero would be easy to identify by the traits he'd possess, such as bravery, honesty, selflessness, trustworthiness, courage, leadership, and more. The villain would be easy to identify as well, possessing traits such as maliciousness, deceitfulness, immorality, dark, wishing harm upon others, and more. But what if the character lacked the natural heroic qualities but wasn't a villain either? What if the person displayed personality flaws that would traditionally be associated with a villain, but has heroic intentions? These questions were finally answered with the emergence of the anti-hero in literature.