Friends and family are probably what we should cherish the most. Percy Jackson cherishes them and loves them. Percy Jackson is a well-known book character who is enjoyed by millions. As the son of Poseidon, he has completed several tasks and has gone on many quests. He has retrieved the lightning bolt of Zeus and fought against Ares for the Helm of Darkness. But he could not have done it without his friends or family. He is guided by both throughout the book Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief. A major lesson in Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief is that no one should take friends and family for granted.
Family can be both a destructive and creative force in this novel, but no matter what, it’s really important to gods, demi-gods, and mortals alike. The Greek gods are all related to each other, and they sure do have their share of family issues – there is so much tension between them that one wonders how they have survived for so long without ripping each other to shreds. Well, that’s exactly the situation we find when we begin reading The Lightning Thief: the brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades don’t trust one another and both say, “Your son has stolen our main possessions” without any proof. This lack of trust nearly leads to World War III. Similarly, we see how destructive family can be when campers like Luke feel unloved and unclaimed by their mortal parents. Even the demi-gods and gods want to feel like they are part of a family – it’s not just a mortal thing. At the same time, we watch as Percy matures and grows wiser as he learns more about his father and as he realizes that his father is truly proud of him. Though his home life in Queens, NY is troubled thanks to Smelly Gabe, Percy’s relationship with his mom is what makes everything OK. Their little family is what Percy lives for.
Percy has struggled with the idea of family since birth. Having never known his father, the only parental figure in his life was his mother, whom he loved very much—however, this made it harder for him to watch her get abused by Gabe, a man who was supposed to be a father figure in his life. He was, “The most stinky man he ever met.” At the end of the story, Percy meets his real father. He does not feel a familial connection to him, but he does feel happy at the idea that his father is proud of him. Percy learns at the close of the novel that family can extend beyond blood ties, when he feels strong kinship with many of the other half bloods and people who have helped him along his quest.
Percy soon discovers that Camp Half-Blood was designed to fill in the gaps left by these absent or disinterested family members by giving demigods an opportunity, often for the first time, to make friends with others like them. Though there are definitely divisions and rivalries among different cabins at camp (demigods with the same divine parent are put into the same cabin, and rivalries between the gods replicate among their children), all the campers nevertheless share many similarities that bring them together. They’re all in grave danger when they leave camp, and they all understand that camp is likely the only place where they can feel safe, respected, and a part of a community. It is stated that “Camp Half-Blood is the only place safe in the world for half-bloods.” On a grand scale, then, Camp Half-Blood seeks to fill in the gaps left by the demigods’ fractured families by offering them friendship and camaraderie with other kids like them. The friendships and the mentoring relationships that arise out of this setup are some of the most meaningful and positive in the novel—and in Percy’s case, in particular, his friendships with Annabeth and Grover make his quest to recover Zeus’s thunderbolt possible.
No one should take friends and family for granted and that is seen in Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief. In this book family is a destructive and creative force which Percy struggles to understand. Everyone should take a lot away from this book and should realize that family can be taken away and should be cherished. You must also cherish friends because they can help you when you are struggling.