67 pages • 2 hours read
Rick RiordanThe Lightning Thief
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher”
The book opens with the narrator and protagonist, Percy Jackson, warning the reader to close the book if they think they might be a half-blood because “being a half-blood is dangerous” (1). Following this, Percy introduces himself as a 12-year-old kid from New York who used to attend a school for troubled kids. Although he tried not to cause problems, things never went well for him. To illustrate his troubles, Percy recounts a field trip a year ago when things really started to go badly.
Percy’s class visits the Metropolitan Museum of Art to view an exhibit of ancient Greek artifacts. Two teachers chaperone the trip: Mr. Brunner, who drives a motorized wheelchair and is pretty cool for a teacher; and Mrs. Dodds, who is nasty to Percy. At the museum, Mr. Brunner gives a lecture about how Kronos, father of the Greek gods, ate his children and was later defeated by Zeus. Most of the kids shrug off the lecture as nonsense, but Mr. Brunner tells Percy the information “is vitally important” (7). Though he wants to learn, Percy struggles with ADHD and dyslexia, which he feels put him at a disadvantage.
On their lunch break, Percy sits with his friend Grover, who walks with a limp. One of their classmates dumps her lunch in Grover’s lap. Percy gets angry and loses track of what he’s doing. When he comes back to himself, the girl is in a fountain, and kids whisper about how the water attacked her.
Mrs. Dodds orders Percy to accompany her back into the museum, where she turns into “a shriveled hag with bat wings” (12). Mr. Brunner arrives and tosses Percy a pen, which morphs into a sword. Percy instinctively strikes Mrs. Dodds with the sword. She disintegrates, and in a blink, everything is normal again. Percy is alone, and the pen is just a pen. When Percy goes back outside, the girl says she hopes Mrs. Kerr punished Percy. No one but Percy remembers Mrs. Dodds. When he asks Mr. Brunner about her, the teacher says, “there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy” (15).
Chapter 2 Summary: “Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death”
For the rest of the school year, Percy tries and fails to make anyone remember Mrs. Dodds. When he mentions the former teacher to Grover, Grover says he doesn’t remember her, but Percy knows Grover is lying. Percy gets increasingly agitated until he snaps at a teacher, resulting in his expulsion at the end of the school year
The only class Percy puts effort toward for the rest of the year is Latin. He doesn’t want to disappoint Mr. Brunner, but his dyslexia makes studying Latin difficult. Deciding he needs help, he goes to Mr. Brunner’s office one night, where he overhears the teacher talking to Grover about Percy. Grover mentions a deadline coming up on the summer solstice, but Mr. Brunner dismisses the concern, saying they should “worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall” (19). Percy drops his textbook, alerting Mr. Brunner and Grover to his presence. Something animal-looking comes to investigate. Percy hides and waits until the lights go out in the hallway before sneaking back to his room.
Percy tries and fails to forget about the conversation he overheard for the rest of the school year. He and Grover take the same bus back to New York City after final exams, and Percy confronts Grover about what he heard. Grover says he has to protect Percy. Before Percy can ask why, the bus stalls. Percy gets off the bus and sees three old women knitting giant socks on the other side of the highway. One of the women cuts a strand of yarn, and Percy swears he “could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic” (26). Back on the bus, neither Percy nor Grover feel well. Grover goes on about how “they” never make it past sixth grade and announces he’s walking Percy home. Percy ends the chapter by asking if the snipping yarn means “somebody is going to die” (28). Grover doesn’t answer.
Chapters 1-2 Analysis
Riordan begins The Lightning Thief with a warning from Percy to the reader. This type of introduction accomplishes two things: It builds suspense and curiosity by dropping critical information without explanations, and it introduces Percy to the reader as both the protagonist and a friend—someone readers can relate to. Riordan makes use of foreshadowing, both in this introduction and the rest of the chapter, to hint at what’s coming and leave readers wondering. The Lightning Thief is fantasy set in the everyday modern world. Riordan incorporates Greek mythology into history to build his world and account for how the gods have survived since ancient times. Through Percy’s relatable, friendly voice and references to familiar figures and places, Riordan tells Percy’s modern story alongside centuries-old myth.
Riordan relies heavily on foreshadowing in these first two chapters. Percy refers to himself as a “half-blood” (half-human, half-god), something the reader doesn’t learn the meaning of for several chapters. In Chapter 1, Percy unintentionally manipulates water, the first of many signs he is the son of Poseidon (god of the sea). Percy warns the reader that being a half-blood is dangerous, but it isn’t until later that the reader learns half-bloods attract monsters, putting both themselves and those around them in danger. The battle toward the end of Chapter 1 also foreshadows Percy’s godly origins. He battles Mrs. Dodds with a sword-pen given him by Mr. Brunner. The struggle represents the secrets Mr. Brunner keeps, both about Percy’s identity and about himself. Mrs. Dodds is a Fury (loyal soldier of Hades), and their showdown foreshadows both further battles and Percy’s overarching conflict involving Hades.
At the end of Chapter 1 and throughout Chapter 2, no one at Percy’s school remembers Mrs. Dodds. Later, Riordan introduces mist—the magic that keeps humans from observing godly presences or activities. Mist can only do so much. In Chapter 5, we learn Mr. Brunner is really Chiron, a centaur. Mist cannot hide his nature from humans constantly, which is why Chiron disguises himself in a motorized wheelchair when around humans. This revelation foreshadows later events that are also not fully masked.
In Chapter 2, Chiron and Grover discuss a deadline on the summer solstice. Someone stole Zeus’s lightning bolt (hence the book’s title), and Zeus demands it be returned by the solstice. Later, this becomes Percy’s quest: to find and return the lightning bolt and prevent a war among the gods. The knitting women in Chapter 2 are the Fates, three crones who weave mortals’ threads of life. Percy seeing them cut their yarn means he will die, but his death is metaphoric. As part of his quest, Percy travels to the Underworld, where he becomes dead-like for a period of time.
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