Percy Jackson: The Lighting Thief and Hero's Journey

Question

What does "Retell the main events of the Lighting Thief by using the Hero's Journey parts (All that apply)" mean?

Answer 1

Hi, Sophia,

The Hero's Journey is a template, or outline, that labels the common parts of heroic adventure stories. For instance, most heroic adventures start with the hero going about their normal daily life before anything exciting happens. There are a few templates of the Hero's Journey, each with its own collection of parts. If this is an assignment, your teacher should have given you a template to use.

This prompt is asking you to look at the Hero's Journey template and see which parts were used in The Lightning Thief. Then you need to retell in your own words the part of the book that matches each part of the Hero's Journey template. For example, if your template has Part 1 of the Hero's Journey as Normal Life, you would retell Percy's life as a normal boy for that part.

If you find a part of the Hero's Journey that doesn't seem to fit into The Lightning Thief, that's okay. The words "all that apply" mean that you might find some parts that don't fit. Either leave it out or say that the part does not apply to The Lightning Thief.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Hi Sophia!

I believe that this question is asking you to recap the main events of the story, specifically pinpointing the places where the story corresponds with the Hero's Journey template that many stories follow. In order to answer this question, you'll need to know what the Hero's Journey is, so I'll explain that and then give you some tips for answering.

The Hero's Journey:

This is a structure, or a series of stages, outlining the events in many adventure/mythological tales. This archetype relies on the story having a single "Hero" (usually the main character or protagonist) that goes on a journey in order to solve some problem or achieve something. The stages follow their path as they are called to the journey, leave the ordinary world, face adversity, and finally return. Here are the 12 stages-

1. Ordinary world (this is where we meet our Hero while they are still in the ordinary world)
2. Call to Adventure (the adventure begins, either by the Hero deciding on their own, being forced, or being inspired by some event to set out on their journey)
3. Refusal of the Call (the Hero is resistant to the journey and struggles with it)
4. Meeting the Mentor (this is where another main character comes in to help the Hero so they are better prepared for their journey)
5. Crossing the First Threshold (the Hero is committed to their journey, and they venture into the new world or lean into their adventure. Kind of the point of no return)
6. Tests, Allies, Enemies (the Hero faces challenges and/or enemies. This is also where we might get some new characters, either bad guys or allies to help the Hero)
7. Approach to the Inmost Cave (the Hero is approaching the goal of their journey, but they're not quite there yet)
8. Ordeal (the Hero faces the biggest challenge yet, and they must overcome it to achieve their goal. Some say this is where the Hero earns the title "hero")
9. Reward (the Hero achieves their goal and gets what they came for, but it's not the end of the story yet because they still have to come home)
10. The Road Back (the Hero might have felt finished with their journey in the last stage, but they realize that the road back home is more difficult than they thought. They face challenges to get back to the ordinary world)
11. Resurrection (the Hero faces their last test. Some see this as the real climax of the story because it's often where there's the most action, and stakes are really high because the Hero is so close to completing their journey)
12. Return with the Elixir (the Hero returns home in triumph, often met with excitement and praise, completing their journey)

Not every Hero's Journey story will include every single one of these steps, and some might look different than others, but it's an archetype that many follow, and probably already seems familiar to you.

So, in order to answer the question, you could go through this list of stages and determine which stages of the Hero's Journey apply to Percy Jackson: the Lightning Thief. Since not all of them will, just pick out the ones that you can find with specific plot points in the story. Then, retell the main events in that format.

Hope that helps!

Maddy

Answer 3

Hi Sophia! Did your teacher provide you with the content, the stages, of the Hero’s Journey? I ask because the complicated full version is seventeen stages. I suspect, however, that you are in middle school so you just need a condensed version. If she didn’t provide you with the stages, it’s easy to google. The main gist is that the hero gets a “call to adventure”, which usually he refuses. Think of Luke in Star Wars, the first one, which is Episode Four. George Lucas read up on the hero’s journey when he wrote Star Wars. So in about the first third of the journey, the hero separates from the world he knows, usually after initial refusing to do so, and goes on an adventure. He meets a mentor, faces many obstacles and then makes a decision during a crisis. He ultimately wins a victory and goes back home as a changed character. The full seventeen stages were developed by a scholar, Campbell, and I would recommend reading his work to someone in high school or college. Since Campbell based his work on mythology and The Lightning Thief is based on greek mythology, there are many parallels.

The hero’s journey also represents the basics of dramatic structure. — there’s an inciting incident where the protagonist, the hero, crosses a threshold, complications mount and then there is a crisis, climax and resolution. Hope that helps. I’m not sure what grade/level you are at but this could be middle school through college level, depending on how deep a student goes.



Answer 4

Good Morning Sophia,

What that means is that the teacher is looking for you to be able to tell all of the parts of the story that are necessary for the story to be completely understood.

This includes:

1. The Beginning- How does this story begin with respect to the main character, Percy?
2. The Rising Action- What events take place leading to the climax or highest point of action?
3. The Climax- When is the action in the story most intense?
4. The Problem- What goes wrong?
5. The Falling Action- What events take place leading up to the resolution?
6. The Resolution- How is the problem solved?

I hope this helps! It was a pleasure to be able to help you!