A study discovered that 50% of teachers quit their jobs within four years. This highlights the importance of making good choices that can affect you, differing from days to decades. Rick Riordan’s book Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief, in attempting to incorporate Greek mythology into realistic fiction, created a character who has the typical personality of a hero; brave, loyal, determined, and selflessness. The protagonist and hero of the story, Percy (Perseus) Jackson, went through a number of changes to his personality throughout his quest to recover the master lightning bolt of Zeus before the Summer Solstice, which stopped the rising curtain of another war. Despite Percy being the hero of this story, he struggled with making quality choices. Percy could make better choices by choosing to recognize and control his emotions, having better plans, and to act after thinking.

 

Percy Jackson can make better decisions if he chooses to identify and regulate his emotions. On page 21, when Nancy Bobfit dumped her lunch onto Grover, Percy’s best friend, Percy was mad to the point that his “brain went blank” and “a wave roared in his ears”. The curtain on the argument closed with Nancy “pushed” into the water fountain by Percy who then gets into trouble with Mrs. Dodds, a “Fury” in disguise.  This eventually led to Percy’s mother’s death and his position in a quest. Had Percy not become enraged and pushed Nancy into the fountain, the sequential events might have never happened. According to an article written by Dr. Marci G. Fox, “your thinking impacts your anger, upset, or fear and colors how you see your situation”. She suggests the best way is too “give yourself a timeout” to prevent any strained relationships or guilt afterwards. This will greatly improve Percy’s patience which could lead to preferable choices.

 

In addition to preventing weak relationships, Percy can make better choices if he chose to progress in making good plans. Frustrated and annoyed, Percy seemed to have reached the limit for his patience, which caused him to “throw his Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across his dorm room” and left him fuming. This caused a delay in reviewing his Latin and potentially lowered his grade.  Another example is the fight on the bus that occurred in chapter 10. Percy decided to stop the “Furies” from harming Annabeth and Grover by hitting on the emergence break, only to be nearly killed by the “Furies” when they attacked him. Tech Republic also wrote that “poor planning can cause serious problems later on”. Percy’s actions can be connected to this because he did not even think about what to do after the bus stopped on the road. This could possibly induce his satisfaction and infuse him with positive thoughts and decisions.

 

Reflection on all possible consequences of his actions is something that Percy needed to improve upon. When the trio visits the Garden Gnome Emporium, for example, Percy decided to send Medusa’s head to Mount Olympus. Even Grover, who’s usually shy, had warned Percy, saying ‘” they’re not going to like that […….] they’ll think you’re impertinent”’. Angering the gods will cause disastrous outcomes for the trio as they are very powerful beings. As Enotes mentioned, “some solutions to a problem can be quite obvious”, while the latter requires careful consideration before coming to a conclusion. Evidently, sending Medusa’s severed head to the Olympians to earn their approval was a double- edged sword- it could also be questioning to Zeus’ authority and power. Personally, I once had a misunderstanding with a classmate. I thought her words meant that she doesn’t care about her scores whereas she meant improving upon your mistakes is more important than scores. This caused tension between us in the weeks to come. As one can see, thinking thoroughly through actions before executing them can prevent misunderstandings and poor relationships. The same occurs with Percy since he was unable to consider the possible understandings of him sending Medusa’s head to Mount Olympus. Clearly, analyzing and thinking through the problem thoroughly is another important skill which Percy should progress upon.

 

Analyzation and thinking are only a fraction of the qualities needed to generate good decisions upon which Percy needed to improve upon. Ultimately, it will be beneficial to Percy for making better choices if he could discern and modulate his emotions, find qualitied strategies, and to react after evaluating the situation. The ability to make good decisions will not only be advantageous for a few situations- they can be beneficial throughout one’s entire life.