Percy Jackson’s attitude is a crack between life and death. His choices always seem to revolve around emotion, not logic. This trait brings him close to the brim of death multiple times. Like throwing himself at a Minotaur, shooting a cannon at a bus, mentally destabilizing his body. This blog post is about Percy’s attitude and how it can be improved, fixing his demeanor and defining his actions. 

Percy Jackson is a troubled kid. He has dyslexia, ADHD, and plenty of anger management problems.  “I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent into the hallway almost every class. “Percy can change his attitude toward school by getting friends, and there is a simple explanation. Firstly, Percy’s attitude in this quote can be explained by his lack and family and friends. Loneliness is a fatal effect, it forms buffers like immune system dysregulation, higher blood pressure, which relates to stress and anxiety, depression, pain, and fatigue.  The fatigue correlates with his drowsiness and laziness, which is probably why this situation came into hand: “Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him a old sot. I wasn’t even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.” His sudden attack could also be related to his ADHD, which he can’t really control. “The symptoms include fidgeting, difficulty playing quietly or waiting for a turn and blurting out answers in class.” This relates to his hate for field trips! Let me explain. Percy’s ADHD is the reason to lots of his school activities, and why he can’t focus in class: “The symptoms include often losing items, not paying attention to detail s or making careless mistakes in school and not listening most of the time. Getting easily distracted and avoiding activities that require focus are also symptoms.” However, ADHD also has a fidgeting side effect. Judging by his school‘s choice of a museum, I don’t blame Percy for what happens: “See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth–grade school, when we went on the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn’t aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.”  His fidgeting could explain why he hates school so much, because he has no choice but to touch a lever or poke a statue. The shame he gets after it is why he hates school so much. “A survey by the National Bureau of Economical Research of 5,000 people found that doubling your group of friends has the same effect on your wellbeing as 50% increase in income.” If Percy gets more friends, his fatigue, sickness, isolation, depression, anger, hate for school, will all be fixed. 

 

Percy is terrible at doing one thing, and that is managing emotions. He gets into fights with Nancy Bobofit, which is not condoned by any teachers in his surroundings. Percy should get up and be happy, being the better Percy, a Percy that truly appreciates life and his friends .“The best decisions come from both logic, and emotion” Turns out Percy just never uses logic. “Then with a angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother‘s neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply…gone. “NO!” anger replaced my fear.” Percy’s brain just didn’t work just then. If he saw the bull man kill his mother, he should have ran away. Its fight or flight. Who wins, a legendary monster capable of killing grown muscular Greek soldiers, or a scrawny 12-year-old with absolutely no capability to fight. Thus, Percy should have been the coward and fled for safety. His emotions propelled himself toward danger and unwanted situations. Therefore, he should fix these problems, and here is how. “what was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.” Percy is probably frustrated a depressed all the time because of his attitude. Here is page 2 of the article on positive actions to help me manage emotions: “Be kind to others, because this helps stop you worrying about yourself, Exercise, this releases reward and pleasure chemicals in the brain such as dopamine, which makes you feel better, Be open and accept what’s going on around you, be grateful, and notice the good things in life.” all of which he has never tried or just always failed to do. I think Percy should start listening to his counselor, she isn’t wrong! He should start using these tips to make himself happier. He should also spend time with his mom more, get into a better school with a better environment. “In a study of over 100 people, researchers found that people who completed a stressful task experienced a faster recovery when they were reminded of people with whom they had strong relationships.” Percy loves his mother: “Her name is Sally Jackson, and she’s the best person in the world.” a better connection with his mother would boost his happiness tenfold. This would result in a happier, calm, healthy, Percy, which is a lot better than his old self.  

 

Percy is still attempting to fix his problems, and getting better at maintaining his emotions, and making better decisions, meeting more friends along the way. He later becomes a better person in the book, when he comes to half-blood hill. Percy’s attitude can be improved, and he is working on how to do it.