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“She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight. She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a minotaur! or Wow, you’re so awesome! or something like that. Instead she said, ‘You drool when you sleep.’”
This quote makes up Percy’s first impression of Annabeth. Because The Lighting Thief is told in first-person, it is the first impression that the reader has of her as well. Right from the start, Riordan establishes Annabeth’s superior intelligence by drawing attention to her “intimidating” and calculating gaze. Riordan likely lingered on Annabeth’s stormy eyes to connect her to her mother because “grey-eyed goddess” is one of Athena’s most famous epithets. Annabeth’s playfully antagonistic remark that Percy “drool[s] when [he] sleep[s]” also sets up the relationship that Percy and Annabeth will have for the rest of the novel.
"'It’s just that if you died…aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world… At camp you train and train. And that’s all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That’s where you learn whether you’re any good or not.'"
Annabeth delivers this line to Percy at the start of their quest, after the trio manages to defeat the Furies. She thanks Percy for coming back to save her and Grover and then offers the above explanation as to why she told him to run. This quote reveals to the reader exactly how desperate Annabeth is to prove herself. She has spent the past several years training for a quest and she knows that this is her only chance to see if she really has what it takes to be a hero. This is also an important moment for the progression of Percy and Annabeth’s relationship—it allows Percy to realize that Annabeth’s tough demeanor is partially a facade to conceal her own insecurities and anxieties.
"'Someday, I’m going to see it in person. I’m going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that’ll last a thousand years.'"
Annabeth delivers this line to Percy and Grover while excitedly gazing at the St. Louis Arch. Annabeth’s admission here highlights her sense of ambition. She does not just want to be an architect—she wants to be a world-renowned architect. She takes great pride in her intelligence and her skills, and she wants the world to recognize her abilities. Her insistence that she wants to build something that will “last a thousand years” can be connected to her obsession with going on a quest. Both show that Annabeth wants to become a part of history instead of simply watching from the sidelines.
"'Ares has strength. That’s all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes.'"
Annabeth delivers this assessment of Ares’s character to Grover and Percy after Ares sends the trio to retrieve his shield from the abandoned water park. Grover and Percy are baffled as to why such a powerful god needs their help. Annabeth, however, is convinced that he needs them because it might be a problem that “requires brains.” Here, Riordan has Annabeth lean in to her status as a child of Athena. Athena is the goddess of wisdom, and Annabeth has clearly inherited her mother’s superior intellect. Annabeth’s disdain for Ares is also rooted in mythology; Ares and Athena famously do not get along, owing to Athena’s preference for intellect where Ares favors brute force.
''And the college ring is your father’s?'
'That’s none of your— […] Yeah. Yeah, it is.'"
The above exchange between Percy and Annabeth occurs toward the end of the novel, when Annabeth is explaining how the camp beads work. Here, Percy asks if the college ring that Annabeth also wears on her camp necklace belonged to her father, and Annabeth starts to get defensive before stopping herself and answering him honestly. It is a callback to the moment at the start of the novel in which Annabeth gets angry and tells Percy that it is “none of his business” why she came to Camp Half-Blood so young. However, here, she has the same defensive impulse before changing her mind and opening up to Percy, illustrating the degree to which Annabeth now trusts Percy enough to be vulnerable in front of him.
