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“Am I a troubled kid? Yeah. You could say that.”
The above quote is among Percy’s most famous. He uses this sardonic summation of his life to introduce the episode with Mrs. Dodds at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This line has two functions: it highlights Percy’s sarcastic personality, which is an essential part of his character, and also shows that Percy has had many unexplainable experiences in his young life. We will soon learn that these incidents happened because Percy is a demigod, but Percy does not yet know this.
“We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo’s cabin led a sing-along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s’mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn’t feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.”
Percy makes the above observation at the end of his first real day at Camp Half-Blood. It is a heartwarming moment in the novel because Percy finally feels like he belongs somewhere. Having spent his entire life as an outcast who was constantly being blamed for a series of bizarre experiences outside of his control, here he has finally found a community of people who are like him and accept him for who he is.
“The truth was, I didn’t care about retrieving Zeus’s lightning bolt, or saving the world, or even helping my father out of trouble. The more I thought about it, I resented Poseidon for never visiting me, never helping my mom, never even sending a lousy child-support check. He’d only claimed me because he needed a job done. All I cared about was my mom. Hades had taken her unfairly, and Hades was going to give her back.”
Here, Percy reveals the real reason why he accepted the Oracle’s quest. He does not care about returning Zeus’ master bolt; he just wants an excuse to visit the Underworld so that he can rescue his mom. This moment reveals Percy’s priorities and highlights the strength of Percy and Sally’s bond, and the fact that he is willing to face unspeakable horrors to save her life. Furthermore, this quote reveals the lack of respect that Percy has for the gods. In a mere 5 lines, Percy dismisses Poseidon’s parental claim and plots to force Hades’s hand.
"'They’re not going to like that… They’ll think you’re impertinent.'
[…]
'I am impertinent.'"
The above interaction between Grover and Percy occurs after he and Annabeth realize that Percy intends to ship Medusa’s head to Olympus. Grover is horrified because he knows that the gods will be greatly insulted by Percy’s actions. Percy, on the other hand, does not care if he angers them because he feels that they consistently mistreat the demigods. The episode with Medusa’s head sets Percy apart from characters like Grover and Annabeth; it’s clear he does not harbor the same innate respect for the gods that they do. His “impertinent” decision to send the head to Olympus is a small gesture, a mere practical joke, but it anticipates the many moments in the novel (and the series as a whole) in which Percy is unique in his willingness to stand up to the gods.
“Our clothes were sopping wet, even mine. When the Coast Guard boat had appeared, I’d silently prayed they wouldn’t pick me out of the water and find me perfectly dry, which might’ve raised some eyebrows. So I’d willed myself to get soaked. Sure enough, my usual waterproof magic had abandoned me. I was also barefoot, because I’d given my shoes to Grover. Better the Coast Guard wonder why one of us was barefoot than wonder why one of us had hooves.”
Percy, Annabeth, and Grover use the three pearls to escape from the Underworld to the Santa Monica Bay where they are promptly rescued by the Coast Guard. Here, Percy explains that he willed his clothes to get wet and gave Grover his shoes right before they arrived so that the mortals would not be baffled by a miraculously dry child or a kid with hooves instead of feet. This indicates that Percy had the presence of mind to avoid further trouble, which contradicts the image he has of himself. Percy spends the entire book doubting his intelligence due to his learning disabilities, but moments such as this reveal that he is actually very clever and has good instincts.
