Poseidon and the Lightning Thief

Poseidon played a huge role in Greek mythology. He is the god of the sea, and controls whatever goes on in the sea. In the stories like Iliad, He is always in the middle of the action. I thought they displayed that well in the Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. In the book, he is just like he is in all of the old Greek stories. He's powerful and the god of the sea, and he is Percy Jackson's father, and Poseidon is always demanding. That's part of the role of being a leader, and Poseidon definitely was. 

In Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Poseidon is tough and fearless, and he is always in charge. He fought against Zeus in the book, but in the old stories it says he was nice to Zeus, but not Hades, his brother and the leader of the underworld. I think the author did that to add some friction between the gods, and make for a more interesting story. I like the change they made. I thought it added more suspense to the tale and made it a better story. Poseidon was on his phone for a little in the book, and this is definitely a change because they obviously didn't have phones back then. 

Surviving The Journey

Author's Note: This is a comparative piece of the settings in The Hunger Games and Life of Pi. I wrote it because I had not yet done a compare/contrast piece and I wanted to.

 

Would you rather be stuck in a wooded arena with 23 other bloodthirsty tributes, or on a small life boat with limited resources and a fierce Bengal tiger? In The Hunger Games and Life of Pi both instances occurred, one to each of the main characters. It is also notable that both main characters, Katniss and Pi, survived their treacherous journey.  Although going through the course of both books seems equally challenging, the factors that make them so are not.

In Life of Pi the events that threw Pi into his misfortunate outcome being on the boat happened quite spontaneously. Therefore, he could not think clearly and lured Richard Parker, the tiger, onto the boat, which he almost instantly regretted. In The Hunger Games Katniss had weeks to train and learn after the initial shock of volunteering for her sister. Because of this she already had a plan of who to team up with and had survival strategies. Although the entering of the main suffering was longer for Katniss, the actual suffering was longer for Pi. He was on his life boat for 227 days while Katniss was in the arena for about a week.

Although there are many differences between the hostile environments in The Hunger Games and Life of Pi some things are the same. Both have a lack of water and food, which has a greater impact on Pi due to his expedition being 227 days long. Also, Katniss and Pi, for most of the book, were always in danger. Katniss never knew if there was another tribute miles away, or just yards away. Pi was always in danger from Richard Parker, who could strike at any second. Although towards the end, Pi's relationship with Richard Parker grows and he is no longer afraid, just like how Katniss could be allies with the other tributes, like she did with Peeta.

The  feats that Katniss and Pi were equally grueling. There were different things that each character had to do to save their lives. We should just be thankful that we don’t have to do what they did.   

A Tiger's Perspective

Author's Note: This is a point of view piece, a short response, from the story The Life of Pi. This is from the tiger's point of view, who is stranded on the boat with him. 

Sitting on the boat, I see the boy throw the fish over the edge of the boat near my body. While gnawing on a piece of hyena, I grab the fish, and start to down that as well.  The boy then jumps back onto the boat, looking at me suspiciously. I start to stare into his eyes, watching him backing down. I get the feeling that he is scared of me, but I am just as scared of him than he is of me. I go back to devouring the juicy fish he has layed in front of me, and enjoy every last bit. The boy starts heading back towards me, and he pulls out something from his pocket. It looks small, with a string hanging down, but then he brings the object towards his mouth and blows. The screeching noise hurts my ears and I start to feel a little woozy. I start to stumble back a little bit as I topple down on to my stomach. I drift to sleep for the night, and I see a glowing, green island straight ahead. 

Changing Mediums

Author’s  Note: I am writing this piece to meet my text analysis goal. I wrote on how the book “The Lightning Thief” changed when it changed into a film.

Have you ever seen a movie that originated from a book? Maybe you have just seen the movie, or just read the book, but when the book changes the medium into a movie or a film, some things change and are not the same as you interpreted while reading the book. The director might change the scenery that was described in a book, and it could change the whole meaning of the story. I read the book "The Lightning Thief" and saw the movie as well, and there were some major things that changed when changing the medium. Whenever you change a medium, something is bound to get changed. 

Changing a medium causes changes in the book or film. The Lightning Thief is a prime example. One thing that really stood out to me was in the book, Ares was a huge part. He had tried to kill Percy, Annabeth, and Grover by sending them into an abandoned amusement park where they would get trapped and embarrassed in front of the godlands, who were trying to humiliate Ares, and he set the kids up. They almost died here, and I thought that was a key part in the story. If someone important to the story almost dies, I don't know why you would cut it out. Ares was also in a fight with Percy, and again, he almost killed him, but Percy came out victorious and saved the gods from fighting each other. In the movie, they never put Ares in. He was non-existent. He was never shown once. I don't know if they forgot about him, but I believe he should have been in the movie at least once. 

Not putting Ares in the movie was a swing and a miss, but that was not the only thing they didn't put in or missed on. Medusa death was another thing I questioned their thought process on. If they wanted to make it like the book, they could've. When Percy killed Medusa and sliced her head right off,  in the book they took the head, wrapped it up, and shipped it back to Olympus so the gods could see his nice work. In the movie, he took the head with them, and it actually helped them in many cases along the way. I didn’t make sense to me how you could change it that much, and that might be why they couldn’t put Ares in the story. That’s a prediction though, there could have been a lot of other reasons they didn’t put it in. After all, it would be hard as a director to fit everything from the book in.

Medusa played a huge part in the book but not in the movie, and that can go for the Lotus Casino, vice versa though. In the movie, I liked the fact that they had been given a cookie at the door, and that cookie made them lose track of time. In the book, I was confused on what made them lose track. They just played games all day and did nothing else. I don’t get how they can keep that out of the book, but I liked the addition they put in a movie. I just thought it made it more interesting, and in the movie, as you’re watching, you almost get lost in time.

When you change mediums, there is going to be change within the new medium. Some transition better than others, but some are easier than others. In this story they left out or changed major parts in the story, but in the movie they added some nice touches to make it better. I was shocked by the differences in the book and the movie. There’s nothing wrong with changes, but some are just unnecessary, and things you can resolve and make it closer. This book and movie was good, but it could have been better.

A Clean, Well Lighted Place

Author's Note: I wrote this two paragraph response on the difference between the film and the story of "A Clean, Well Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway

The obvious dislike that the director of "A Clean Well-Lighted Place" stumbled upon was the misconception of the setting. In the story, it was described like this: “[A] terrace where the tables were all empty except where the old man sat in the shadow of the leaves of the tree that moved slightly in the wind." This is saying that the old man was sitting outside on the terrace by a tree. In the film version, the old man was sitting at a booth with a lot of light inside. If you were to put him in an exact opposite setting, that’s what it would be. I don’t think the director interpreted that very well.

Now, although this mistake was very different from the original piece, maybe the director put it in there for a reason. The old man was sitting in a spot with a ton of light, which describes life and happiness. The older waiter made a comment stating: "He stays up because he likes it." This is showing that he was in his “happy place”. Then at the end as he was walking into the darkness, he was walking back into the shadows, back to his normal life, back to depression and loneliness.

Dark and Light

Author's Note: I wrote this piece for text analysis response to "A clean, Well Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway. I needed to score proficient on text analysis, so I analyzed the symbolism and related it to real life situations.

As we grow older, we grow wiser, we have more patience, and we learn to live life to the fullest, and don’t regret anything. We know that our time is growing shorter and learn to appreciate life. In the story “A Clean, Well Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway, an old man is at the café drinking until almost 3 o’clock in the morning  and the young man wants to get home to his wife, but the older waiter wanted to wait until he was done, thinking more of other people. This story shows that with age comes maturity and respect, and those are keen as we move on with life.

What stood out to me was the way he used words. He didn’t just describe everything, he gave some metaphors and use symbolism. The older waiter says in the story, “Each night I am reluctant to close up because there may be someone who needs the cafe." He also says, "I am of those who like to stay late at the café with all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night." In this case, the light symbolizes money, and all of the things that the homeless people and the people in need, need. He is looking out for the people that usually don’t have light, and when you’re young, you don’t realize how good you have it. That’s why as you mature, you learn to sacrifice your time or your sleep to make others happy, because they are not as fortunate as you. The darkness in this story symbolizes all of the despair these people go through, and part of the reason the old man was out there so late, was because it was nice and quiet, even though he was deaf, he knew no one was around and he could get things off his mind. The old man thought about suicide because he was in so much despair. The money he had wasn’t the problem, it was all of the stuff he had been through. Maybe that was the reason he liked to stay up late with all of the people that need his help, or maybe he used to be like this guy, alone and in depression, and he wants to help. It doesn’t say in the story, but those are good predictions for me.

The symbolism in this story displays real life thoughts, and I have actually been in this kind of situation, where the older, more wise person makes the best decision. I was at a restaurant with my dad. A man ordering his food, and as he went to pay, he had dropped ten dollars on the floor. I was just going to wait until he left and get my 10 dollars. I pointed it out to my dad, and he told the man that he had dropped it. He picked it up and thanked my dad. The point of this is, you never know if that man needed that 10 dollars. He might need every dollar to live. If I took that money, he might become homeless, you don’t know his situation. Maybe he was a millionaire and just testing what you would do. You could get a reward from the person for being polite. Point is, you don’t know someone’s story, and you might be rewarded.

With age comes maturity and respect, and you learn to help others. Help out the less fortunate. They need things more than we do, and we can give things up because we have it pretty good. We need to be respectful to everyone else around us, and give a little. As you grow older you understand this more, and hopefully will apply it. 

Percy Jackson Predicting

Author’s Note: This is my predicting piece on what I thought would happen in the rest of the book. I’m about halfway through, and I needed a predicting for my goals.

Predicting happens in every story. What is going to happen next or is there a reason a certain thing happened is a common thought that I have every story I read. In the book The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson is sent away to a summer camp for Half Bloods or demi-gods. The headmasters at the camp send Percy out for a mission to find Zeus’ stolen lighting bolt. Predicting a story is anything your mind comes up with, and it’s really just an opinion.

Predicting is just an opinion, and my opinion is a little weird. I think that Percy Jackson, Annabeth, and Grover, will have encounters with many monsters on the quest for this stolen lightning bolt. They kept seeing suspicious stuff, like three old ladies, twins, that seemed like they were watching them. It turns out it was a monster, and Percy and his friends had to fight these three monsters. They won and killed all three, but I think they won’t be off the hook. This journey will not be easy, and they will meet up with plenty of monsters on the way, not to mention the ones when they get there.

The trip won’t be easy, and they will have to get through a lot of monsters to get there, but I think they will get the lightning bolt back to Zeus, and he will then have to apologize to Percy’s dad, or Poseidon, for calling him a thief. I think Percy will find the lightning bolt in the underworld, where Hades, the brother of Zeus and Poseidon, and Percy will have to kill all of the monsters to get to the lightning bolt. It would be a waste of time to fight Hades, since he can never die. With hard work from Percy and Annabeth, and Grover watching their back, I have no doubt in my mind that they will get the bolt returned, I don’t know if it will be in time for the summer solstice in ten days.

They will get the lightning bolt, but I don’t think they will all stay alive at the end. I think Grover is too weak, and as he says in the story, “You know…. satyrs in the under world…don’t turn out well.” Grover won’t survive, but he will still be a huge part in them completing this quest. His job is relying on Percy surviving, and I think he will go all out to keep him alive, and will worry less about himself, leaving him vulnerable with almost no protection, besides the other two. In my mind, sadly, Grover doesn’t stand a chance in the underworld. Percy will be grateful for finishing the mission, and be a hero at camp, but will have lost his best friend, Grover.

Predicting isn’t something that has a limit. It’s your own opinion, it’s whatever you want it to be. It could be the wildest thing, but if you believe it, it can be a prediction. I thought that Percy would encounter gods, kill them all, and complete the mission, but also lose his best friend Grover. In life, some of the greatest things can involve some of the greatest tragedies. There is no limit to imagination, and there is no limit to predicting.