A Comparison of Collections and the Lightning Thief, a Novel by Rick Riordan

Perception and reality can relate to our daily lives because we usually don’t see things the way they are, “Colors and shadow work together to give the whole image a sense of shape and depth,” which shows that without color or shadow in our lives, there would be no shape or depth towards mankind. (Collections, 91) Collections, Unit Two, which is different stories that explain perception and reality, and Percy Jackson, Lightning Thief, which is a story about a boy who does not realize the stories in his textbooks are happening right in front of his eyes, demonstrate many examples of the clash of perception and reality, or, in other words, the way our brains perceive ideas and images.

The layout is body one; on Collections; body two; on Percy; and the conclusion; on both Collections and Percy.

First, in Collections, perception and reality are going to be in our lives forever because without perception there would be no five senses and without reality, there would be no meaning to life.

Perception and reality play mind tricks on our brains, such as when, “Gilbert looked at the watch for a moment, the second hand had stopped moving,” which shows that when people feel that the time is going by fast, the time has stopped. (Collections, 105) Sometimes people feel that dreams come true, such as when, “She flew like an eagle now, until she was gone from sight. No one dared speak about it. Couldn’t believe it. But it was because they that was there saw that it was,” which shows that people don’t always believe what is happening.

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(Collections, 65) When people see optical illusions people don’t think about the ‘magic’ behind the optical illusions, such as, “In the lingo of magic, misdirection draws the audience’s attention toward the “effect” and away from the “method”, the secret behind the effect.”, which shows that people don’t think about the method behind things. (Collections, 82) Many people think about time but don’t think about what would happen if time changed directions, especially when Gilbert asked, “What if time moved in every direction and at every speed?”, which demonstrates that people ask these sorts of questions, would people go to the past? what would happen? (Collections, 97)

Sometimes people see best in the dreams that they have, such as Shakespeare, when he says, “When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see, For all the day they view things unrespected; But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee, And, darkly bright, are bright in dark directed,” which shows that William Shakespeare best saw the lover in the dreams. (Collections, 74)

Secondly, in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, perception and reality is a big part of the novel because Percy thinks that their whole life is a big fat dream. Percy believes that their whole life people have been lying to him, whether it is between his real dad, his best friend Grover Mrs. Dodds, or how he is a demigod, he feels that people are lying, especially Mrs. Dodds, when this happens, “My hands were still trembling. My lunch must’ve been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something. Had I imagined the whole thing?”, which shows that Percy didn’t know or perceive the whole Mrs. Dodds thing very well because he was thinking that his lunch was contaminated with magic mushrooms and magic mushrooms don’t exist. (Riordan, 14)

Percy gets stuck in a time of reality because when he goes to the Lotus hotel he realizes that people have been stuck there for many years, especially when he goes asks people questions, “I found a guy who told me it was 1985. Another guy told me it was 1993. They all claimed they hadn’t been in here very long, a few days, a few weeks at most.”, which shows that not just Percy was stuck in a time of reality, the people at the Lotus hotel were also stuck in a time of reality.

(Riordan, 262) Percy finally realizes what it feels like to be a demigod and to live with mythological creatures, especially when Mr. Brunner does this, “I realized that the velvet underwear wasn’t underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle, and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn’t a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must’ve been magic because there’s no way it could’ve held all of him.”, which shows that our minds do not perceive magic very well. (Riordan, 74) Percy does not perceive that his best friend Grover is a satyr very well, especially when Grover lies to him, “Grover ran for the Camaro-but he wasn’t running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood why he could run so fast and still limp when he walked. Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.”, which shows that Percy finally pieced the puzzle as to why his best friend acted so weird. (Riordan. Pg. 43) Humans don’t see a magical thing called Mist, it sort of blinds them from the mythological world, such as when Mr. Brunner explains the ‘Mist’ to Percy, “Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world the generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans. You will see things just as they are, being a half-blood, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality.”, which shows that humans have their version of reality and mythological creatures have their version of reality. (Riordan. Pg. 155)

Conclusively is comparing Collections and Percy, Collections, Unit Two, which are different stories that explain perception and reality, and Percy Jackson, Lightning Thief, which is a story about a boy who does not realize the stories in his textbooks are happening right in front of his eyes, demonstrate many examples of the clash of perception and reality, or, in other words, the way our brains perceive ideas and images, Collections is in body one, Percy is in body two, and both are in the conclusion.

Collections and Percy both use perception and reality in understandable ways to confuse and thrill the readers, the novels also use perception and reality many times to explain what perception and reality mean. In the future, perception and reality will both be helpful and bother humans because people will be stuck in a time of reality. What would happen to the world if perception and reality were gone, would there still be life because without perception there is no depth or shadow and without reality, there is no shape or color?