Many people in The Lightning Thief, both mortal and immortal, hope to deceive our narrator and others for the sake of causing chaos and violence. Lying doesn't necessarily involve saying something untrue in this novel. Often lying simply involves keeping information from someone (like the way Percy chooses not to tell Chiron everything that the Oracle told him). Percy's entire quest is built upon a deception, and so we could say that the entire novel is built upon deception. It gets tricky, though, when certain characters know how to read minds or eavesdrop on dreams. It becomes clear that lying is not a very easy task when gods and goddesses are involved.
Questions About Lies and Deceit
- Does Percy tell any lies? If so, what lies does he tell?
- Does anybody try to deceive Percy, Annabeth, and Grover on their quest? If so, who tries to deceive them and how do they do it?
- How does Ares deceive the gods? Can the gods ever be deceived?
- What lies does Luke tell? How does Luke deceive Percy and others?
- If there are different versions of reality or different ways of seeing a situation in the immortal world, do lies still exist?