The Struggle Inside

 

      So you all may be looking at my title thinking to yourself "Is this some kind of  horror film?" or "Woah that's deep". The purpose of my post today is to discuss the conflict in The House of Hades. More specifically the conflict I see hapenning between some of the characters and themselves. That's why I chose "The Struggle Inside" as my title. I thought it was pretty creative and catchy, I don't know about you guys. Anyway back on the topic of conflict. There definately is other types of conflict in the book. For example, the battle betweeen the demigods and Gaea and her monsters. For this post, I just want to focus on the character to self conflict. I think it's more relateable. I mean how many people do you know who are at war with a Greek goddess who is sending a bunch of monsters to kill you?! If you do know some one who has this issue, I would love to hear their story!

 

     One character in particular that I have noticed who is struggling with herself is Hazel Levesque. Hazel is a daughter of Pluto (the Roman form of Hades). Hazel finds out that towards the end of her quest she will have to face an enemy alone. Hecate, goddess of magic, tells Hazel she will have to use the magic of the Mist to defeat her. There is a chance that Hazel may not survive. Hecate gave her three paths to choose. Hazel picks the most dangerous and difficult path. It was the only one that had a chance of keeping all of her friends alive. However, it's the one where she has the least chance of making it. Hazel's half brother, Nico is also a child of Pluto. If they are to succeed in their quest only one of them will make it to close the Doors of Death to stop Gaea. The text says, "Nico had warned her [Hazel]. He'd communed with the dead, heard them whispering things about their future. Two children of the Underworld would enter the House of Hades. They would face an impossible foe. Only one of them would make it to the Doors of Death" (Riordan 32). Talk about a bad day, poor Hazel. All this bad news she's getting is really taking its toll.

     Hazel constantly battles with herself after hearing all of this news. She isn't sure if she has the courage to go on with it all. During her account with Hecate she learns about a path where she and some of her friends could escape and not have to particiapate in the war. "A small, guilty part of Hazel found that appealing. She'd secretly been wishing for the chance to be a normal girl. She didn't want any more pain or suffering for herself and her friends They'd already been through so much" (Riordan 24).There isn't a one hundred percent chance of everyone making it through the quest. Her own brother may have to die for her to servive. Or it could be the other way around. No matter what though she has to decide if she is going to finish her quest or save her own skin. I think reading this, most of us would like to say we would risk ourselves for our friends. However, when our own life was actually in anger, would we still make that decsion? Let me know in the comments below what you think!

For a full explanation of Hazel's character and role in the book click here.



A New Book Brings A New Theme

     Recently I started the book The House of Hades by Rick Riordan. Its the fourth book in the Heroes of Olympus series, which I'm sure many of you are familiar with. I realize not all of you may know what I'm talking about so let me take a brief moment to explain the plot. The story follows seven demigods (kids with one parent mortal and one god) on their journey to defeat Gaea, the earth goddess, so she doesn't take over and destroy the world. Hera, Greek goddess of marriage, home and family, had erased the minds of Jason- a roman demigod- with Percy (Yes, Percy Jackson)- a Greek demigod. She then switched them in hopes that they would bring the Greek and Roman demigod camps together to help defeat Gaea. By The House of Hades Percy and Jason have already met each other and with their five other friends they met on their journeys to unite the camps they set off on another quest to shut the Doors of Death so Gaea can finally be killed.

     Now that we are all on the same page I would like to talk to you guys about a theme I see surfacing in this book. Yes I know I'm only fifty or so pages in but I guess Riordan is just that good of an author that he has made sure to quickly get his message across to the reader. The theme I have found is the power of friendship can be strong enough to help you through anything. Riordan displays this theme multiple ways. One example would be when Hazel was reflecting on the important roles Annabeth and Percy played in their quest. "Percy had been their back bone. He'd given them confidence as they ailed across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean. As for Annabeth-she'd been the de facto leader of the quest...She was the smartest of the seven, the one with the answers" (Riordan 8,9). Here Hazel hints that it would have been very hard to get through some of their challenges without these friends by her side. Another example is when Annabeth and Percy fall into Tartaurus and land in a river that is full of misery. Annabeth hears wispers telling her to give up her struggle and let herself drown, and she almost does. "Percy gripped her hand and jolted her back to reality. She couldn't see him in the murky water, but suddenly she didn't want to die. Together they kicked upward and broke the surface" (Riordan 37). Percy grabbing on to Annabeth reminded her that she had a reason to live and to keep fighting.

     Through this theme I think Riordan is trying to tell us two different things. One is that friends are there to help you get through difficult times. They are always there to support you. Two is that if you're ever in a difficult situation you should think of your friends. They are a reason for you to keeping pushing forward no matter how hard the struggle. I don't think we realize how important friendship is. It may sound silly, but I want all of you to take a moment at some point to hug your friends and let them know how much you appreciate them. I'm not kidding! Do it! And if they ask why, tell them Rick Riordan enlightened you.

Blogging Again!
 

   After a long break about a trimester long, I'm blogging again! It's sad to say that I have also taken a break from reading as well. In my defense I have been extremely busy lately.However I am excited to start turning somemore pages. Since I haven't gotten too far into a new book yet I figured it would be much more intersting to blog about one of my favorite books from tri 1. I have to say the book I loved the most was Tigerlily by Jodi Lynn Anderson. Anyone who knows me could tell you that I have a major obsession with Peter Pan. Random it may seem I absolutly love the classic Disney character and his story. Tigerlily is a different take on the tale and adds quite an intersting spin. Instead of the story being focused on the adventurous life of Peter, it's about Tigerlily, a teenage native american girl who belongs to a tribe in Neverland.

    Those of you who have seen Disney's Peter Pan may remeber Tigerlily as the native american princess who is saved from Captian Hook by Peter. In Anderson's novel Tigerlily is considered an outsider in her tribe and accidentally crosses paths with Peter in the woods. In the movie Peter flirted a little with Tigerlily and Wendy (whom he had already met) wasn't happy with this. The novel creates a powerful love connection between Tigerlily and Peter long before Wendy is in the picture. However when Wendy does show up it causes some trouble between the two lovers. I guess the reason I liked this book so much was that it was a favorite story of mine but told from a different perspective and had an altered plot. Instead of rooting for Wendy like always, Anderson had me pushing for Tigerlily to come out on top. Anderson also told the story in a very intersting way. It was written so that Tinkerbell, the fairy, was narrating. I have never read anything like it before. I thought it required a lot of creativity to come up with a story such as Tigerlily's and write it in such a unique way. For this I give Jodi Lynn Anderson major props!

 

 

Here is Disney's version of Tigerlily for those of you who haven't seen it.