Sea of monsters

In “The Sea of monsters,” by Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson goes on an adventure for the fabled Golden Fleece. Accompanied by Annabeth, and Percy’s newly found cyclops half-brother, Tyson. During the quest they run into many obstacles, a few notables are; Percy’s cousin, Luke, and another one of Percy’s half-brother, Polyphemus. The story is written in Percy’s point of view, but from Tyson’s perspective, a lot of events and characters are described in a way that creates a view of such an innocent character in the reader.

One way that Tyson’s point of view influences the reader's interpretation is how this perspective shows when Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson run away from camp-half blood. In Percy’s mind they were being chased by harpies, which are flying man-eating creatures. Then, in a nick of time hippocampi, came to the rescue and saved them. From Percy’s point of view, there was a sense of urgency to get away from the harpies. That urgency created a great amount of suspense to the reader, wondering if they would get away alive. Percy’s view of that event greatly differed, to that of Tyson’s.

The reader would feel a lot different about what happened if the book if it was written in the point of view of Tyson. In that one event, Tyson didn’t know that they were being chased man-eating creatures. So, when the hippocampi came, it was a pleasant surprise to him. He called the hippocampi, “fish ponies,” making the reading think that Tyson wasn’t a very bright person. Also, with Tyson being unaware of the harpies would also make the reader think that Tyson wasn’t a very observant Cyclops.

As you can see, the point of view of a story forces the reader to see just one side of the event. So, even though Percy and Tyson are characters in the same book, their view of events can change the readers understanding of the book.