The Lost Hero

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2010

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Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary

This chapter follows Jason as he wakes up on a school bus, “not sure where he [is], holding hands with a girl he [doesn’t] know” (3). He learns that the girl, Piper, believes she’s his girlfriend; that the boy sitting in front of them is his supposed best friend, Leo; and that all the kids on the bus attend the Wilderness School in Nevada. They get off the bus and arrive at a museum. Piper leaves the two boys to work with Dylan, her partner for the day’s assignment. They walk through the museum and arrive at a skywalk that extends over the Grand Canyon. As a dark circle of clouds forms, Jason has the feeling he is in danger, and reaches into his pocket to find a golden coin. He reveals his amnesia to Coach Hedge, who confirms that he’s never seen him before. He also tells Jason that he senses a monster in their midst, and that Camp Half-Blood will be performing an extraction. Jason finds his words familiar, but can’t remember their meaning. As he tries to interrogate the Coach further, lightning appears above, and the Coach tries to evacuate the skywalk.

Chapter 2 Summary

As a storm forms, Piper, Leo, and Jason find themselves stuck on the skywalk with Dylan. Dylan reveals himself to be the monster Coach Hedge had sensed, and the Coach reveals himself to be a satyr. A fight breaks out when Dylan reveals he is a ventus, a storm spirit. Jason reaches into his pocket and flips the golden coin: it transforms into a sword. A fight breaks out, and Jason is dominant. But when Dylan tries to depart with Leo, he knocks Piper off the skywalk. Jason jumps after her and realizes he can fly. Meanwhile, the Coach rescues Leo. Piper and Leo ask Jason who he is, and where he got his powers. He reminds them that he doesn’t know. Next, they see flying horses approaching. A girl and boy, Annabeth and Butch, arrive. They are looking for Annabeth’s missing boyfriend, Percy Jackson.

Chapter 3 Summary

This chapter switches to follow Piper’s perspective. Piper feels a strong sense of dread: after the happiest weeks of her life, thanks to her new relationship with Jason, she had a dream warning her that everything was about to go awry. Annabeth announces that the group will go to Camp Half-Blood. Being half-Native American, Piper is confused and offended, until the new arrivals reveal that they are the children of Athena and Iris. They travel in the flying chariot, but crash-land in a lake when more venti appear. The other campers wonder why Jason, Piper, and Leo haven’t been “claimed” by their godly parents. Hephaestus, the god of blacksmiths and fire, quickly claims Leo. Piper notices a tattoo on Jason’s arm. Annabeth announces that he must go visit Chiron immediately. Meanwhile, she offers to take Piper on a tour.

Chapter 4 Summary

Annabeth tells Piper than her mom was a goddess, and that gods recently agreed to acknowledge their children by the time the child is 13. Piper takes the news calmly, more preoccupied with her dream from three days prior. Annabeth goes on to explain the basics of being a demigod: monsters pursue them throughout their lives, and they are often “labeled troublemakers” (45). This resonates with Piper, who regularly persuades people to give her expensive merchandise; these people later accuse her of stealing. In a less welcome revelation, Annabeth tells Piper that her memories of Jason are a fiction created by the Mist. Annabeth tries to comfort Piper, but she is inconsolable, as she believes she’ll be forced to betray her new friend and cooperate with the voice that visited her in her dream. Piper chooses a weapon, Helen of Troy’s dagger, and her knowledge of Greek mythology helps her as she tours each gods’ cabin. In Hera’s cabin, they meet Rachel Elizabeth Dare, a mortal and oracle. A spirit possesses her and demands, “Free me, Piper McClean, or the earth shall swallow us. It must be by the solstice” (65).

Chapters 1-4 Analysis

These chapters introduce the perspectives of two of the three major characters, Piper and Jason, and begin to unravel the mystery around both of their true identities. They also lay out the basics of the story’s universe. Camp Half-Blood is a camp and refuge for the half-mortal children of Greek gods. Each god has their own cabin that serves as a home to their children. Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon, “the big three,” have few children (Hera has none), but the other cabins are populated with a number of campers ranging in age from 9 to 18. However, even before Jason, Leo, and Piper’s arrival, there is something amiss at Camp Half-Blood: Percy Jackson, a son of Poseidon, has gone missing.

Jason begins with less information than Piper: he has no memory. However, his control of lightning and his impressive fighting skills suggest that, before his amnesia, he was aware of his identity as a demigod. Although the book’s third person narration is in the form of free indirect speech, the close focus on Jason’s point of view primarily reveals his confusion about who is he, and how he should relate to the friends and protectors he finds himself surrounded by. Although he knows that the tattoo on his arm, his fighting skills, and his knowledge of Roman mythology have significance, he does not know what they mean, so the world around him seems perplexing.

Piper has her memory, but is unaware of both her true maternity and the meaning of the dream she had three days prior. It is suggested in these pages that Piper’s father is a famous actor; he never told her who her mother was, so she does not know which goddess might be her mother. These chapters, also written in free indirect discourse, reveal that in the absence of this information, Piper has always felt like a disappointment to others, and is somewhat self-pitying. Her strong persuasive skills most recently got her a BMW—and a trip to the Wilderness School. She views neither her skills nor her father’s wealth as assets; instead, she feels lonely and unmoored. Therefore, when the voice in her dreams says that she will have to betray her new friends to save her father, she is more-or-less resigned to disappointing them (and her mother).

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