The Sea of Monsters

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2006

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-5

Chapters 6-8

Chapters 9-11

Chapters 12-13

Chapters 14-18

Chapters 19-20

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary: “My Best Friend Shops for a Wedding Dress”

The book opens with Percy having a dream about his friend Grover. In the dream, Grover runs for his life down a deserted street in Florida. Percy identifies the thing chasing Grover as a monster because it smells “like a skunk that’s been living off Mexican food” (3). Grover takes cover behind a row of bridal gowns in one of the stores, and Percy wakes right after the monster breaks down the store’s front wall.

Percy lives in an apartment with his mom. It’s his last day of seventh grade, and tomorrow, he’s supposed to leave to spend the summer at Camp Half Blood, the summer camp for demigod children of the Greek gods. Over breakfast, his mom tells him she received a message from Chiron (activities director at camp), who said it may not be safe for Percy to return because the camp is having problems. She promises to give Percy the rest of the details after school. Outside, Percy sees “a shadow that belonged to no one” on the building across the street (7). It disappears but leaves Percy feeling uneasy.

Chapter 2 Summary: “I Play Dodgeball with Cannibals”

Percy attends Meriwether College Prep, a “progressive” school for special kids. His only friend is Tyson, a homeless kid who’s big for his age but cries a lot. All morning, Percy stands up for Tyson against the school bully, who seems to have more big, ugly kids hanging around him than usual. The bully threatens Percy with his big new friends, adding they’ll be attending Meriwether next year.

After changing clothes for PE, Percy and Tyson join their classmates for a game of dodgeball. Partway into the game, the new kids transform into “eight-foot-tall giants with wild eyes” who are there to feast upon Percy and the others (17). The giants (called Laistrygonians), turn the dodgeballs into flaming balls of iron and throw them around, cutting off exits and destroying the gym. With his magical sword (Riptide) in the locker room, Percy is defenseless. Two giants aim balls at Percy, but Tyson catches them and hurls them back at the giants, making them vanish into fire. Tyson bats more balls away, somehow not being hurt by the flames.

One of the balls blows up the wall between the gym and locker room. Percy’s pants, with his sword as a pen in the pocket, land by the last standing giant. Before he can get to them, someone runs a knife through the giant, which disappears into smoke. Annabeth reveals herself from beneath her invisibility cap and tells Percy to bring Tyson and meet her outside. Finally, the teachers and principal break into the gym. The school bully and gym teacher blame Percy for the damage. Knowing no one would believe him even if he told the truth and more concerned about why Annabeth is there, Percy grabs his sword, yells for Tyson to follow, and jumps through “the gaping hole in the side of the building” (24).

Chapters 1-2 Analysis

These chapters introduce the major conflicts and characters of The Sea of Monsters. Percy Jackson returns as the protagonist and point-of-view character of the series, and Annabeth Chase reprises her role as Percy’s best friend and confidant. Tyson is new to the series and fills the empty place in Percy and Annabeth’s circle that Grover vacated when he left to find the god Pan at the end of The Lightning Thief. Percy’s dream about Grover shows Grover is still part of the adventures, if now as someone to be saved, rather than someone doing the saving. The dream also introduces the main conflict of The Sea of Monsters—retrieving the Golden Fleece from Polyphemus’s island and bringing it to Camp Half Blood.

These chapters also provide background details about Riordan’s story world. The attack in Chapter 1 shows how the world of the Greek gods overlaps with the mortal world, including how mist obscures mortal vision of the Greek world so humans don’t see monsters for what they are. In Chapter 2, Percy, not yet knowing Tyson is a cyclops and thus part of the Greek world, explains the attack at school and demigods, which offers a quick and easily understood recap of important information for the reader. Specifically, Percy discusses how demigods attract monsters and train at Camp Half Blood, which introduces the camp, the natural divide between gods and monsters, and how demigods cause trouble for the mortal world.

Riordan uses foreshadowing in these chapters to hint at important events, objects, and people. Chapter 1 brings the news that all is not well at Camp Half Blood, which is the book’s major conflict. The news precedes Percy’s trouble with the Laistrygonian giants and his return to camp sooner than planned. The shadow Percy sees in Chapter 1 is Annabeth while she wears the invisibility cap her mother, Athena, gave her. While the cap makes Annabeth invisible, it doesn’t keep her from casting a shadow, showing the limitations of magic. As a cyclops, Tyson is immune to fire, a trait which keeps him alive during Chapter 1’s battle and continues to prove useful throughout the book. Taken together, these things foreshadow Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson working together, as well as the challenges they face along their journey.

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By Rick Riordan

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