Essay Sample about Rick Riordan

Rick Riordan is an English and history teacher turned mythological fantasy author. Riordan writes mythological-based contemporary novels for children and young adults. Riordan's writing style is a mixture of contemporary life, historical information, humorous, fun, and first-person point of view with third person limited. He incorporates historical information, myths into contemporary life to give readers a realistic setting with fantasy mythological elements helping them relate to the demi-gods like Percy Jackson to the Greek Gods like Ares and Demeter. Riordan writes his stories from the first-person point of view with a third-person limited, giving readers two narrators: the main character and an unknown character. An example of his first point of view writing is, "look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth and try to lead a normal life" (Riordan 1). Riordan does something unique here with the first-person point of view as he has Percy Jackson interact with the readers, already setting an engaging and encouraging text for readers. Riordan plays onto intrigue as Percy practically tells readers to stay away and live everyday life, but it draws readers in with intrigue as they wonder why being a demi-god or half-blood, as Percy says, is such a bad thing. 

From the first and third-person limited points of view to humorous fun and cliffhangers, Riordan finds ways to make his mythological fantasy retelling enjoyable. Riordan leaves readers in fits of laughter as they see these children and young adult characters go on to do crazy things and say funny things. A reader of Riordan's works will never know what to expect when it comes to humor. Readers can see the humor range from the lord of titans getting hit in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush to a character with great power saying it comes with a great need for a nap. Riordan also brings in realistic humor as readers see flying burritos be compared to grenades and red bubbling liquid compared to blood, lava, and even evil ketchup. The humor is realistic but humorous as one would probably never imagine hitting a titan, let alone the lord of the titans with a small plastic hairbrush but can imagine a burrito flying hitting someone in the head, and of course, needing a nap after going on a long journey that includes battles with Gods and Titans. 

Riordan's humorous style with realistic setting helps create a real connection between historical mythology and the contemporary life of his readers. His styles connect and place him in the genres of adventure, fantasy, and mythology. Riordan takes the classic Greek myths and Gods and puts them into a contemporary setting with realistic qualities. The summer camp in Riordan's book Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is run by the wine god Dionysus as part of his punishment from Zeus and not allowed to drink. The primary caretaker of the demi-gods at the camp is Chiron, who is known to have trained the likes of Hercules, among others, and he does the same for the demi-gods in the camp, training them in the Greek and Roman ways. Riordan. Riordan incorporates historical landmarks and information into the stories to help the readers connect more with them. Heather Cyr explains that "Riordan's use of American landmarks signals that new stories using old myths have just as much power as the originals and that renewal is inevitable" (134). Riordan's use of New York's tallest building and the highest level being the spot of Mount Olympus shows that connections can be made between the original myths and retellings do not mean a bad thing but simply a new way of connecting the past, present, and future together. Riordan also makes his characters realistic and relatable to his readers. For example, "In the novels, Percy travels west across the United States, eat French fries and shakes at diners, plays at arcades and amusement parks, and engages in battles at iconic American landmarks" (Bach 60). The eating of French fries and shakes in diners to playing at arcades and parks is something that children and young adults do in their own lives and can help them imagine the characters at one of the parks they have been to in real life. However, Riordan does not stop there as he has the Greek Gods Demeter and Persephone eat cereal and even has Poseidon's throne be a deep-sea fisherman's chair (Bach 60). Everyone has probably eaten cereal at least once in their life, but thinking of a powerful Greek goddess eating a bowl of cereal is entertaining, humorous, and refreshingly relatable. Riordan interweaves the mythological tales people learn and changes them into a relatable learning book by placing the characters into contemporary settings, having the Greek Gods do, eat, be and have everyday things like a camp owner, supervisor, biker, eat cereal, drink milkshakes, and go to amusement parks. 

I would be lying to you and myself if I said I knew my writing style because I do not. However, I will say that I try to write stories, essays, and poems that readers can relate to in any aspect from life experiences or thoughts and feelings. The intended reading audience is young adults or adults, but sometimes I lose my intended audience while writing. My genre of writing is nonfiction to fiction with hints of fantasy. I write about life experiences adding fantasy elements to them to make them relatable but different to the readers at the same time. I struggle with getting ideas from mind to paper or computer when writing. I believe reading other authors works like William Shakespeare or Rick Riordan can help me get a sense of the different types of writing styles and genres in the world, and feedback can be hurtful at times but also helpful in helping a writer make sure they do not see just their point of view on the story but others as well. 

Works Cited:

Bach, Jacqueline. "Battling Greek Mythology, History, and Reluctant Readers: An Interview with Rick Riordan." ALAN Review, vol. 37, no. 1, 2009, pp. 58-61.

Cyr, Heather K. "Pyramids in America: Rewriting the 'Egypt of the West' in Rick Riordan's The Kane Chronicles Series." Mythlore, vol. 38, no. 1, 2019, pp. 133–135.

Leighton, Alexander. "Re-Discovering Mythology: Adaptation and Appropriation in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Saga." Mousaion, vol. 32, no. 2, 2014, pp. 60–73.

Riordan, Rick. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Disney-Hyperion, 2006.