Why Does Percy Lose His Memory In 'The Son Of Neptune'?

One of the biggest plot twists of The Son of Neptune is when Percy loses his memory. Hera, the queen of the gods, took away his memories in order for the Greek and Roman demigods to be able to unite. She thinks that by forcing him to go to the other side, he will find a way to bring the two together. When Percy wakes up, he has no memory of who he is. However, he gets this feeling that he needs to go to Camp Jupiter, and every time he hears the name Annabeth, he feels like he needs to go to her. The rest of the book follows Percy as he learns to reevaluate himself and his place in the world. Even though he has no memory, Percy is the same character that readers are used to. He is still confident, and even sarcastic at times. The way that Riordan develops Percy’s character in this book is amazing, especially when he discovers his core values and the way that they remain the same even when he has no memory. It is also really cool to see how Percy automatically knows to protect Frank and Hazel even when he has no memory of who they are.

The memory loss is tied into larger themes of the book and of the series as a whole: identity and loyalty. Percy’s journey in this book is that of a young man rebuilding himself from scratch. Yet, at the same time, he is always Percy. You see him go to help people in crisis, even when he doesn’t know why he is doing it. You hear his characteristic sarcasm, even when he doesn’t know who he is or where he is. The amnesia plot point could have been a simple trick to further the plot, but it gives us some of the best moments of growth for our hero. For example, he is secretly horrified by the Roman camp’s togas, but he can’t quite put his finger on why he feels that way. All in all, it was a very cool and creative plot point that really added a lot to Percy’s character.

The memory-wipe Hera did to Percy in THE HERO SHADE was so divine-interference-like. He has no idea who he is, and Hera wiped his memory in order to force the Greek and Roman demigods to be more cooperative. But what’s really great about this is that the author portrayed Percy’s amnesia so naturally and then had him adapt in order to find out who he is. He has flashbacks of memories and they are all fragmented. So he remembers Annabeth’s first name, he remembers his hatred of gorgons, he remembers his love of peanut butter sandwiches. It’s so natural and how I imagine someone would act if they were in that situation. The rest of the book follows Percy as he fights to recover his memories, and it jumps back and forth between the present (as a wolf man, fighting gorgons while wearing a wolf shirt) and him bowing to statues of Jupiter in ancient Rome. It’s all very disorienting, but you can always tell that it’s Percy. He has a few great moments where he Growthes and comes back to himself, even when he has no idea who he is. He even has a great moment where he talks trash to Octavian, who he’s never met before and has no idea who he is. That was perfect Percy. What I loved about this is that his memory loss wasn’t just a plot-device in order to further the story. It actually showed readers what kind of hero Percy is. Heroism isn’t about what you remember. It’s about who you are right now in this moment and what you choose to do.

This reminds me of Hera's bomb dropped into the midst of Percy's life in The Son of Neptune in order to see how he'd react after being dropped into the midst of Camp Jupiter with no memory of his past life. Of course, Hera wants Percy to be a Roman demigod in order to fix the Greek/Roman division between demigods, but instead of pulling his memories and watching him go, she let's him stumble his way through things until he discovers Camp Jupiter on his own. Throughout the story, Percy's natural instinct to trust people serves him well as he finds companions in Hazel and Frank. Sometimes his memories come back to him when he least expects it - often as a result of his newfound friends. And other times the memory of a person or place will come back to him in the most random ways (like when he randomly remembers the face of Annabeth). Because Riordan pulled a memory wipe on the main character of the story, we see Percy learning to trust people as he grows and finds himself throughout the book. Even more, we see him in action as he tries to protect his new friends while trying to piece together who he is and where he came from. It was really cool to read about Lupa, Percy's pack leader from Camp Half-Blood, just a few chapters into the story in order to give him a bit of grounding in the Roman world in order to make his adventure all the more meaningful.

I also have to praise this against the typical Percy Jackson narrative. We typically get Percy with the answers or at least a plethora of witty remarks. This story is really different because it’s been set up so that Percy is figuring himself out as he goes along. Thus it is so much fun to read this in contrast to how typical demigods are viewed by typical friends, especially those as legendary as Percy. It’s so much fun to read him figure himself out, and to see old Percy peek through. In this one random instance Percy recalls Annabeth’s face. It gives me chills every time.