In Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, there are three main characters: Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. Each of them has different conflicts they deal with in the text.
Percy deals with many external conflicts by doing things like learning to sword fight, mastering his Poseidon-like powers, and overcoming the minions and allies of Hades. Some of the most critical external conflicts are when Percy faces Gorgons at the beginning of his journey and when he fights against Ares, the god of war, after learning that Ares is in on the plot to cause a war between the "Big Three" gods.
Percy has some internal conflicts as well, such as his poor relationship with his father and his lack of confidence in himself. Percy has been a screw-up most of his life, but his demigod status, which is responsible for his dyslexia, ADHD, and failure in school, is kept hidden from him to protect him. He struggles with an inferiority complex through most of the book and only comes into his own through the journey of all five books in the series. He also struggles because he is angry at his father, who never contacted him, but still has to try to help him so the world won’t be launched into war.
Annabeth faces similar external conflicts to Percy, as she goes on the same adventure. She isn’t as strong physically as he is, but she uses her wits (a gift of Athena) to help overcome many of the same challenges.
Annabeth has a different internal conflict. She wants to prove herself, to make her mother proud, and to distinguish herself as a hero. She is jealous of Percy, who gets the offer of a quest, when she has been waiting for a quest for a long time. She also struggles because she knows that her feelings for Percy are against the rivalry that exists between Athena and Posiden.
Grover is unique because he is not a demigod but a Satyr. His external conflict revolves around trying to keep Percy safe through the beginning of the story and attempting to help Percy on the quest despite not being a warrior.
Internally, Grover is struggling with his failures from the past—specifically that he didn’t keep Thalia safe when bringing her to Camp Halfblood. That failure haunts him, and the possibility of failing again causes him stress throughout the adventure.
The internal and external conflicts are wrapped up together in The Lightning Thief. Percy begins the novel as an insecure boy seen as a misfit and mess-up by most of the authority figures in his life. He has ADD and dyslexia. He feels like an outsider in his own home despite his loving relationship with his mother. However, he learns these so-called defects are actually hidden strengths that come from being a demigod: his dyslexia is a symptom of his brain being hard-wired to read ancient Greek, for example.
Percy overcomes his inner turmoil through external conflicts. During his quest to save his mother and retrieve the lightning bolt, he faces down monsters and even other gods. He realizes his own strengths and develops as a person through his trials, using his wits to defeat Medusa, for instance. By the end of the novel, Percy must even oppose Luke, an older boy he assumed was his friend and even viewed as an older brother figure.
In The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson faces many external conflicts, primarily from Zeus, who believes that he is involved with the theft of Zeus’s lightning bolt. The other gods who side with Zeus try to hinder him at every step. Medusa, who resents Percy for his father Poseidon’s rejection of her, tries to turn him into stone to become part of her collection. In St. Louis, Percy battles the Chimera in the Arch. Hades accused Percy of stealing his Helm of Darkness. Percy eventually discovers that it is Ares, the god of war, who has the stolen items. These conflicts require Percy’s ingenuity to battle them and retrieve the lightning bolt.
Percy’s inner conflicts stem from his discovery that his father is Poseidon, who had abandoned Percy’s mother soon after Percy was born. He resents Poseidon’s desertion, leaving him to be raised by his mother and his odious step-father. It is his task to come to accept his position as a Half-Blood, even though it means his father will not always be readily available. Percy’s ADD and his dyslexia are caused by his half-god ancestry. These have caused him to have constant trouble in school. By accepting this “handicaps,” Percy learns to use them as his strengths against the outer conflicts that he faces.
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