Diversity Today, Explained Tomorrow
Occasionally, I happen across fantasy novels which turn
diversity into key factors within a worldly context. Rick Riordan does this in
the first book of his Olympians series,
The Lightning Thief. The main
character, Percy Jackson, struggles in school. Not only does he not get along
with many of his teachers and classmates, but Percy also has Dyslexia and ADHD.
These two neurological differences make learning in a conventional school
setting difficult for him.
When Percy’s world is thrown into chaos and he finds himself in a Greek summer camp for Demi-gods, Percy learns that he is not entirely human. In the first day after he wakes up from the ordeal that leads him into the camp, Percy learns a thing or two about his learning disabilities. Annabeth, another demi-god in the camp, explains that words seem to float around the page for him because his “mind is hardwired for ancient Greek” ratherthan the Romanized alphabet (Riordan 88). She goes on to say that the ADHD is his “battlefield reflexes,” designed to keep him alive in a fast-paced setting rather than in a classroom (Riordan 88).
Anabeth’s explanation of his ADHD is similar to the current theory that ADHD stems largely from an evolutionary need to be constantly alert in a potentially dangerous pre-industrial society. This connection may be a purposeful show on Riordan’s part to inspire young adults to feel less like people who can’t focus, and more like people who have different patterns of focus than others.
Does changing Dyslexia and ADHD into elements of demi-god-hood serve any other purpose in the context of introducing diversity in fantasy literature? I would argue that doing so is just another interesting way that fantasy represents diversity. Representing it in this way may make kids with ADHD and Dyslexia feel a bit better about their own struggles in school. Seeing a character who experiences the same struggles as themselves could be empowering for young adults. Turning these traits into something indicative of being a demi-god might also make it seem more like a positive thing, sparking young imaginations to imagine what it would be like if that were true.
There is also the risk that some young adults might feel alienated by these two things serving as indications of demi-god-hood. For some youth, it might be discouraging that their very real learning disorders go from being something that troubles Percy in school, to merely being a result of his attending the wrong kind of school. For alienated young adults, it might seem unfair that they can’t simply pack up and attend a new kind of school as well, or they may feel that the story trivializes their learning disabilities.
Another character’s transformation from diverse minority to Greek mythology that happens in this story may also have the same sorts of positive or negative results. Percy’s wheelchair-bound Greek teacher, Mr. Brunner seems at first to be just an ordinary teacher. When he saves Percy from a monster on their school fieldtrip to a museum, it becomes clear that he is not entirely an ordinary human either. It isn’t until Percy finds himself in his demi-god summer camp that Mr. Brunner’s motile disability turns out to be a ruse to hide his true form. Rather than being paralyzed from the waist down, Mr. Brunner turns out to be a centaur who uses his powers to hide his equestrian half in a capsule disguised to appear as an ordinary wheel chair.
