English EE on Percy Jackson

[prdslala]

Hi. I've decided to do my EE in English, focusing on Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I'm not getting any good advice from my supervisor, and the internet isn't really helping me. I've gone through a lot of book changes prior to this, more specifically dystopian and feminist books. However, I've read that these are really overused topics, so I wanted to try to think out of the box. I decided to choose Percy Jackson because I think that there is a lot of content I can analyze for my 4,000 words. It's okay to choose a relatively 'easy' book for EE, right?

Right now, I need help on choosing a topic and formulating a good research question. Honestly, I'm stuck at choosing which topic I should focus on. I'm scared if the topics I have in mind will be good enough for an EE. I would really appreciate feedback on the topics, and the research questions that come along with them. 

Here's what I have so far. 

1. The Portrayal of Greek Mythology in Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief 

• How does Riordan portray classic characters from ancient Greek mythology in Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief? : Classic vs revised character traits of the Greek gods
• How does Riordan associate ancient Greek mythology with modern literature in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief?: Plots of the original Greek myths affected by modern technology, environment, characteristics of the Greek gods, etc.

2. Family Roles in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

• How does Riordan portray family roles in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief?: Nature of family, duties and responsibilities of a parent and a child; how gods neglect their roles as parents, and how their demigod children are expected to do more

3. Coming of Age in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

• How does Riordan portray the coming of age in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief?: How internal conflicts faced by the character is portrayed in the form of monsters and evil villains

4. The Hero Concept in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

• How does Riordan define the meaning of a hero in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief?: Characteristics of a hero; analysing different characters and how they are considered heroes

[voh26]

I got a lot of advice for starting my EE (started 3 months ago!) not from my teacher either. But here is what I learnt and these were invaluable points -- make sure that your topic allows you to say something fresh and original. That's really important for the EE. The choice of work takes care of that partly, and yours seems relatively recent and not overdone; but from what I was told by my tutor some novels are not considered by the complicated or literary enough for an IB English EE, and I think I remember that one example of this was the Percy Jackson series. So watch out! 

Another very important point that I got is this: so that you don't get bogged down make sure your research topic is as simple and straightforward as possible so that you can rely mostly on the work itself (without having to do tons of research) and that you can easily and quickly find the details from the work without having to search and think so hard. You will then be able to get ahead immediately and relatively easily, with all the pertinent details presenting themselves to you immediately. You can then concentrate on working on a really great argument.. To my mind  #2 and #4  in your list are the most promising and will allow you to accomplish all this. But you should really double-check the Percy Jackson LF is suitable. My guess is that it is not.   

[lolita222]

On 5/7/2018 at 8:08 AM, prdslala said:

Hi. I've decided to do my EE in English, focusing on Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I'm not getting any good advice from my supervisor, and the internet isn't really helping me. I've gone through a lot of book changes prior to this, more specifically dystopian and feminist books. However, I've read that these are really overused topics, so I wanted to try to think out of the box. I decided to choose Percy Jackson because I think that there is a lot of content I can analyze for my 4,000 words. It's okay to choose a relatively 'easy' book for EE, right?

Right now, I need help on choosing a topic and formulating a good research question. Honestly, I'm stuck at choosing which topic I should focus on. I'm scared if the topics I have in mind will be good enough for an EE. I would really appreciate feedback on the topics, and the research questions that come along with them. 

Here's what I have so far. 

1. The Portrayal of Greek Mythology in Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief 

• How does Riordan portray classic characters from ancient Greek mythology in Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief? : Classic vs revised character traits of the Greek gods
• How does Riordan associate ancient Greek mythology with modern literature in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief?: Plots of the original Greek myths affected by modern technology, environment, characteristics of the Greek gods, etc.

2. Family Roles in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

• How does Riordan portray family roles in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief?: Nature of family, duties and responsibilities of a parent and a child; how gods neglect their roles as parents, and how their demigod children are expected to do more

3. Coming of Age in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

• How does Riordan portray the coming of age in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief?: How internal conflicts faced by the character is portrayed in the form of monsters and evil villains

4. The Hero Concept in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

• How does Riordan define the meaning of a hero in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief?: Characteristics of a hero; analysing different characters and how they are considered heroes

Hello! I am also considering writing my EE on Percy Jackson as well. Were you able to write it/was there enough literary merit?