Part #3: Grover Underwood's CliftonStrengths Talent Analysis
(Artwork by: Viktoria Ridzel)
- Empathy (Relationship Building)
A possible talent theme that Grover potentially has is the #empathy talent theme. An individual with #empathy is described as someone who “can sense the emotions of those around you. You can feel what they are feeling as though their feelings are your own.” Similarly, they are open to displaying their feelings and can be quite emotionally reactive to words or facial expressions expressed by others.
In The Lightning Thief, Percy once thought that Grover could read his mind as he was able to verbalise the exact topic that Percy was thinking at that moment. “Just your emotions, guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that.” Truly, individuals with #empathy talent theme often gets mistaken as mind-readers, although it is just them reading the emotions worn by others. Grover also spoke up for Annabeth when Percy was being sarcastic towards her working style. “Don’t be so hard on her, Percy. She’s had a tough life, but she’s a good person.” This demonstrated another character trait of #empathy, which is to think from another person’s perspective and understand how they feel. Canonically, Grover has an empathy link established with Percy in the beginning of Sea of Monsters. The empathy link allows both parties to feel the same emotions felt by either of the party involved. “Percy … um, I’m really sorry about this, but this empathy link … well, I had no choice. Our emotions are connected now.” In a way, it resembles the #empathy talent theme due to the power to feel what others feel and see what others see. Finally, in Titan’s Curse, Grover seemed to be able to infer the conversation that happened between Percy and Aphrodite based on the unusual behaviour exhibited by Percy after the talk. “Grover was looking at me funny. Being empathic and all, he could usually read my emotions, and I got the feeling he knew exactly what Aphrodite had talked to me about.”
These various examples have shown us the power of #empathy to view the world through the lens of others. By putting himself in the other party’s shoes, Grover is undoubtedly able to sense and react in a tactful manner to his team members when they are going through a tough time.
- Belief (Executing)
The next talent theme that Grover seems to embody is #belief. “People exceptionally talented in the Belief theme have certain core values that are unchanging. Out of these values emerges a defined purpose for their lives.” Those with #belief talent theme would most likely push through with a certain action regardless of the outcome or what others think, due to the importance of the value they see in the act.
The strongest example would be Grover’s search of Pan, the God of Wild Places and the lord of all satyrs. As Pan had been missing for two thousand years, many satyrs, though not mandatory, were determined to locate his whereabouts and welcome his return by taking on the ‘searcher’ role. Despite knowing that no satyrs have ever returned from their search alive, Grover still believed that he should forge on this journey, because he truly believes that finding Pan is his life purpose. “It’s my life’s dream. Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So did my dad. But I’ll succeed. I’ll be the first searcher to return alive.” For context, his Uncle Ferdinand got turned into a stone statue, while his dad went missing without a trace. When questioned by Percy about his conviction, his response was “I have to believe that, Percy. Every searcher does. It’s the only thing that keeps us from despair when we look at what humans have done to the world. I have to believe Pan can still be awakened." Even after the events in Sea of Monsters, where Grover almost perished in the hands of Polyphemus while on his search for Pan, he was determined to continue in his role as a searcher. By the time of Battle of the Labyrinth, even his close friend Percy, was aware of how strong Grover’s #belief is. “Finding the lost god Pan had been his lifelong goal. If the council took away his searcher’s licence now, it would crush him.”
The determination in Grover that brought about action on his part was clear in the examples given above. Even without external motivation, his dedicated sense of #belief in Pan encouraged him to volunteer himself on an extremely difficult mission. When you have a strong faith in something, you would be willing to go the extra mile to realise it, just like Grover did; and that is the quintessence of #belief.
- Relator (Relationship Building)
The final talent theme that Grover seemingly possesses is #relator. For a #relator, “…a relationship has value only if it is genuine. And the only way to know that is to entrust yourself to the other person. The more you share with each other, the more you risk together. The more you risk together, the more each of you proves your caring is genuine.” In a world where constant mistrust and distrust occur among the Gods and Titans, Grover’s strong bond with Percy that is built on trust and loyalty is most endearing.
When they first studied together at Yancy Academy, Grover’s demeanour is known to be meek most of the time. However, when Grover sensed that Percy was about to get into trouble with Mrs Dodds, the most fearsome teacher on the school trip, he volunteered to get punished on Percy’s behalf without hesitation. “I stared at him, stunned. I couldn’t believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs Dodds scared Grover to death.” Later, when Grover finally revealed his identity as a ‘watcher’ of Percy as part of his job, he made it a point to clarify that the friendship they built back in Yancy is real. “But I wasn’t faking being your friend, I am your friend.” Even when Grover knew that the quest might involve life-threatening danger, he offered his companionship to Percy because he genuinely cares for his wellbeing. “You saved my life, Percy. If… if you’re serious about wanting me along, I won’t let you down.” Midway through their quest, Grover shared that he felt guilty for not being upfront to Percy about his previous costly mistakes. “I should’ve told you the truth from the beginning. I thought if you knew what a failure I was, you wouldn’t want me along.” As #relators value trust, to withhold the full truth from Percy like that made Grover feel miserable. On the flipside, he maintains full trust in Percy to the extent that he is willing to risk his own safety to buy time for Percy on his quests. The first instance occurred in The Lightning Thief, where Percy faced a dilemma to either save one of his companions (Grover or Annabeth) or his mother, who was a hostage in the Underworld. At that point, Grover willingly sacrificed his own freedom and said, “Leave me here, use the third pearl on your mom.” The other example happened in Titan’s Curse, when Grover took on the role to escort the Ophiotaurus back to Camp Half-Blood, so that Percy could focus on the main quest.
All these instances point to Grover being a sincere and trustworthy friend to Percy. A single but deep friendship means a lot more to him than building superficial relationships with other demigods. Percy’s affirmation of Grover as being his best friend is the best testimony possible. As a #relator, long-lasting friendships are those that you value most.
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