Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Freak the Mighty, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Friendship
The Power of Storytelling
Memory, Grief, and Trauma
Family Legacy vs. Individuality
Summary
Analysis
Max scuttles back into the down under, thinking about how crazy it is that Freak actually scared him when Max is so big. However, he recognizes that he’s not truly afraid; he just doesn’t understand what happened. Specifically, he thinks that being called “earthling” is weird. Max realizes that he is an earthling, but people don’t call each other earthlings. It’s the same, he thinks, as the way that people don’t address each other as Americans all the time. Max thinks about this for a while and then, when the walls seem to start closing in on him, he creeps into the backyard.
Again, everything that Max says here makes it very clear that he’s not the hulking, dangerous figure Grim and Gram seem to fear he is. He knows he looks scary to others, but inside, Max is just as afraid of everything else as others are of him. Also, though Max consistently insists that he’s unintelligent, his thoughts on calling people earthlings and Americans shows that he’s more than capable of critical thinking—he just doesn’t know that’s what he’s doing.
Themes
From the backyard, Max can see Freak in his own backyard, waving his crutch at a scraggly tree. Freak looks extremely mad and he tries to jump and hit a branch with his crutch, but he can’t really jump. Then, Freak throws down his crutch, crawls quickly back to the house, and then returns to the tree, struggling to drag an old red wagon. Even with the wagon to boost him up, Freak isn’t tall enough to reach whatever is in the tree. Max tries to quietly sneak over and, staying well out of the crutch’s reach, he plucks the bright thing—a plastic bird—out of the tree and he asks Freak if he wants it back. Max hands it over and he asks what it is. Freak explains that it’s an ornithopter, or a mechanical bird. Max is in awe of Freak’s vocabulary.
The choice to approach someone who scares him and do something kind makes it clear that the people who think Max is scary are wrong—Max clearly wants to help others and to experience human connection. Freak looks like a loner too, and he hasn’t said anything about Max’s terrifying appearance or about Kenny. Because of this, Freak is likely the safest bet to make friends with, as he’s not going to hold Max’s history against him or ostracize him because of it.
Themes
Freak winds up the ornithopter and then lets it go. The ornithopter flits around, just like a bird, and Max fetches it and brings it back. They do this for an hour until the elastic band in the ornithopter breaks. Max figures that this is the end of the ornithopter, but Freak says in a matter-of-fact tone that all mechanical objects require maintenance, and that he’ll install a new “propulsion unit” as soon as Fair Gwen of Air gets a replacement. Max has no idea what this means but he says it sounds cool. When Freak asks where Max lives, Max points and says that he lives in the down under. Rather than explain, Max picks up the wagon handle and he pulls Freak to his house. Max remembers Freak looking happy—but Max reminds the reader that it’s possible to remember anything, real or otherwise.
The innocence of the boys’ game with the ornithopter drives home yet again that Max is anything but violent. Max’s interest in Freak’s vocabulary also demonstrates his desire to learn and prove himself as intelligent. Max is also interested, however, because Freak is a compelling storyteller—even if he’s just talking about the ornithopter and his mom. This begins to show Max how to craft a good story by making even the most mundane things seem interesting and important.
Themes
