King Arthur symbolizes how Freak wants others to see him: as a physically unimposing person, but one who is nevertheless able to do great things and carve out a place in history. Freak loves everything to do with King Arthur because of the similarities he sees between their biographies. Freak insists that King Arthur was a “wimpy kid” who wasn’t very strong or capable, but that he was somehow able to pull the sword Excalibur out of a stone despite his physical limitations. Arthur also recognized the fragility of the human body and so he chose to “armor-plate” his men so they could do great things that normal men couldn’t. For Freak, King Arthur’s story is evidence for Freak’s own narrative that he’s going to receive a bionic body, and Arthur’s heroism despite his weaknesses enables Freak to believe that he, too, will also go down in history as a “wimpy kid” who was nevertheless able to do great things.
King Arthur Quotes in Freak the Mighty
“The design limitations of the human body. You know, like we’re not bullet-proof and we can’t crush rocks with our bare hands, and if we touch a hot stove we get burned. King Arthur wanted to improve his men, so he made them armor-plated. Then he programmed them to go out and do these quests, slay the dragons and so on, which is sort of how they program robots right now.”
By now I know what a quest is because Freak has explained the whole deal, how it started with King Arthur trying to keep all his knights busy by making them do things that proved how strong and brave and smart they were, or sometimes how totally numb, because how else can you explain dudes running around inside big clunky tin cans and praying all the time? Which I don’t mention to Freak because he’s very sensitive about knights and quests and secret meanings.
Gram says, “How can you tell such lies on Christmas Eve?”
“I’m telling tales, my dear, not lies. Lies are mean things, and tales are meant to entertain.”
The quiet is almost as big as he is. He’s as tall as me, only wider everywhere, and for some reason, maybe because we’re not far from Freak’s house, I’m thinking this weird thought: He doesn’t need a suit of armor.
King Arthur Symbol Timeline in Freak the Mighty
