Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Maniac Magee, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Myth, Reality, and Heroism
Racism
Love, Loss, and Home
Human Dignity, Connection, and Community
Summary
Analysis
Maniac has a sort of blindness. He fails to see things like the fact that big kids don’t like being shown up by little kids, and that some kids don’t like kids who are different—especially a different color.
Maniac’s innocence, which helps him cross boundaries so readily, is poised to get him in trouble. Though he means well, he’s unaware of more complicated social dynamics around him.
Themes
Maniac doesn’t understand “this color business.” He doesn’t understand what makes the East Enders “black”; he doesn’t understand what makes him white. He looks himself over, and he can’t find a truly white shade anywhere. It’s a relief to him, since being plain white would be pretty boring. However, there’s still a growing dislike all around him. He can’t see it—until, one day, he can.
Maniac’s total innocence of racial dynamics is another aspect of his mythical character—it’s a bit hard to believe that a real kid of his era would take such a literal view of the idea of skin color, for example. But his exaggerated innocence is meant to highlight the foolishness of arbitrary divisions between people.
Themes
