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
The baby buffalo at the Elmwood Park Zoo wakes up one morning and discovers a stranger sitting in its lean-to, munching a carrot. Pretty soon, the baby buffalo befriends the stranger and cuddles with it in the mornings. But one day the stranger, while climbing over the enclosure fence, falls and lies still.
Maniac, unable to find a place for himself among other people, once again resorts to living with animals. But without a connection to other people, he’s clearly suffering.
Themes
A old man is driving through the zoo in a pickup. He spots the kid’s huddled body and stops. The kid is bony and dressed in rags. The old man hoists the kid into his truck and takes him to the baseball equipment room in the park’s band shell. Eventually, the kid comes to and asks where he is. The man tells him, and he identifies himself as Grayson. He gets Maniac some food. While grateful, Maniac is still hungry. He asks for butterscotch Krimpets.
Maniac, who’s beginning to starve, is discovered and taken in by a kindly stranger. Grayson’s appearance in the story shows that kindness and human connection can be found even where they’re least expected.
Themes
Grayson wants to know Maniac’s name first. When Maniac explains that he’d been living in the East End, Grayson scrapes some dirt off Maniac’s arm and studies his skin. He doesn’t ask any more questions. They get in the truck and go in search of butterscotch Krimpets.
Grayson’s gesture of scraping the dirt off of Maniac’s arm shows that the idea of a white kid living in the East End is unthinkable to him.
Themes
