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
Pretty soon, Grayson and Maniac start tossing a baseball back and forth during these stories. Before long, Grayson is giving Maniac informal instruction while they talk. The old man’s hands can no longer grip a baseball, except for a pitch called a “stopball,” which he claims always stops just as it crosses home plate. Maniac knows Grayson must be telling a tall tale—yet, no matter how hard he tries, he can never hit a “stopball” out of the infield.
Like Maniac, Grayson has his own improbable talents, and Maniac’s friendship and trust gradually coaxes those secrets out into the open. Love and personal connection are founded on such shared experiences and mutual recognition of each other’s value.
Themes
As fall progresses, Grayson eventually discovers that Maniac has been collecting books and spending his mornings studying. Grayson has been giving Maniac a small daily Krimpet allowance, but Maniac has been spending it all on the library’s used book sale. He’s collected everything from geometry to travel books to mysteries to astronomy. A couple of days later, as they’re tossing a baseball around, Grayson casually asks Maniac, “So why don’t you go ahead and teach me how to read?”
Grayson’s abrupt admission that he’s illiterate comes as a surprise, after he and Maniac have already established a mutually trusting relationship. Maniac trusts by this point that Grayson won’t force him to attend school, and Grayson trusts Maniac with the knowledge that he’s never learned to read.
Themes
