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 grieves. He drifts around, eating only enough to stay alive. He collects a few belongings from the band shell—mainly books and Grayson’s baseball glove. Before leaving the band shell, he paints over the 101 on the door.
After leaving the band shell, Maniac wanders, usually jogging, sometimes sprinting, through Two Mills and all the surrounding towns. Each time he crosses the Schuylkill River, he averts his eyes from the P & W trolley trestle. He can’t stop from imagining the trolley plunging into the river, carrying his parents to their deaths. After a while, he avoids the bridge altogether.
Grayson’s death brings the memory of Maniac’s parents’ deaths more vividly to the forefront of his mind. He wanders again, fearful of facing deeper grief and loss and so not wanting to stop in any one spot.
Themes
Maniac spends his nights in the buffalo pen, or sometimes in an abandoned car or vacant building. He does odd jobs but refuses to beg for food. One day, he wanders into Valley Forge—the site where Washington’s army had nearly starved and frozen to death one winter. Maniac lodges in one of the small replica cabins. He stays there the next day, too, and the next night. Dreams and memories get mixed up. He's waiting for death.
