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
About 30 kids follow Maniac as far as Hector Street. Maniac isn’t afraid of anyone in the East End. He’s more afraid of the problems his presence might cause. After four blocks, he hears a familiar call of “Yo—fishbelly!” It’s Mars Bar. Mars Bar brags to Maniac about how “bad” he’s become and shows off his expensive new sneakers. He also informs Maniac that he's been working out. He challenges Maniac to a footrace.
Maniac fulfills the kids’ request to make the most daring boundary-crossing of all (in their eyes) by entering the East End. He’s quickly met by his old nemesis, who still feels like he has something to prove to Maniac.
Themes
The race is arranged then and there. Seemingly all the kids of the East End pour into the streets; mothers watch out windows; traffic is detoured. Even as the crowd finally grows silent and the race starts, Maniac isn’t sure what to do. He wants to win, of course, but he’s also thinking about his competitor, and where he’s racing, “and what the consequences might be if he won.” Yet, when Mars Bar gains the lead, Maniac instinctively bursts ahead—and wins.
Unlike his previous visit to the East End, Maniac is wiser now. After his experience with Cobble’s Knot, he knows that this race could have complex, unintended implications, no matter what his personal intentions. This shows how much Maniac has matured since he was expelled from town the previous summer.
Themes
The crowd goes crazy. Maniac won the race running backwards. Maniac can’t figure out why he did it. Was he trying to show up Mars Bar and get back at him? Even amid the exuberance of winning, he sees the hatred in Mars Bar’s eyes. Maniac is carried along by a boisterous crowd, wishing he could just escape back to the West End, when suddenly he hears the familiar squeals of Hester and Lester. He’s on Sycamore Street, and Amanda and Mrs. Beale, beaming, are coming out of their house.
Maniac’s normalcy comes through here—he’s a typical kid who instinctively wants to win, even to show off a little. Even though he’s rewarded by a reunion with his beloved Beales, he knows that his victory will prove to be costly for his relationship with Mars Bar.
Themes
