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
That first day, Jeffrey makes three more appearances around Two Mills. The first one occurs on a high school soccer field, while the 11th-graders are having gym class. Some of the students are playing soccer, while about a dozen of them, including star varsity quarterback Brian Denehy and receiver James “Hands” Down, are practicing football. Just before Hands can catch a pass that Brian has thrown to him, the ball disappears. The high school kids see a younger kid weaving through the football field with the ball. When he reaches the soccer field, he turns and punts the ball, and it spirals perfectly through the air, landing in Hands’s hands. Then the kid disappears. Later, everyone realizes he’d done all of that one-handed. In his other hand, he’d been clutching a book.
Though Jeffrey’s first encounter in Two Mills is an ordinary one, the rest of his day is recalled in legendary terms. His appearance on the high school football field establishes a pattern where Jeffrey isn’t afraid to venture into territory where others would say he wouldn’t belong—and to show that he can hold his own, as he does with his astonishing catch.
Themes
