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
Piper and Russell never expected Maniac to walk into their house with a black kid. But there’s Mars Bar Thompson, standing casually in their living room. Maniac had remembered Grayson’s remarks about black families and realized that when people never venture inside each other’s homes, harmful misconceptions grow. So Maniac challenged Mars Bar to come over to the East Side; if he didn’t, Maniac goaded, then that would make Maniac “badder” than him.
Maniac has the right instinct about the roots of racism in Two Mills: that it stems from ignorance of one another’s lives. This shows that Maniac has matured in his understanding of the situation in Two Mills since he first arrived there. Still, he brings Mars Bar blindly into a situation that Mars Bar isn’t prepared for.
Themes
But before the McNabs’, Maniac takes Mars Bar to the Pickwells’, wanting Mars Bar to experience the best of the West End. All 16 Pickwells welcome Mars Bar and make a fuss over him. The kids beg him to perform his trick of stopping traffic with nothing but a nonchalant shuffle and a glare. Mars Bar softens slightly, enjoying the fact that his tough reputation has spread to the West Side. But Maniac knows things will be different at “Fort McNab.”
Where the McNabs are the worst that Two Mills’ West End has to offer, the Pickwells are the best. Maniac wants Mars Bar to experience their warmth and love before he encounters the McNabs, hoping that Mars Bar will be able to see some potential in the latter, too.
Themes
