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 sleeps where he can, often at the zoo, and scrounges food where he can find it. It seems to him that Mrs. Pickwell’s dinner whistle carries to wherever he happens to be. Maniac loves rising early in the morning, before anyone is awake, jogging through the streets and thinking about the people who occupy the houses and yards. At this time of day, there are just people, no divisions. Sometimes he sneaks into a backyard to sleep, or even into an unlocked kitchen.
Not at home at the McNabs’, Maniac ekes out an existence as best he can in Two Mills. In a way, the town as a whole has become his home. His early morning jogs show him a town where people are united by much more than what divides them—seeing the town’s potential much as he sees that of individuals.
Themes
