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Chapter 9
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
At the moment, Maniac is just glad he’s no longer being chased. He catches his breath. He recognizes some of the streets from his wanderings and from the day he met Amanda. But today is Saturday, and the streets are filled with kids. One kid plants himself directly in front of Maniac. Maniac steps back, and the kid steps forward. They make their way down the block this way, the kid jumping in front of Maniac each time Maniac tries to turn around. The kid’s eating a candy bar.
Maniac is oblivious to what it means that he’s crossed into the black neighborhood—in fact, he hardly seems to recognize the fact. The kids of the East End, however—and one in particular—immediately recognize him as an outsider.
Themes
When Maniac asks, hoping to find Amanda’s house, the kid declines to tell him where Sycamore Street is. Other kids call encouragement to the kid, who is Mars Bar Thompson. Mars Bar suddenly smiles. He offers Maniac a bite of his candy bar. Shrugging, Maniac accepts and bites off a chunk. The whole neighborhood watches in silence. They’ve never seen a white kid do such a thing before. Maniac hadn’t even bitten off the unchewed end; he’d bitten right over Mars Bar’s own bite marks.
Maniac doesn’t notice Mars Bar’s sarcasm. To him, the offer of the candy bar is a gesture of friendship. This is another example of Maniac’s readiness to find friends—he assumes the best about people. When he bites the candy bar, it’s shocking to the East End kids—prevailing racist attitudes meant that most white kids wouldn’t touch food that had already been bitten by a black kid.
Themes
Mars Bar is baffled, and he gets mad, thumping Maniac on the chest and asking if Maniac thinks he’s “bad” or something. Maniac is confused. He figures he’s neither bad nor very good, but somewhere in between. When Mars Bar challengingly asks if Maniac thinks he’s bad, Maniac just says that’s none of his business. Mars Bar gives up on this and steals Maniac’s book instead, ripping a page and mocking Maniac as “fishbelly” when he tries to grab it back. A housewife intervenes and shoos Mars Bar away, going back inside before Maniac can thank her.
Mars Bar can’t intimidate Maniac because Maniac is comically oblivious to Mars Bar’s tough guy persona. He continues taking Mars Bar literally, again showing how much of an outsider he is.
Themes
