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Chapter 5
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
An hour later, Mrs. Valerie Pickwell whistles from her back door. Mrs. Pickwell has a legendary whistle. It successfully calls home all 10 Pickwell kids for dinner every night. There’s nothing special about the whistle, but to a Pickwell kid, it’s magic. From all directions, the kids run home, joining the parents, baby Didi, the grandparents and great-grandfather, and a down-and-out taxi driver.
Mrs. Pickwell is an example of someone who, like Jeffrey, can turn the ordinary into something “magic”—just by caring about her kids and anyone else who happens to need a good meal. The Pickwell house is a ideal home in the book, a place of love and shelter for those who don’t find it elsewhere.
Themes
After dinner, the Pickwell kids get into a conversation about “that kid” who was seen sitting at the table that evening. Everyone assumes that he was a guest of somebody else. When they look again, they see that Jeffrey has already gone—he’s running along the steel rails of the railroad tracks, book in hand.
The Pickwells are so used to seeing strangers’ faces at their dinner table that Jeffrey isn’t unusual. Even though he was welcome here, however, Jeffrey still seems to be searching for something else.
Themes
