Freak The Mighty Essay, Research Paper

Freak the Mighty

Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick is about two boys, Kevin a.k.a. ?Freak? and Max. Max is always putting himself down saying, ?I?m a big, dumb, idiot?. Then one day Freak comes along and Max finds fulfillment in him because he is a small, smart ?know-it-all?, the exact opposite of himself. Max and Freak call themselves ?Freak the mighty? because they think they are one person.

The story takes place in a present day small town in the U.S. The author chose this place probably because there are many types of people (rich and poor) to interact with. In one such incident Freak and Max fish a purse out of a sewer, then bring it to the ?New Testaments? (the real name is the New Tenements), they meet one of Max?s father?s old friends, Iggy. Iggy tells Max and Freak all about Max?s dad.

The main characters are Kevin (a.k.a. Freak) and Maxwell. Kevin is a short, smart 12-year-old who treats his dictionary like a bible. Max, on the other hand, is a tall, dumb 13-year-old who doesn?t really have any friends. Freak and Max are like two halves that make a whole.

The theme is of the book is ?survival? because Freak and Max have found a way to live in each other. The theme is made evident in such events as when Freak dies at the end of the book, Max goes crazy and breaks a window in the hospital. Another such event occurs when Max said that he would not go back to school without Freak.

There are two conflicts in the book. The first conflict is man versus himself; Max is always hearing his Grim (his grandfather) and Gram (his grandmother) say that he is starting to look like ?him? (which is Kane or Max?s father). Max feels that he is not wanted because he looks so much like Kane, who is supposed to be in jail for killing Max?s mother, but he escaped.

The second conflict is man versus man. One time when Max was sitting down in ?the dungeon? (which is his bedroom down in the cellar) Kane came in and kidnapped him! Kane dragged him all the way down to Iggy?s house at the new testaments. Iggy showed him a house where an old lady lived; she was on vacation so Iggy said they could stay there until she got back. They didn?t stay there long though, Kane said they had to leave because the cops were after them. They ended up in the basement of an old burned down building.

In the end Freak came to the rescue with a water gun that supposedly had sulfuric acid in it, but it was just a mixture of spices from his house. He sprayed it in Kane?s eyes to make him let go of Lorretta?s (Iggy?s wife) neck. The cops came in and took Kane back into custody and the rest of them went home. Then on Freak?s birthday he was rushed to the hospital and ended up dying. Max went back to school and everyone felt sorry for him. I don?t think this was a very good ending because Freak died and nothing really changed.