81 pages • 2 hours read
Rodman PhilbrickFreak the Mighty
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
The Value of Differences Among Friends
Friends aren’t just for fun; they’re also for helping each other. Friends do this not by being the same, but by being different. Their strengths add to each other and help to make up for any weaknesses. For Max and Freak, the differences literally are huge: Max is a giant 12-year-old with what he believes is a small brain, while Freak has a tiny body but a gigantic intelligence. Their differences fuel their friendship in constructive ways.
At first, Max helps Freak get around by pulling him on his toy wagon, but soon Max realizes that he can carry Freak, who’s very lightweight, on his shoulders. Meanwhile, Freak at first makes fun of Max for being an oaf—he compares Max to a pea-brained dinosaur—but soon he realizes that Max has potential that Freak can bring out by helping Max with reading and thinking.
Together they enjoy the 4th of July fireworks show, and they evade a dangerous street gang, with Freak the lookout and navigator and Max the engine of transport. Freak knows where a lost purse is located, but he can’t retrieve it by himself; with Max to help, they bring up the purse from a storm drain and return it to its rightful owner, Loretta Lee. When she tries to torment Freak because he’s small, Max stands in her way.
By autumn, Freak and Max have melded into a unified team known as “Freak the Mighty.” When Kenny Kane kidnaps his son Max, Freak swings into action, alerting the police and devising an eye irritant that he can shoot at Kane from a squirt gun. Freak convinces Kane that the gun contains sulfuric acid, so when the actual fluid—“soap, vinegar, and curry powder” (133)—strikes Kane’s eyes, he’s momentarily bewildered with the fear that his vision has been destroyed. Using the precious seconds bought by Freak’s ruse, Max uses his strength and quickness to grab Freak and escape from danger.
Between Max’s physical strength and Freak’s capable brain, the boys go on adventures—and get out of scrapes—that they’d be unable to do by themselves. They also prove that friendships can come in many forms, and that anyone—giant or tiny, well-educated or just starting to learn, loud or shy, able or challenged—can make any friendship better by bringing their strengths to it.
Friends vs. Bullies
The world is full of bullies who sense weakness in others and exploit it, tormenting the innocent and forcing them to do their bidding. Max and Freak encounter several bullies during their friendship, but bonded by friendship and loyalty, they overcome these bullies and even earn their respect.
During their first outing, the boys encounter Blade, a dangerous gang leader, who threatens to cut them. Freak rides atop Max, directing him through the crowd and away from Blade’s gang until they escape into the millpond, where police rescue them. Max and Freak discover that they work well as a team, and that friendship helps them coordinate strong defenses against bullies. A year later, after Freak dies, Blade offers his sympathies to Max; it’s a sign of respect. Max rebuffs Blade, but he knows that Blade now holds him in higher regard.
Freak’s disability leaves his body as small as a three-year-old’s; this makes him vulnerable to cruel people. To counteract this, Freak develops a commanding personality and the intelligence to predict and overcome social problems almost before they arise. When students in their English class make fun of Max and Freak, pelting them with “pencils and erasers and wadded-up paper” (77), Freak stands on his desk and lectures them about the amazing adventures he and Max share; he then climbs onto Max’s shoulders and they march around the room while Freak shouts over and over that they’re “Freak the Mighty” until the entire class joins in. Together, Max and Freak show the other students that, though theirs is an unusual friendship, it’s worthy of respect. Their team name signals power and honor to the world.
The boys find and return a stolen purse to Loretta Lee, who, with her husband, Iggy Lee, return the favor by tormenting them. They’re simply outplayed by two cruel adults, but they manage to get away and run for home using the most efficient path available to them. Loretta later realizes that the boys shouldn’t be mistreated; she risks her life to help rescue Max from his father.
The worst bully in Max’s life is his own dad, Kenny “Killer” Kane, a huge and dangerous man who returns from prison and kidnaps Max with the intent to use the boy for his own benefit. Kane terrifies Max, threatening him unless he agrees to everything Kane demands. When Kane finds Loretta trying to free Max, he begins to strangle her, but Max can’t take it any longer and jumps on his dad, who turns and begins to strangle Max. Freak interrupts Kane in a clever way, and he and Max escape. Kane underestimates his own son and pays for it; the boys’ fame spreads through town.
In each case, the boys use Max’s strength and Freak’s intelligence—and later, Max’s smarts, too—to outwit, outrun, and overcome dangerous bullies. In the process, the townsfolk, and even some of the bullies, realize that Freak the Mighty deserves to be treated with respect. The boys’ friendship is a testament to the power of loyalty, working together, and maximizing each friend’s abilities to win the day against cruelty.
Discovering Strengths through Friendship
The most important lesson Max learns during his friendship with Freak is that he is a good and intelligent person. He learns, too, that his great size can be a source, not of fear, but of protection and reassurance.
“I never had a brain until Freak moved down the street,” Max observes (4). Since childhood, Max has labored under the illusion that he’s unintelligent. Horrified and intimidated by his father’s brutal murder of his mother, Max becomes painfully shy, refusing to speak in class, until other people assume he is “stupid.” He believes them until he meets Freak, whose brilliant mind recognizes a kindred spirit in Max, and Freak sets about showing Max how to enjoy learning.
Max and Freak’s adventures around town increase Max’s sense of his own potential. He realizes that Freak, too tiny to see over the crowd on the 4th of July, will view fireworks just fine if Max places Freak on his shoulders. Freak makes Max read from the dictionary, which helps Max make progress distinguishing letters that look similar to him. The boys’ conversations about science, history, and King Arthur stimulate Max’s imagination, and by the time school restarts in the fall, Max can keep up with his eighth-grade studies.
Max’s huge body, so similar to his evil father’s, makes Max an object of fear around town, and it is not until he uses his size to protect Freak and help him get around the neighborhood that Max realizes his stature can be a force for good and not evil. Max also begins to understand that his heart is in the right place: He cares about Freak, and this helps him realize that he also cares about his grandparents, Freak’s mom, and others in his community.
When Freak dies, Max mourns the loss of his friend, but he soon discovers that their friendship continues through the empty book that Freak gave him to fill in with the story of Freak the Mighty. This project solidifies Max’s memories of his time with Freak, and completing it also helps Max to become a good writer and a more willing reader.
Finally, Max understands that he’s a normal kid with a good heart. As Freak would say, it’s “no big deal” (151).
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