The Life of Maniac Magee

                                          THE LIFE OF MANIAC MAGEE

Maniac Magee is a moderately complex novel in content and in form.In form it offers both social realism and an adventure tale about the life and times of a contemporary legend.In content it tells an engaging,fast paced story with a number of  sub-themes or subjects including homelessness,the importance of family.the influence of adolescent peer groups and ever-present racial tensions.However,Maniac Magee is a novel about an adolescent boy in search of his true place in the world,a place that proves quite difficult to find.Jefferys search is made more difficult not only because he was orphaned at a young age of 3 but also because he is an innocent soul who doesn’t know hatred or prejudice.Jeffery simply does not see this “color business” and part of his growth as a character is learning what prejudice is,its consequences and how hard it is to change.Jeffrey's journey symbolizes that all adolescents must make from blind innocence to sighted awareness of the world's evils.Spinelli wants readers to believe that hatred and prejudice can be overcome and that people can find where they truly belong if they search hard enough.Jeffery functions as a catalyst who helps bring together a racially divided town.His eventual home in the black community symbolizes societies potential to heal itself,to be accepting and loving of others,and to live in harmony.Spinelli also realistically captures the rhythms and dialogue of the times,while playfully creating an engaging world of myth and legend.It is notable that the African American characters in the novel have identities and personalities;they do not exist solely as foils for the main character,nor are they stick figures or stereotypes.Some signposts i used to help me understand Maniac Magee were Contrast and   Contradictions,Memory Moments and Words of the Wiser.                                                                                                                                                                                                   

   The first signpost I used to help me understand the issue of racism was the Contrast and Contradictions signpost.This strategy is where a character says or does something that is opposite (contradicts) what he or she has been saying or doing all along or acts in a way you would not expect.An example of Contrasts and Contradictions involves when somebody wrote “FISHBELLY GO HOME” on the Beales home where Maniac had been living at the time.The reason this came to shock is because most people were fine with Maniac but the person who wrote the statement doesn't like white people living in the East End.(Spinelli 62-63)This evidence is important because Maniac finally started to realize that people were judging him by his skin color even though he didn't fully understand