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Chapter 21
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Freak the Mighty, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Friendship
The Power of Storytelling
Memory, Grief, and Trauma
Family Legacy vs. Individuality
Summary
Analysis
On the last day of school, Max and Freak take the long way home. Freak rides on Max’s shoulders and he asks if Max remembers what it was like during the Ice Age. Max points out that he wasn’t born yet in the Ice Age, but Freak insists that remembering is an “invention of the mind”—if a person wants to, they can remember anything. Freak says that he keeps remembering how he tried to invent things like central heating and indoor plumbing. Max suggests that Freak invent a time machine so he can go back and give the cavemen a hard time, but Freak declares that people don’t need time machines if they know how to remember.
Telling Max that remembering is just an invention is Freak’s way of helping Max reframe his memories. While Freak uses this idea to engage in thought experiments about the Ice Age, Max will be able to take this idea and apply it to all his memories, both good and bad. By taking Freak’s advice, Max can amplify the memories that are good and help him feel better and he can minimize or reframe the ones that are scary.
Themes
Freak’s birthday is a few days later. Freak constantly asks for a ride on the space shuttle, a linear accelerator, or a real helicopter. Gwen suggests that Freak is going to be a very obnoxious teenager, and she doesn’t understand that the birthday party is also a party for Freak the Mighty, who’s almost a year old. Max knows what Freak is getting: a new computer. This will allow Freak to go to school over the phone if he can’t actually go to school. Max asks Gwen why Freak would have to stay home while Gram and Gwen frost cakes. Gwen and Gram lock eyes for a second and then Gwen says that it’s just in case. Max says that he thinks Freak already knows about the computer, and that’s why he’s asking for a jet.
Gram and Gwen’s behavior when Max asks about the computer suggests that there’s more wrong with Freak than Max realizes. Choosing not to tell Max the truth—that Freak might not live long—is its own form of storytelling. It allows Max to go on still believing that Freak is fine and that soon, Freak will receive his bionic body. Celebrating Freak the Mighty’s birthday as well as Freak’s shows how important the persona is to Freak and Max—Freak the Mighty is their combined best self and it’s a marker of their friendship.
Themes
Freak barely touches his supper. Grim eats until Gram makes him stop, and then Freak asks Max to blow out the candles for him. Freak doesn’t eat his cake, but Max figures that he’s just excited about the new computer. They sing, and then Gwen brings out the computer. Freak turns it on and he starts to show Grim how to play 3-D chess. It makes Max dizzy so he helps clean up in the kitchen instead. When they’re almost finished cleaning, Grim shouts, “Kevin!” Gwen calls an ambulance—Freak is having a seizure.
Because Max has no idea that Freak’s health is failing, it’s easy for him to chalk Freak’s odd behavior up to excitement. Not having the full story, in this case, allows Max to create a story of his own. Max’s story is notably much happier and more lighthearted than the truth, another indicator of Max’s goodness and kindness.
Themes
