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Chapter 22
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
The doctors won’t let Max visit on the first day Freak is in the hospital, but Max can’t stand just sitting. He decides to walk to the hospital, following the path that he and Freak took last summer. It’s not the same without Freak to turn the houses into castles, however. Max finds Gwen’s car at the hospital but he remembers Grim’s warning to leave her alone so he sits out back by the medical research building. Max pulls out the ornithopter and he makes it fly, thinking that Freak might see it out the window. When the landscaper makes Max move, Gwen finds him. She looks like she’s been crying and she leads Max to see Freak in the ICU. There are tons of nurses and monitors, but Max isn’t scared until he sees how small Freak looks.
In the midst of his fear and worry, Max reverts back to doubting his own storytelling abilities. Max doesn’t actually need Freak to turn the houses into castles—Max could do that himself if he believed in his ability to do so. Bringing the ornithopter is an act of kindness on Max’s part, but given that its first appearance symbolized the beginning of their friendship, it also suggests that there are big changes ahead for Freak and Max.
Themes
Dr. Spivak guards Freak and she sternly says that Kevin shouldn’t have visitors, but Kevin gets what he wants. Freak dismisses Dr. Spivak, but he sounds funny: his voice is faint and weak and it whistles. When Max gets closer, he realizes this is because Freak has a button in his neck that Freak says is a tracheotomy. Freak says it’s actually really cool and he plays the Star Trek theme song on it. Max asks when Freak is coming home. Freak says he’s not coming home like this; the Bionic Unit is prepared to perform his operation tomorrow. Max admits that he’s scared, but Freak tells Max to not be a moron. After a moment of silence, Max puts the ornithopter on the bed.
Insisting that he’s going to have the bionic operation tomorrow is actually an admittance that Freak is going to die. He knows that he’s not going to come home again as a living, breathing person—but, if Max follows through with the request Freak makes, Freak will be able to live on in Max’s story. At this point, Freak continues with his story in part to help Max get through this difficult time. Storytelling, in this instance, helps both Max and Freak hold onto hope.
Themes
Freak asks Max if he sees the book on the table and he asks Max to open it. It’s empty. Freak says that he wants Max to fill it up with their adventures—Freak would do it himself, but he’ll be too busy getting used to his new body. Max points out that Freak has the brain and that he has the legs, but Freak sternly says that he won’t have time. He says that Max will have to record all their adventures and tell Freak the Mighty’s story. Max picks up the book and he feels hopeless but he doesn’t want to set off the monitors. Freak starts coughing, so Dr. Spivak shoos Max out.
Again, Freak knows he’s going to die, so everything he says here is very much for Max’s benefit. However, getting Max to record Freak the Mighty’s story is Freak’s way of making himself into a sort of King Arthur. Through Max’s story, Freak will be able to transcend his bodily limitations and live forever, inspiring others along the way.
Themes
A bit later, Gram drives Max home. Over supper, Grim observes that Gwen looks like she’s in awful pain. Confused, Max says that Gwen isn’t the one who’s going to have the special operation; she’s not in pain. Grim and Gram exchange an incredulous look, and later that night, Max puts the book from Freak in the pyramid box for good luck.
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