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Symbols
King Arthur symbolizes how Freak wants others to see him: as a physically unimposing person, but one who is nevertheless able to do great things and carve out a place in history. Freak loves everything to do with King Arthur because of the similarities he sees between their biographies. Freak insists that King Arthur was a “wimpy kid” who wasn’t very strong or capable, but that he was somehow able to pull the sword Excalibur out of a stone despite his physical limitations. Arthur also recognized the fragility of the human body and so he chose to “armor-plate” his men so they could do great things that normal men couldn’t. For Freak, King Arthur’s story is evidence for Freak’s own narrative that he’s going to receive a bionic body, and Arthur’s heroism despite his weaknesses enables Freak to believe that he, too, will also go down in history as a “wimpy kid” who was nevertheless able to do great things.
King Arthur Quotes in Freak the Mighty
The Freak the Mighty quotes below all refer to the symbol of King Arthur. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 4
Quotes
“The design limitations of the human body. You know, like we’re not bullet-proof and we can’t crush rocks with our bare hands, and if we touch a hot stove we get burned. King Arthur wanted to improve his men, so he made them armor-plated. Then he programmed them to go out and do these quests, slay the dragons and so on, which is sort of how they program robots right now.”
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Chapter 8
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By now I know what a quest is because Freak has explained the whole deal, how it started with King Arthur trying to keep all his knights busy by making them do things that proved how strong and brave and smart they were, or sometimes how totally numb, because how else can you explain dudes running around inside big clunky tin cans and praying all the time? Which I don’t mention to Freak because he’s very sensitive about knights and quests and secret meanings.
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Chapter 15
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Gram says, “How can you tell such lies on Christmas Eve?”
“I’m telling tales, my dear, not lies. Lies are mean things, and tales are meant to entertain.”
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Chapter 16
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The quiet is almost as big as he is. He’s as tall as me, only wider everywhere, and for some reason, maybe because we’re not far from Freak’s house, I’m thinking this weird thought: He doesn’t need a suit of armor.
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Get the entire Freak the Mighty LitChart as a printable PDF.
King Arthur Symbol Timeline in Freak the Mighty
The timeline below shows where the symbol King Arthur appears in Freak the Mighty. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4. What Frightened the Fair Gwen
...and he says it’s a play on Guinevere, the fair lady from the legend of King Arthur . He asks if Max knows about King Arthur. Max just knows of the flour...
(full context)
...Fair Gwen sometimes. He says that way back when there were still monsters and dragons, King Arthur was a “wimpy little kid” who managed to pull a magic sword out of a...
(full context)
...and he says that human bodies have limits—they get burned and bullets can hurt them. King Arthur , however, wanted to improve his men, so he “made them armor-plated” and he programmed...
(full context)
Chapter 8. Dinosaur Brain
...of a journey to the East. Max now knows what a quest is—it started with King Arthur , since Arthur needed to keep his knights busy and he wanted to prove how...
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Chapter 9. Life Is Dangerous
...with the Cub Scout logo on it. He insists it’s actually a rare and valuable King Arthur relic. Max heads east and they walk for miles. In a ritzy neighborhood, Freak points...
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