Freak the Mighty Themes

At the beginning of Freak the Mighty, Max wants nothing more than to be left alone. Actually, that's kind of an understatement. Max knows that if you don't get close to anyone, then you can't lose...

Did your grandmother ever tell you, "You can't judge a book by a cover"? Well, it turns out it's true; appearances can be deceiving. Just ask Max. Everyone thinks he's going to be exactly like his...

Everyone thinks their family is messed up—and most people are right!—but it's one thing to have embarrassing dinner conversations and another to have Killer Kane for a dad. In Freak the Mighty,...

At the beginning of Freak the Mighty, Max lives in a friends-free zone. But Freak won't have any of it, and pulls Max into a friendship that totally turns his world upside down. Max starts doing be...

It'd be easy to break Freak the Mighty into a simple black and white scenario: Freak is smart and Max… isn't. But you Shmoopers know that things are never as simple as they seem. Even if Max call...

You want to talk about the past? Freak the Mighty has it all: avoiding it, altering it, and straight up facing it. Max is so haunted by his memories of the past that he tries to totally block them...

Freak the Mighty shows lying in all its forms: lies we tell for protection, lies we tell for self-gain, and even lies we tell ourselves. And it's not just the bad guys who let the fibs roll. In fa...