M.C. Higgins, the Great Themes

In M.C. Higgins, the Great, it's all about family first. But that becomes a sticky motto to live by when family can be defined in more than one way. Should a family be nuclear? Should it include ex...

In M.C. Higgins, the Great, friendship isn't an easy thing because it brings outside influences to the Higgins family. For this reason, friends are a constant source of conflict for M.C. Higgins, o...

In M.C. Higgins, the Great, there are (at least) two homes to deal with: M.C.'s home and his best friend, Ben's. These two homes are like polar opposites, and as such, they represent totally differ...

M.C. Higgins and his family are black, and their ancestors come from a legacy of slavery. So you would think that M.C. Higgins, the Great might be all about prejudice against black people… but it...

Being masculine in M.C. Higgins, the Great is all about being Mr. Nature—someone who can work with the outdoors so that he doesn't get beaten by the outdoors. But as the book rolls along, this ki...

In M.C. Higgins, the Great, man works with nature, not against it. In general in this book, man and nature together create some beautiful harmony. Man-made machines, however, from the world outside...

M.C. Higgins, the Great is definitely not escapist literature, so you can pretty much expect to read all about how our main man's dreams, hopes, and plans get dashed. But all that failure is import...

In M.C. Higgins, the Great, the supernatural is literally super-natural—it takes the characters' relationships with nature and turning them into super powers. No one flies or magically disappears...

In M.C. Higgins, the Great, our main man M.C. is kind of already all grown up, even though he's only thirteen. So how much more growing up does he need to do? As it turns out, quite a lot (thanks f...

Change is everything that comes from outside Sarah's Mountain in M.C. Higgins, the Great. Whether it comes in the form of strip-mining machines or strangers or even a nearby neighboring community,...