Maniac Magee | Themes and Characters
As the title implies, Maniac, whose real name is Jeffrey Lionel, is the most important character in the novel. All others revolve around him. Maniac is almost a modern version of Huck Finn. His parents died in a trolley accident when he was three years old, and he lives for several years with an eccentric Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan who are married only in a legal sense and really hate each other. When Maniac shouts out to them, above the voices of his classmates as they perform a school play, "Talk! Talk, will ya!" he is so upset that he begins to run, and Spinelli says, a legend is born....
[The entire page is 728 words long]
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