In Maniac Magee, why are the people in Two Mills surprised to see Jeffrey?
Jeffrey Lionel “Maniac” Magee has become something of a local legend in the town of Two Mills. Indeed, it's a sign of his legendary status that so many people claim to have seen him on that fateful day when he entered the town limits. To listen to everyone who claims to have seen Jeffrey that day, you'd think that ten thousand people and a parade of fire trucks were waiting for him.
As one might imagine, the facts are a lot less exciting. Only a handful of people can justifiably claim to have seen Jeffrey, and what they have seen is not that impressive. Jeffrey had been nothing more than a scrawny young kid with the soles of his sneakers hanging off and “flopping open like dog tongues each time they came up from the pavement.”
But it isn't Jeffrey's scruffy appearance that has stuck in people's minds. What has...
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captured their imagination is something that, to most people, would've been quite ordinary: as he passed by, Jeffery had said hi. Nothing is particularly strange about that, one might think. But in the town of Two Mills, this is virtually unheard of. In this neck of the woods, to say hi to complete strangers is something that people just don't do.
Why was Amanda surprised to see Jeffrey on her street in Maniac Magee?
On the day that Maniac Magee arrived in town, he went to the East End. The East End in Two Mills was where almost all of the African American citizens lived. Amanda Beale, who was black, lived in the East End. When she saw Maniac Magee, a white kid, on the black side of town, she was both surprised and suspicious. Amanda wondered to herself, "Who was this white stranger kid!" It was rare that anyone who was white (the West End was where almost all the white people lived) visited the East End. He greeted her first. She let go of her hesitation and suspicion enough to greet him back.
Despite Amanda's initial suspicion, she and Maniac became friends. They both had something in common. They were both friendly people.