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What feeling is Maniac Magee blind to?

Manic is blind to racism and seeing color.


Race is very significant in Two Mills.  If you are white, you live on the West End and you generally stay on the West End with your own kind.  If you are black, you stay on the East End.  That is where you belong.  It is just the way things are.


To Maniac, this makes no sense.  We are told that Maniac is “blind” when it comes to color.



Maniac kept trying, but he still couldn't see it, this color business. He didn't figure he was white any more than the East Enders were black. He looked himself over pretty hard and came up with at least seven different shades and colors right on his own skin, not one of them being what he would call white … (Ch. 16) 



In a way, Maniac is not quite blind to color.  He actually really enjoys the colors he sees in the people of the East End. 



Maniac loved the colors of the East End, the people colors. 


For the life of him, he couldn't figure why these East Enders called themselves black. He kept looking and looking, and the colors he found were gingersnap and light fudge and dark fudge and acorn and butter rum and cinnamon and burnt orange. (Ch. 14) 



So Maniac has no problem living with the Beales.  They are wonderful people.  He likes Amanda and her two little siblings, and Mr. and Mrs. Beale treat him very well.  They never question the fact that he will stay with them, once they realize he has nowhere else to go.  To them, he is just another kid.


Maniac actually tries to get others to see things from his enlightened perspective, and wants to show that the East and West End can merge.  He invites Mars Bar into the West End, and the Pickwell kids are very entertained by him.  Little by little, Maniac is making strides in race relations.

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