Skip to main content

In the book Maniac Magee, how does reading bring Maniac and Grayson closer together in chapter 27?

Chapter 27 brings Maniac Magee and Grayson closer together, because the chapter is a role reversal between the two characters.  In chapter 26 Grayson and Maniac spent time together playing catch.  Grayson also taught Maniac about the "stop ball."  It's a special kind of pitch that messes with the batter's focus.  At the end of chapter 26, Grayson finds out that Maniac is largely self taught.  



"You know the money you give me"-- each morning he gave the kid fifty cents or a dollar to get himself some Krimpets -- "well, I take it up to the library. Right inside the door they have these books they're selling, cases of them, old books they don't want anymore. They only cost five or ten cents apiece." He pointed to the piles. "I buy them."



He figures if Maniac can do it, then so can he.  Grayson asks Maniac to teach him how to read.  



Two days later, while playing pepper in the Legion infield, the old man said to the kid, "So why don't you go ahead and teach me how to read!"



Now that Maniac is the teacher, the relationship between the two characters has slightly changed.  Grayson doesn't see himself as the adult authority figure anymore, and Maniac isn't the young pupil anymore.  Simply by asking Maniac to help shows that Grayson has a lot of trust and faith in Maniac.  Maniac doesn't want to let him down, so Maniac pushes Grayson hard.  The two characters are drawn closer together, because they are spending more time together on something that involves a lot of time and patience on both of their parts.  I think that the two characters are also drawn closer together because Grayson was successful in learning to read as well.  By being successful, both characters associate positive feelings about it and each other.



Maniac whooped, "You're reading!"


"I'm reading!" yipped the old man. His smile was so wide he'd have had to break it into sections to fit it through a doorway.  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more