Skip to main content

In Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick, why does Max get bothered by the way Freak speaks?

In Rodman Philbrick's novel Freak the Mighty, Max is not so much bothered by Freak's speaking as he is amazed by it. Max has never encountered anyone who speaks like Freak, whose real name is Kevin. There is no textual evidence to support that Max is bothered by his speech. Consider the following quotes: 



"That's how he talked, like right out of a dictionary. So smart you can hardly believe it. While he's talking he's winding up the bird-thing. There's this elastic band inside, and he goes, 'Observe and be amazed, earthling.' And then he lets go. And you know what? I am amazed, because it does fly just like a little bird, flitting up and down and around, higher than I can reach." 


"This is the first time for me, hearing Freak really talk, and right away I know one thing: when he's talking, you can't take your eyes off of him. His hands are moving, and it's like he's really seeing it, this story about an old king." 


"I think so, but I like hearing Freak talk, so I go, 'better tell me,' and that's when I find out why he's so interested in some clanky old knights." 



These quotes show Max's awe of Freak's vocabulary and speech, but don't support any irritation he feels with Freak's speech. 


Freak's vocabulary is incredibly advanced, and certainly beyond Max's experience. Freak does a good job explaining the words to him, and Max is able to pick up others through the context of Freak's speeches. Here's an example: 



"Pardon my vocabulary. Sobriquet means 'nickname,' and demeanor means 'expression.' I merely postulated that you call your grandfather 'Grim' because he's grim. Postulate means—'


'I know.' I say. Which is a lie, except I can guess what he means, figure it out that way.



Considering Max's learning disability, and subsequent dislike for books, it would be reasonable to infer that Max is bothered by Freak's speech; however, an inference must use the textual evidence plus the reader's background knowledge to form an educated guess. The textual evidence doesn't support Max being bothered by Freak's speech.

Comments

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 ...

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...

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...