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Freak The Mighty Thesis

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How can someone benefit from having a friend that has different abilities and talents than themselves? In the book Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick, Max the narrator shares his story of his adventures with Kevin and how they became Freak the Mighty. Before Kevin, Max never actually had a true friend, they came together and combined abilities to become one. Both helped each other with each others disabilities. Max helped Kevin physically, in return Kevin helps Max with his learning disabilities. This is shown when Kevin teaches Max about the King Arthur legends, including the Fair Guinevere, and Arthur's sword, Excalibur. The message that Philbrick wanted to get out into the world was that people can learn from and be friends with others …show more content…

Max learns tons of facts, how to read, write, and lots of other academic based stuff. In return, Max gives Kevin a way to explore the world on top of Max’s shoulders. It is in this way of “...walking high above the world”(40), that they go on adventures all over town. Max helped Kevin achieve his dream of being mobile and able-bodied by providing a way to explore the world on his shoulders. Kevin helped Max catch up to his appropriate grade by teaching Max how to read and then write. Philbrick starts the book with “I never had a brain until freak came along and let me borrow his for a while…” (1). This shows just how important Kevin helping Max was in the story. Max practiced reading and writing enough to move out of the L.D. (Learning Disabled) group, to be with Kevin, making the friendship even tighter. All of this goes to show how important, contributing to a relationship is in Freak the Mighty. I think that Philbrick’s message to the world, through his book, was that people can learn from and be friends with others who are different than them. This is shown in Freak the Mighty when Max Sizemore 3 and Kevin become friends, even though they are almost complete opposites. They learn from each other through their relationship, especially Max, who learned how to read and write through Kevin’s deep knowledge of books. Connecting and creating bonds with other people are important tools to

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