Maxwell Kane is a middle school student with no friends, no motivation, and a murderer for a father, but will he inherit his father’s violent ways. Rodman Philbrick’s story, Freak the Mighty, focuses heavily on heredity and history through the characters of Max, Killer Kane[Max’s father], and Max’s best friend, Kevin. Others may argue that Max’s actions throughout the story show that he is a decent citizen, but his appearance and violent actions both younger and current make clear that heredity does influence personality and decisions.
As a young child, Max’s behavior is considerably violent. When pondering his past Max recalls his preschool years: “... I invented games like kick-boxing and kick-knees and kick-faces and kick-teachers…”(2). During this time Max was quite young and was blind to social edicate. Therefor, he was being completely driven by his heredity which he received from his murderous father.
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Although, he may have been able to control his temper, he was unable to hide his appearance. As Killer Kane, Max’s father, states, “‘It’s like I’m looking at an old picture of myself,’”(102). If Max inherited his father’s appearance than it is more than likely that he also inherited something of his father’s personality.
Conflicting the facts of Max’s violence, some may say that Max’s violence was outgrown and he even goes against his father’s discriminatory ways by befriending Kevin with Kevin even shouting their name “Freak the Mighty” on many occasions. But even if Max was able to overcome his father’s “Never trust a cripple” rule that is not to say that Max is not violent and did not inherit that violence from his father as Max’s heredity does not mean he is exactly like his father or he can’t make his own decisions, but merely that his personality and actions are affected by his heredity, mostly in times of low self