Brooks Honegger Burwell English 7 28 February 2024 Friendship and Imagination in Freak the Mighty Freak the Mighty, written by Rodman Philbrick, is an imaginative novel about Kevin and Max trudging through adversity with the power of friendship. Max is just about any typical boy, except for his sheer size and the fact that he is dyslexic. One day Max saw a moving truck and he saw Kevin. Max knew Kevin in preschool and had not seen him since. Kevin has a remarkable brain, he can even list all of the elements on the periodic table, but there is one thing about Kevin. Notably, Kevin has a disability called Morquio Syndrome. Morquio Syndrome is a rare genetic condition that alters a child's bones, spine, organs, and physical abilities. Although …show more content…
Due to Max’s lack of brain cells, Max needs Kevin as a brain for his massive body. Since Max has such a large, tall, and broad body, he is the perfect body for Kevin. Kevin is crucial to Max’s learning because he taught Max how to read, despite his dyslexia. During Max's kidnapping, he has no chance of escape until Freak comes to the rescue, saying, “Put your hands up villain! The squirt gun is filled with sulfuric acid” (Philbrick 148). This gives Freak the Mighty time to escape the wicked Killer Kane. Another example of how much Max cares about Kevin is his reaction to Kevin's death. He walked into the ICU and was looking for Freak, one of the nurses looked at Max and was frozen in sadness and sorrow. Max wondered why she was standing still. Once he realized something was wrong with Kevin, he started breaking glass and pushing down nurses trying to get to where Kevin was. He was soon apprehended by security. That is when Dr. Spivak tells Max, “We did our best” (Philbrick 171). This shows how much Max cares about Kevin. Another influential theme in this novel is imagination. Without the theme of imagination, Kevin and Max's adventures would have been