Tony D Freak The Mighty

Novel by Rodman Philbrick

Freak the Mighty
First edition
Author	Rodman Philbrick
Comprehend artist	David Shannon
Country	Usa
Genre	Immature adult fiction
Publisher	Blue Sky/Scholastic
Publication date	1993
Pages	160
ISBN	0-7857-6594-8
Followed past	Max the Mighty

Freak the Mighty is a immature developed novel by Rodman Philbrick. Published in 1993, information technology was followed by the novel Max the Mighty in 1998. The primary characters are friends Maxwell Kane, a large, developmentally disabled, but kind-hearted boy, and Kevin Avery, nicknamed "Freak", who is physically disabled but very intelligent. Kevin is diagnosed with Morquio syndrome.

The novel was adapted for the screen nether the title The Mighty by Charles Leavitt; the picture show was shot in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Cincinnati, Ohio, and directed past Peter Chelsom, and released in 1998.^[i]

Plot [edit]

The novel is set in a version of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.^[2] In the beginning of the volume, Maxwell Kane is a immature male child with low self-esteem. He lives with his grandfather, Grim, and grandmother, Gram. Max thinks of himself as a big butthead. People are afraid of him because he looks like his father, Kenneth "Killer" Kane, a convicted murderer. Max sets the stage for the story past reminiscing about his fourth dimension in daycare, when he had met a boy named Kevin, or Freak, every bit their classmates called him. Kevin has Morquio syndrome, wears leg braces and uses crutches, and thinks of himself as a robot and is bullied past many bigger kids due to his brusk height. However, Max likes Kevin and thinks the crutches and leg braces are neat.

Many years afterward, when Max is in centre school, he finds out that Freak and his mother, Gwen (referred to as "The Fair Guinevere") are moving into the house next door. When Max initially approaches Freak, Freak acts with hostility. However, one-time afterward, Max saves Kevin's toy ornithopter from a tree and they start to get friends. On the Fourth of July, they go to see the fireworks testify and are attacked by an older boy, Tony "Bract" D. and his gang but avert any mental or physical conflict. Subsequently the evidence, Bract chases the ii with his gang after Freak calls him a cretin. Despite Max's lack of knowledge and disability, he escapes by acting on Freak'southward orders, but the two are driven into a muddy millpond, Freak riding on Max's shoulders. Freak gets the attention of a nearby police car, who drives off Blade's gang and takes the boys home. After this incident, Kevin starts riding on Max'southward shoulders regularly. They begin to call themselves "Freak the Mighty". They get on adventures such every bit going to the hospital which Freak claims has a secret department called the "Bionics Department" which has had his encephalon CT scanned to be fitted into a bionic trunk.

On one gamble they find a woman's bag in the storm drain. They return it to the adult female who is named Loretta Lee. She is the wife of Iggy Lee, leader of the Panheads, a motorcycle gang who "struck fear in anybody, fifty-fifty the cops", as Max puts it. Iggy says that the two of them once knew Max'south father. They consider "having some fun" with the boys merely don't because they are agape that Max's begetter volition get parole even though he's serving a life judgement. They also reveal that Kevin'south male parent left one time he heard that his son had a birth defect.

Freak has an emergency at school and is taken to the hospital. After, Grim reveals to Max that his father has been released from prison on parole. Throughout the story, it has been gradually revealed that Max'due south father killed his mother by strangling her. Grim and Gram dislike his dad, and are afraid of Max ending upwards similar him. Grim threatens to buy a gun for the family's protection. Max is shocked and scared by the news of his begetter's parole. On Christmas Eve, Max is woken up past his father, Killer Kane, who has come to accept him to railroad train him to be his assistant. Later on Max is kidnapped past his begetter, the two walk to Iggy Lee'due south apartment in the Testaments.

Killer Kane is even bigger than Max and acts in a very threatening, intimidating way towards everyone, including his son, whom he keeps tied up on a small chair. Killer Kane swears that he did non murder Max'south mother and calls himself "a man of God". On Christmas morning he leaves Max alone, tied upwardly in a room in an old abandoned apartment. Loretta, shocked that Kane would do something like that to his own child, tries to help him escape. Killer Kane catches her and starts to strangle her. He begins simply is interrupted by Max. Max tries to get up and rips off the rope to which the old boiler has been fastened. Max attempts to stop him and reveals that he witnessed his father kill his mother in the aforementioned style. Kane lets go of Loretta, letting her lie on the ground breathing like a "broken bird" and gives up on grooming Max to be his obedient banana so he tries to murder him past strangling him, the same as what he did to Max's mother, just Freak arrives just in fourth dimension and saves Max by squirting Kane with a squirt gun in the eye which he claims is filled with sulfuric acid when in fact, equally Freak reveals later, information technology is filled with soap, vinegar, and back-scratch powder. The constabulary are waiting exterior, and Killer Kane is taken back to prison and has to serve his original judgement plus ten years. Killer Kane pleads guilty.

After having a seizure on his birthday, Freak is admitted into the hospital, where he gives Max a blank volume, telling him to write the story of Freak the Mighty in information technology. Max returns to the hospital the next twenty-four hour period to find that Freak died because his heart became too large for his body. Dr. Spivak, Kevin'southward medico, reveals that Freak knew he was going to accept a very short life, but he told Max he was going to get a bionic body because it would give himself hope. The Fair Gwen moves away, with a new human being she is in honey with, and Max misses Freak's funeral, staying in his room, the "down under" for months. Not even Grim or Gram can go him out, until Grim orders Max to render to school. One day, Max sees Loretta, who tells him "Doing nothing's a drag, child", so Max writes all of the adventures he and Freak had, in honour of his best friend.

Characters [edit]

Maxwell "Max" Kane is the primary character and narrator of the story. He is described to be very big and have a striking resemblance to his father, Kenneth (Killer) Kane. In daycare, Max earned the nickname "Kicker" because he had a thing of booting and kicking anyone who dared to touch him, when he was a child. Max lives with his grandparents, Grim and Gram, and usually stays in "The Down Under", a small-scale room in the basement. He hates his male parent, whom he witnessed killing his mother, Annie. He becomes best friends with Freak, who customarily rides on his shoulders and acts every bit Max's surrogate "brain". Max becomes depressed afterward Freak dies, locking himself in "The Down Under" for days. He is also very insecure about himself. He usually calls himself a "butthead" and is never confident. Until Freak comes forth, Max cannot read or write.
Kevin "Freak" Avery is a disabled, blonde-haired boy whom Max becomes best friends with. Kevin has Morquio syndrome, where the outside of his body cannot grow. He walks on crutches and wears a leg brace. He is a genius for his age and size and is cuttingly sarcastic. He carries a dictionary with him. He is interested in robotics and the tales of Male monarch Arthur, to the extent of calling his mother Gwen "The Off-white Gwen Of Air/Guinevere" and calling his adventures with Max "quests". Kevin looks forrard to his surgery (which Max later finds out was a prevarication then he wouldn't know the truth), in which he will gain a robot's trunk. Unexpectedly on his 13th birthday, Kevin has a seizure. In the infirmary, he dies, because every bit his physician puts it, "his heart became likewise big for his trunk." In the film, Kevin's last name was changed from Avery to Dillon.
Grim is Maxwell'south grandfather. His behavior is at first described as quite grim - thus explaining why Maxwell gave him the nickname - though he shows himself to be a kind and friendly person. He is hostile towards Max's father due to the murder of his daughter, Annie. In the volume, Grim decides to shoot Kenneth if he sets human foot in the house, after hearing nearly his release from jail. At first, Grim feels lamentable for Kevin, but later, he appreciates Kevin'southward abilities and intelligence.
Gram is Maxwell's grandmother. Similar her husband, she also dislikes Kenneth and misses her daughter, Annie. Gram is quite kind and polite, careful non to hurt anyone's feelings. She protests against shooting Kenneth once Grim announces that he will do and then.
Gwen "Fair Gwen" Avery is Kevin'due south mother. Kevin nicknames her "Fair Gwen" after King Arthur'due south beautiful married woman, Fair Guinevere. She and Maxwell'south mother were friends until Kenneth Kane came forth. After her son's death, Gwen moves to California and starts a relationship with a man named Rick.
Kenneth "Kenny" David Kane (besides known every bit Killer Kane) is the chief antagonist of the book. He is Max's selfish and sociopathic begetter. He was sent to prison for strangling his wife to expiry. Later his release from prison on parole, Kenny kidnaps Maxwell on Christmas Eve and takes him to Loretta and Iggy's flat. Loretta Lee tries to save Max but ends upwardly getting strangled past Kenneth, though she survives. Eventually, Kevin rescues Max by spraying a mixture of soap, vinegar and curry pulverisation in Kenny's eyes, which he claimed was sulfuric acrid. In the cease, Kenny is jailed.
Loretta Lee is a sparse, red-haired lady whose stolen purse is recovered by Freak and Max. She is married to the leader of a motorbike gang named The Panheads, Iggy. Loretta is an alcoholic and a smoker and lives in the "poor" office of the town, the New Tenements. When she attempts to help Max escape, she is almost strangled to death past Kenny Kane.
Iggy Lee is an alcoholic, like Loretta, and lives with her in the Testaments. He is the dominate of The Panheads, a motorcycle gang. Information technology is suggested that he may take vertigo, as he states it makes him nervous looking upwards. He was also a friend of Maxwell's dad (Killer Kane), who makes him scared and nervous. He attempts to help rescue Max when he was kidnapped by his begetter. He is the hubby of Loretta Lee.
Dr. Spivak is Kevin's physician. She tells Max about Kevin'southward death and that the real crusade of his death was his heart growing too large for his body.
Annie Kane is Maxwell's mother only does non appear in the volume. She was brutally murdered by her married man, Kenneth Kane.
Tony D. is a juvenile delinquent who showtime encountered Max and Freak during the 4th of July drunkenly request them for M-eighty fireworks. He along with his gang tried to damage Max and Freak with a pocketknife. His gang steals Loretta Lee's purse. He later tells Max he's sorry about Kevin (Freak), who died after having a seizure, though Max doesn't similar it and wants to be enemies with him. He is also known as "Blade".
Rick does non appear in this book. After Kevin Avery dies, he starts a relationship with Gwen Avery in California.
Mr. Meehan is Maxwell'due south reading skills tutor.
Mrs. Donelli is Maxwell'southward new English teacher.
Mrs. Addison is the school's master.

References [edit]

^ Peter Chelsom, The Mighty, Chaos Productions, 1998.
^ Rodman Philbrick (i March 2013). Freak The Mighty. Scholastic Inc. pp. 147–. ISBN978-0-545-60027-9.