The Hero In Rodman Philbrick's Freak The Mighty

Have you ever wondered what a hero looks like? In the novel

“Freak The Mighty” Rodman Philbrick demonstrates that heroes come in

all shapes and sizes. In the story there are two boys named Kevin and

Max and they are best friends. Max is the son of an assumed killer named

Kenny Kane. Kevin is a boy who was born with a birth defect. They both

have had a tough time in life, and they befriend each other. I think that

Kevin is the hero in the book Freak The Mighty because he helped Max

with his reading, in school, befriending him, rescuing, and saving Max.

Even though Max was different, Kevin accepted his differences

and became his friend. In school, Max was always different and people

picked on him and that made Max think he would

Max struggled in school Before Kevin helped him, because he

thought he was dumb. Kevin was Max’s tutor and helped Max with his

reading. He told Max that each word was a piece of a picture, while a

sentence was the whole picture. This gave Max confidence in his own

ability to be a better reader. Kevin also helped Max so he could stay in his

regular classes. “Freak and I get to be in the same classes. He made the

Fair Gwen go in and see all these people at the school, because I wasn’t

supposed to be in regular classes.” (Philbrick 75) Kevin tutored Max in his

reading and that also helped him stay in his regular classes. Even once

Kevin is gone, Max has the confidence to write down the story as a tribute

to their friendship. Max went from thinking that he did not have a brain until

Kevin let him borrow his, to realizing he had more of a brain than he had

ever known.

Kevin may have been small, but he was intelligent and rescued

and saved Max. Kevin guided Max away from Tony D. Max was big, but

without Kevin he wouldn’t of known where to go and Tony D. would of

probably stabbed him. “What do we do now? I ask… Wait! Freak says.

The cavalry is coming, can’t you hear that bugle? Officers! Freak