Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick is presented through a fictional lens. Max, narrator and protagonist, end the book by explaining the process of how he decided to write. Unsuccessful in making other friends in school, he meets a fellow misfit whom he nicknames "Freak." Because both are bullied, they immediately bond with one another. Over the course of eighth grade they engage in numerous compelling adventures -- including Max getting kidnapped by his inmate father. The book ends with Freak suddenly dying in the hospital of a terminal illness which apparently he's kept a secret from Max the entire time. Betrayed and confused, Max decides to take his friends advice and to record their adventures on paper as a means of processing and memorializing their friendship and its end.
Max is an unreliable narrator. As the narrative progresses, he clues the reader into this phenomenon more and more. Apparently his father was abusive when Max was little. In fact his dad is serving a prison sentence for having murdered his wife. Max talks about the trust which he feels for Freak because he knows with certainty, despite his memory being extremely unreliable on other accounts, that Freak has never physically beaten him. This may seem like a low standard for trust, but to Max it means the world. If he didn't have a friend on whom to rely, he wouldn't be learning to connect with people well. Forgoing those social skills, he has the potential to become violent and hateful toward his classmates. Thankfully, however, Freak intervenes as a figure of hope and solidarity.
Max's story sheds light upon the tragedy of bullying. Max is bullied because he's extra tall for his age, he's a little slow, and his dad is in prison. None of those things are within his control, so the rejection of his peers is total and destructive. Rather than being able to choose to present himself differently, he is fully aware that he's being bullied for unjust reasons. The same is true for Freak and his illness. While the other kids at school are correct in identifying that these two boys are not normal, they do not possess the full picture. If they knew that Max has been severely abused by his father, they couldn't blame him for association with his dad. That's a painful relationship which nobody could fault Max for. Similarly, if they knew that Freak was dying and that's why he's so obsessive about learning and also so physically weak, they also couldn't bully him for these things. Recognizing the truth of this, Freak is able to detach himself from the criticism and to teach Max to ignore the insults. Their classmates just don't have the full picture.
