Living in the band shell, Maniac has an address again — 101 Band Shell Boulevard — and a family in the form of Earl Grayson. Maniac doesn't attend school because to him, "school seems sort of like a big home, but only a day home. . . ." Maniac feels that, because you can't live in a school, you would need a night home with an address, a place "where everybody talks to each other and uses the same toaster" (in contrast to his aunt and uncle's house). Having a day home without having a night home doesn't make sense to Maniac.
When Grayson dies, Maniac is once again without a home and a family. He ends up staying at the McNabs' house, wondering why he is there. It is a roof over his head, but it isn't a home or a family. After Maniac manipulates Mars Bar into going to the McNabs', he walks around until he thinks he should go home — only to sadly remember that he doesn't have a home.
Maniac is found by Mars Bar and Amanda as he is sleeping once again in the buffalo pen at the zoo. Amanda insists that Maniac "come home." At long last, Maniac "knew that finally, truly, at long last, someone was calling him home."
Racial prejudice is another major theme of Maniac Magee. When Maniac jogs into Two Mills, he says "hi" to everyone he passes. The people are taken aback because "people just didn't say that to strangers, out of the blue." Spinelli suggests that people in today's society are alienated from one another and are strangers to each other, particularly along racial lines.
In Two Mills, the racial line, or boundary, between the blacks and whites is Hector Street. The blacks live in the East End and the whites live in the West End. Spinelli uses Maniac as a catalyst to unite the East End and the West End. When Maniac meets Amanda Beale, a black girl, she is suspicious of him. She wonders what a white kid is doing in the East End. Maniac is oblivious to the difference in their skin color. He and Amanda share an interest in books and become friends. Maniac lives with the Beales and is accepted as part of the family. The image of Maniac taking a bath with Hester and Lester Beale portrays the joining of the races to live together as family and Spinelli's ultimate hope for desegregation and an end to racial prejudice.
