Sunday, April 5, 2015

In Maniac Magee, why did McNab's group stop at Hector Street?Why Jerry Spinelli pick "Hector" to name the street?

Hector Street was the "unofficial" dividing line between
the East End and the West End of town. The two sections of town represented the black
community and the white community. People of a different race did not enter the other
race's neighborhood. This was a simplistic view of life in segregated times. The whole
point of the novel was to show the absurdity of segregation and how one boy unwittingly
chose to end it. McNab's group knew better than to enter the black section of town
designated by the side of Hector Street that one was on. Surely if one group invaded the
other's territory there would be a huge fight. So, both groups would stand on opposite
sides of the street and hurl insults at each other.

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