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Cereal box

mehrk

Senior Member
Turkish
Hi

"They say Maniac Magee was born in a dump. They say his stomach was a cereal box and his heart a sofa spring."

The above sentence is from Maniac Magee novel. What is the meaning of the Bold part? Stomach a cereal box?! Heart a sofa spring?!

Thank you all in advance.
You haen't given us much context, but presumably this fictional character had a stomach made of a cereal box and a heart made of a sofa spring.
You haen't given us much context, but presumably this fictional character had a stomach made of a cereal box and a heart made of a sofa spring.
This is exactly the first line of the novel. But Magee is the protagonist and a homeless boy in another city (ran away from his home.) According to what you say I feel there should be a metaphorical meaning here, am I right?
It is definitely a metaphor as Hermione said earlier. I have no idea what it is supposed to mean however.
Here's what the 'Goodreads' site says about this children's book:
Jeffrey Lionel "Maniac" Magee might have lived a normal life if a freak accident hadn't made him an orphan. After living with his unhappy and uptight aunt and uncle for eight years, he decides to run--and not just run away, but run. This is where the myth of Maniac Magee begins, as he changes the lives of a racially divided small town with his amazing and legendary feats.​

It looks, then, as if the cereal box and sofa spring references are not meant metaphorically. The repeated words They say indicate that they're examples of the myths that have grown up around the character.
I'm erring to Loob's side. It seems that (over time it) has been rumoured that he was born in a dump and that perhaps he is not entirely human but (literally ?) made of odds and ends had been lying around on the dump.
It seems an unfortunate book to use for examples of metaphors and similes.
Yes, I can certainly see a creation myth in there! Good idea, but surely there has to be something more to explain dump, cereal box, and sofa spring as the elements?
be something more to explain dump, cereal box, and sofa spring as the elements?
A dump (a place where garbage, etc., is deposited. - WRD Random House) is a place where you might find the other things. And those things are in conditions where you might expect that the spontaneous generation of life could occur (if you believed in such things).
Spontaneous generation - Wikipedia
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