Aaron Lines ELAN 6410
A Close Read – The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Pigman is a story told from the point of view of two characters that alternate the narration of each chapter in the book. Both sophomores in high school, John and Loraine are lonely people who are transitioning out of childhood, discovering the realities of death, and defining themselves through exploration. As the story progresses, they test societal limits pertaining to alcohol and age appropriate personal relationships. They first meet Angelo Pignati (Pigman) while playing a prank-calling game in which the object is to keep the caller on the line as long as possible by pretending to be someone you are not. After the phone call to Mr. Pignati, Loraine and John go over to his house to collect funds for a fake charity to which they have convinced him to donate. While inside the Pigman’s house both John and Loraine drink wine. Also, Angelo Pignati shows them his collection of a room full of pigs and explains why he is sometimes called Pigman because of his pig collection. So, an initial prank call blooms into a full blown relationship between Mr. Pignati, John, and Loraine with trips to the zoo and plenty of time spent at the Pigman’s house watching television and sipping wine after school. During the first trip to the zoo, the Pigman feeds his favorite baboon named Bobo. Also, we are introduced to the childlike fun John and Loraine are able to experience when being with Pigman. Mr. Pignati buys plenty of peanuts for both the John, Loraine, and the monkeys. At one point, the three of them play game of getting the monkeys all riled up by screaming “Ugaboo” at each other. These events support the idea of John and Loraine escaping their circumstances at home and at school because they have fun with the Pigman.
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Aaron Lines ELAN 6410 John goes to the graveyard to drink beer. While drunk on a grave, John gives a specific quote that helps the reader understand his youthful confusion and general searching for purpose. “I think that’s probably the real reason I go to the graveyard. I’m not afraid of seeing ghosts. I think I’m really looking for ghosts. I want to see them. I’m looking for anything to prove that when I drop dead there’s a chance I’ll be doing something a little more exciting than decaying.” P. 56. He desperately wants a reason for living and an explanation for the life he has. The author nick names John’s father Bore, which is nearly a play on words. His father is a dull conformist businessman who trades stock at the Coffee Exchange for a living. John is generally repulsed by the idea of making a living in such a “normal” way. At diner one evening, John and Bore have a bitter exchange over John’s potential career path. John turns down his father’s offer to come and work at the exchange and expresses his desire to become an actor. Bore informs John that he is having a fool’s dream. John says “Just give me a little longer to find out who I am.” P. 60. This part of the story helps the reader understand John’s source of frustration in life and identity searching. Loraine lives in a single mother household. She gives us an understanding of the frustration she experiences at living with her mother in the following excerpt. “But she did pick on me now! Lots of times I’d cry myself to sleep, but more and I felt myself thinking of the Pigman whenever I felt sad. . . I’d wish she knew how to have a little fun for a change. “P. 71. Like John, Loraine is compelled to be with the Pigman because he always makes her feel like she is wanted. John and Loraine are exploring a relationship with an adult outside of their own family.
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Aaron Lines ELAN 6410 Throughout the story there is a constant them of under aged drinking and general nonconformity. Although both John and Loraine drink alcohol often during the story, John drinks beer. John alludes to a deeper problem with alcohol that may be genetic because his father was a heavy drinker until he got sclerosis. In the story, John reminisces about drinking beer in front of company at age 10 “That kid’s going to be a real drinker,” he’d say in front of company, and then I’d go through my beer-drinking performance for everybody, and they’d laugh their heads off. . . The only thing I did better than him was drink beer.” P. 84. Several omens about death occur during the story. One omen is given by a street woman while John, Loraine, and Mr. Pignati are on the way to Beekman’s Department store. The woman says “God told me death is coming. He calls me his little chatty doll . . . God’s chatty doll.” When they finally get to the department store, Pigman purchases several items including roller skates and nylon stockings for John and Loraine. The roller skates add to the youthful experience Pigman provides the children. All three characters actually put the skates on and skate in the department store. The story begins two take a turn when Pigman has a heart attack at his house while playing tag on roller skates. He is carted away by an ambulance. In rebellious fashion, John and Loraine skip school again to be with Mr. Pignati in the hospital while he was recovering from the heart attack. He allows them to have the keys to his house. John and Loraine go to Pigman’s house while he is still in the hospital. It turns out to be a critical point in the story because they begin to flirt with adulthood and growing up even if only by pretending. John puts one of Pigman’s suits on and Loraine puts on a dress that belonged to Pigman’s late wife. They kiss for the first time in the bedroom.
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Aaron Lines ELAN 6410 Also, they toast to the Pigman with a glass of wine. This scene portrays John and Loraine as two adolescents who have to pretend to be grown up, but this is helping them find there own identity through exploration. The climax of the story is reached while Pigman is still in the hospital. John and Loraine continue to push societal limits by throwing an alcohol party in Mr. Pignati’s house with a band. However, nuns who live in convent across the street end up calling the police who promptly bust the party. But the people who did not get away from the house were John and Loraine. In this quote the Pigman has just returned home. “Finally I managed to lift my head and saw Mr. Pignati at the door. He was just standing there looking down at me, and there was no smile on his face. No smile at all.” Basically, the childlike welcoming atmosphere that had been part of Pigman’s presence had vanished because of John and Loraine breaking his trust and at the same time entering the consequences of the adult world. The story arrives at a close with one last omen. John and Loraine both skip school once more after being scolded by there parents for being caught at Pigman’s house throwing a party. Pigman agrees to meet them at the zoo. While at the zoo, they attempt to observe the monkey Bobo, but he has died. This proves to be the final omen in the story. Almost immediately after discovering Bobo’s death the Pigman has a deadly heart attack in front of John and Loraine. The following quote is a good summary of the overall theme of the story. “We had trespassed too-been where we didn’t belong, and we were being punished for it. Mr. Pignati had paid with his life. But when he died something in us had died as well.” P. 148. Overall, John and Loraine’s relationship with Mr. Pignati had exposed them to a
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Aaron Lines ELAN 6410 childlike fun that they could not keep and that was not part of adulthood. They were trespassing simultaneously into two parts of society in which they did not belong. The first being childhood. In there adolescence, they no longer could act like children. The relationship with the Pigman had been a goodbye and a death of their childhood. Secondly, they were not adults either. They could not drink alcohol and were not ready to put on their lives of adulthood as they had tried when wearing adult clothing at Mr. Pigman’s house. Therefore, these arguments show irrefutably that Zindel’s story is about John and Loraine transitioning out of childhood, discovering the realities of death, and defining themselves through exploration of social limits.
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