Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Pigman, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Death and Grief
Personal Responsibility
Family
Loneliness
Compassion
Summary
Analysis
Lorraine narrates this chapter. A police officer helps Lorraine get John into a police car. The officer tells Lorraine she and John are lucky that Mr. Pignati isn’t going to press charges. She asks the officer if Mr. Pignati is okay. The last she saw of Mr. Pignati, he was carrying the dress of Conchetta’s that Helen Kazinski had ripped, and Lorraine didn’t know what to say to him. She begs the officer to let her see Mr. Pignati before they leave, but the officer says no and snaps that Mr. Pignati is crying. Hearing this, Lorraine starts to shake. She barks at John to wake up, but he doesn’t rouse.
Up to this point, John and Lorraine have been a source of joy for Mr. Pignati—their company has cheered him up and made him forget his grief for Conchetta somewhat, or at least make his grief more manageable. Now, though, the teens are the cause of Mr. Pignati’s tears. In this passage, Lorraine seems to recognize the hard truth that all her actions have consequences—even if she didn’t mean any harm.
Themes
During the ride home in the police car, Lorraine fears what Lorraine’s mother will say when she sees Lorraine dressed in Conchetta’s white dress—Lorraine couldn’t find her own clothes. One of the police officers asks if it’s their idea of fun to terrorize old people. Lorraine begs the officer to just let them go, but he insists on speaking with Lorraine’s family. John momentarily rouses, drunkenly laughing before falling back asleep. Lorraine tells the officer that her mother will beat her, and she says she should’ve thought about that before ruining Mr. Pignati’s house.
Though Lorraine has always been more compassionate than John, this passage shows that there are limits to her compassion. Here, she rather selfishly seems more preoccupied with how her action of taking Conchetta’s dress will affect her (whether it will cause her mother to punish her)—not how it’s affected Mr. Pignati.
Themes
When the car pulls up outside Lorraine’s house, Lorraine’s mother steps outside and asks Lorraine where her clothes are. The officer fills Lorraine’s mother in on the night’s events, and then Lorraine’s mother slaps Lorraine on the face. Lorraine shrieks, and the police officer almost looks sorry that he brought Lorraine home. Lorraine’s mother orders her inside. Lorraine has barely changed out of her dress when her mother comes inside, a disgusted look on her face. Lorraine says she didn’t do anything wrong. She wants to tell her mother about the whole story, about how she has no friends and is so lonely. But then Lorraine’s mother runs up to her and hits her again. She tells Lorraine that Lorraine lied to her.
It's understandable that Lorraine’s mother is upset with Lorraine for lying to her face. But being upset isn’t an excuse to hit someone, especially a child. Lorraine’s mother’s choice to take out her own bad feelings on Lorraine through corporal punishment suggests that while personal responsibility and compassion for others are often markers of maturity, it’s not guaranteed that everyone will gain these traits with age. Instead, a person has to acknowledge the value in these traits and choose to adopt them, which Lorraine’s mother seems not to have done. Otherwise, she might be more understanding of Lorraine’s poor behavior (or at least able to deal with her anger in a way that doesn’t harm Lorraine).
Themes
Then Lorraine’s mother breaks down crying, and Lorraine knows she’s supposed to apologize to her—but for the first time in her life, she doesn’t want to. Mr. Pignati is the only person Lorraine wants to apologize to. But then she remembers the times she’s woken up in the middle of the night and found her mother crying at the kitchen table. So instead, she goes to her mother and hugs her. She tells Lorraine about her and John’s friendship with Mr. Pignati, leaving out certain bits here and there.
Lorraine is forced to be the adult in this situation, setting aside her own hurt feelings to comfort her mother, who is unable to set aside her own hurt feelings to deal with Lorraine in a compassionate, fair way. Lorraine’s behavior is commendable, but it also illustrates how living with an unsupportive, often cruel parent has forced Lorraine to grow up quicker than she should have to.
Themes
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Eventually, Lorraine and Lorraine’s mother get ready to go to bed, and Lorraine even feels a little better. But just then, Lorraine’s mom asks if Mr. Pignati ever tried anything “sexually” with Lorraine. She says that old men can do that in ways that Lorraine might not have caught on to. Lorraine, disgusted, says no. She tells her mother good night, knowing that she’ll never understand what Lorraine and John had with Mr. Pignati.
Contemporary readers might not find Lorraine’s mother’s concern as disgusting as Lorraine does—after all, it’s hardly appropriate for an old man to invite underage students to his house and give them wine. With that being said, Lorraine’s anger stems from the fact that her mother is continuing to project her personal distrust of men onto Mr. Pignati, who has been a support rather than a menace to Lorraine over the past months.
Themes
In her room that night, Lorraine cries. She wonders if Mr. Pignati will think that she and John destroyed the pigs and Conchetta’s clothes on purpose. “We were just playing,” she thinks. And then she can’t get the word—“playing”—out of her mind. She remembers a time she saw a cat playing with a ball as though it were stalking it. Eventually, the cat sunk its teeth into the ball “as if it were a living thing.” She thought, then, “Play was something so natural, […] something which Nature wanted us to do to prepare us for later life.” Then Lorraine’s thoughts flash back to the night she and John kissed in Mr. Pignati’s bedroom.
Lorraine realizes that even if she and John didn’t intend to hurt Mr. Pignati, they have to take responsibility for the unintentional hurt they inflicted on him by hosting a party at his house that culminated in the destruction of his most prized possessions. “Playing” is something that children do, and so it’s not acceptable for Lorraine, now on the verge of adulthood, to use this as an excuse. When Lorraine’s thoughts flash back to her and John’s first kiss, it’s her desperate attempt to return to a happier time. As well, it shows that she sees herself as an adult (kissing is something that mature young adults, not children, do) who must take responsibility for her actions.
Themes
Lorraine eventually drifts off to sleep. She wakes up to Lorraine’s mother standing over her. After a pause, Lorraine’s mother asks if Lorraine had to “do anything bad” for the nylon stockings she got her. “No, Mother,” Lorraine groans, wondering how long her mother had been worrying about this. Eventually, Lorraine’s mother leaves for work.
Again, Lorraine’s mother’s concern isn’t unwarranted, and it could even be an encouraging sign that Lorraine’s mother is more concerned about Lorraine’s wellbeing than angry at Lorraine for lying to her—it shows that Lorraine’s mother is willing to set aside her anger to protect her daughter. But Lorraine (and seemingly the book) doesn’t see things this way—instead, Lorraine’s mother’s concern is just another way that she fails to understand Lorraine and take interest in the things (and people) that matter to Lorraine, in this case Lorraine’s friendship with Mr. Pignati.
Themes
John calls around 11:00 that morning, and he and Lorraine arrange to meet at the corner. When they meet up, John looks awful. He says Bore told him he had to go to a psychiatrist. Lorraine reminds him that Bore will probably forget about the psychiatrist, and John agrees. Then they walk toward Tony’s Market so John can buy some cigarettes. They pass Josephine Adamo on their way there, and she calls out to them, “Some party!” Josephine, Lorraine remembers, left before the fight started.
This section reaffirms the lack of support John receives from his family; they neither punish John for his misguided actions nor care to get to the bottom of why John acts this way (which a psychiatrist perhaps could do). The interaction with Josephine also underscores just how much John and Lorraine’s relationship with Mr. Pignati has changed them; they’re no longer as carefree and self-absorbed as peers like Josephine. Instead, they’re forced to reckon with the consequences of their carefree, selfish behavior, specifically how it’s damaged their relationship with Mr. Pignati.
Themes
Lorraine asks John what happened when the police brought him home. John says John’s mother began to frantically clean up the snow that John had tracked inside. But it was Bore’s reaction that really upset John—he didn’t even look angry, just “sick and old,” and he didn’t say a word. After a pause, John asks if Mr. Pignati was okay. Lorraine asks, “Why do you care?” John sheepishly looks away.
John’s comment about Bore looking “sick and old” suggests John’s growing compassion and introspection. It’s of course unfair that John’s parents continually fail to give him the support and stability he needs to mature into a well-adjusted adult, but John probably hasn’t been as understanding of the inner struggles that prevent his parents from giving him that support (they’re “sick and old” and don’t know how to help him) as Lorraine is of her mother’s struggles. Here, however, it seems that he finally recognizes that his parents are humans trying to navigate life and that they too deserve some compassion.
Themes
Eventually, John and Lorraine reach a phone booth and dial Mr. Pignati’s number. He picks up. When he hears John’s voice, he doesn’t say anything. John says that he and Lorraine are horribly sorry and promises that they’ll pay for everything (much to Lorraine’s shock). But Mr. Pignati, in a weak, sad voice, says it okay—he’s already cleaned up most of the mess. John asks if Mr. Pignati would like to meet them at the zoo to see Bobo. After a pause, Mr. Pignati agrees, though he still sounds sad.
John’s offer to pay for the damage his and Lorraine’s party caused demonstrates John’s personal growth. Not only is he capable of taking responsibility for his actions, but he does so unprompted. Further illustrating John’s maturity is his suggestion to go to the zoo. Before, John only reluctantly went along with things he didn’t personally want to do, and now he suggests going to the zoo because he knows that it’s something Mr. Pignati enjoys.
Themes
John and Lorraine arrive at the zoo a little after noon. They wait on the same bench that they sat on the first time they met Mr. Pignati at the zoo. They wait for over half an hour, and Lorraine fears that Mr. Pignati won’t be coming after all, but eventually they see him roll up in a taxi. John says hi and shows Mr. Pignati the peanuts they bought for Bobo. Lorraine figures that Mr. Pignati has forgiven them for what they did, or else he wouldn’t have agreed to meet them at the zoo—but he still looks so sad and sick. Mr. Pignati tries to pay John back for the peanuts, but John refuses. The three of them hop inside the zoo train and travel to the primate house. All the animals they pass on their way there look frozen and sad.
John and Lorraine’s choice to sit on the same bench where they sat the first time they met Mr. Pignati at the zoo symbolizes their longing to repair the damage they’ve done to their friendship with him: they want to return to a time before they betrayed him. But it’s a vital part of growing up not only to accept responsibility for one’s actions, but also to accept that not all of those actions have solutions. Though the teens long to redeem themselves in Mr. Pignati’s eyes, the reality is that that might not be possible.
Themes
When they arrive at the primate house, John helps Mr. Pignati out of the train car. Mr. Pignati smiles and thanks John. Lorraine says that Bobo will be happy to see Mr. Pignati, trying to cheer up the sickly man. But when they get inside, Bobo is nowhere in sight. Worried, Mr. Pignati calls out for Bobo, but Bobo doesn’t appear. An attendant walks up to them and says that Bobo died last week—he had pneumonia. Mr. Pignati stares into the cage and doesn’t say a word. John and Lorraine have no idea what to do. John and Lorraine take Mr. Pignati’s arms and try to guide him out of the primate house. Suddenly, Mr. Pignati cries out as his hand reaches for the railing. He misses and falls to the floor, dead.
Finally, the novel reveals the details of Mr. Pignati’s death, which it has only alluded to up to this point. The shock of Bobo’s death is the latest in a series of setbacks that have placed undue stress on Mr. Pignati’s mind and body. Unable to deal with the hurt of Conchetta’s death, John and Lorraine’s betrayal, and now the death of his “best friend,” Mr. Pignati’s body gives out, and he dies. With this, John and Lorraine learn a brutal, difficult lesson: their actions have consequences (though of course Mr. Pignati’s death is only an indirect consequence of their act of betrayal), some of which they’ll have to live with for the rest of their lives.
Themes
