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. John tells Lorraine about the funeral bill, and a chill runs down her spine—she’d suspected that Conchetta might not really be on vacation, since Mr. Pignati looks like he’s about to cry every time he mentions her. Just then, Mr. Pignati returns with more wine. He tells them a joke about a know-it-all wife, but Lorraine can’t bring herself to laugh—she can’t stop thinking about the little girl in the picture who had grown up, gotten married, and was already dead. Lorraine thinks about old married couples who die only months apart; she imagines “the love between a man and a woman must be the strongest thing in the world.” But then she thinks about her parents and changes her mind.
That Lorraine suspected that Conchetta might be dead even before John tells her illustrates the perceptive, compassionate traits that define Lorraine’s character—she’s sensitive to the people around her, even if she doesn’t quite know how to help them work through their difficult feelings. Meanwhile, Mr. Pignati’s impulse to drink wine and joke around to lighten the mood shows that he’s not any better at navigating his complex feelings of grief—unable to confront the reality of Conchetta’s death, he represses it and, in so doing, prevents himself from working through his grief in a healthy way.
Themes
Lorraine returns home that night and thinks about everything Mr. Pignati and Conchetta must have shared together. They must have prepared meals together. Lorraine has heard that good food makes good conversation, and she figures this is why she and Lorraine’s mother don’t get along—all they eat is canned soup and instant coffee.
Each time the teens return home, they immediately compare the happiness and connection they felt at Mr. Pignati’s house to the lack of happiness and connection they feel at home. Their parents are failing them, even if they don’t mean to.
Themes
The next morning, Lorraine’s mother grumbles about her current patient, an old man who’s dying but is pretty handsy. Lorraine offers to make her mother eggs, but Lorraine’s mother says she’ll just eat at the patient’s house—the man’s wife is being extra nice to her, since it’s been hard to keep a nurse around for long. Before leaving, Lorraine’s mother tells her to clean the floor and not to open the door for anyone.
It's unclear whether the old man really is trying to touch Lorraine’s mother inappropriately or if she’s projecting her broader mistrust of men onto her patient. Either way, she seems not to notice or care how her talking about this sensitive subject might affect her young daughter.
Themes
Lorraine watches Lorraine’s mother waiting at the bus stop and thinks about how hard her mother has said it is to be a nurse—how you get varicose veins from being on your feet all day. Looking at her mother now, Lorraine can see how hard her mother’s life is, and it’s easy to feel sorry for her. Still, Lorraine’s mother picks on her all the time, and Lorraine often cries herself to sleep. But lately, she’s been thinking about the Pigman, and it makes her feel better. Lorraine wishes her mom knew how to have fun like him.
It's especially impressive that as a young person—and someone who has endured so much of her mother’s cruelty—Lorraine is able to set aside her feelings of hurt and empathize with her mother’s difficult life. But while Lorraine can understand her mother’s behavior on an intellectual level, it still hurts her. This is why she thinks about the Pigman so often—he gives her the comforting, stable environment that her mother fails to provide.
Themes
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Lorraine does some work around the house and then meets the Pigman and John at the Staten Island ferryhouse, where the Pigman said he’d meet them after he went to the zoo to feed Bobo. John loves the ferryhouse, as it’s full of homeless people. John makes them tell their whole life story before he gives them a nickel. Once, they met a homeless man who said people called him Dixie, because he was from the south. He said he used to be a college professor but then took LSD and “lost his power of concentration,” and that ended his career. Lorraine felt inspired to write a story about the man, but John said not to bother—the same man had come up to him another time and said his name was “Confederate” and told a totally different story.
The novel’s treatment of the homeless man is rather unsympathetic (the book disparagingly refers to the man as a “bum”). It seems to portray Lorraine’s instinctual compassion for the man as naïve or foolish, perhaps suggesting that the man is crazy or scheming and therefore undeserving of Lorraine’s compassion. Again, The Pigman is a relatively old young adult novel, and contemporary readers may find that some parts of it haven’t aged well, this scene being one of them.
Themes
Mr. Pignati arrives, and he, John, and Lorraine catch the 11:45 ferry to Manhattan. Lorraine decided she had to go on this trip to Beekman’s because if she didn’t, John would charge half the store. It’s not that John would do this to be mean, it’s just that he’s not used to people giving him stuff the way Mr. Pignati does. The ferry docks, and the three of them walk to Beekman’s. On the way there, Lorraine sees another woman: a woman talking to herself about God, and how God told her “death is coming.” Lorraine thinks it’s funny that now, talking to God makes people think you’re crazy—but before, they’d call you a prophet.
Lorraine claims that she only went on this trip to make sure that John didn’t spend too much of Mr. Pignati’s money, but it could also be that she feels guilty about wanting to go on the trip and so has made up this excuse about monitoring John to assuage her guilt. John is the more overtly selfish, irresponsible one of the book’s two main characters, but Lorraine too evades personal responsibility, albeit in more subtle ways. The woman talking to God about how “death is coming” gives this otherwise cheerful outing an ominous backdrop.
Themes
Lorraine, John, and Mr. Pignati arrive at Beekman’s and go to the fancy-food section. Mr. Pignati happily tells the teens they’ve got to try the frogs’ legs with ricotta cheese, and Lorraine wants to vomit. He gets some bean soup, bamboo shoots, and other things that Lorraine finds disgusting. John, ever trying to be zany, picks out a carton of tiger milk and some chocolate-covered ants. Mr. Pignati is more than happy to pay. Lorraine looks at a can of Love’n Nuts and a box of Jamboree Juicy Jellies. Mr. Pignati, noticing, grabs the packages and places them in his cart. Lorraine insists that he doesn’t have to spend money on them, but Mr. Pignati brushes this off. Lorraine feels uncomfortable; nobody has ever bought her stuff she wants before.
John is far more comfortable accepting Mr. Pignati’s gifts than Lorraine, but it’s clear that both kids relish the opportunity to have an adult be nice to them and listen to their wants and needs; they don’t get that from their own parents. Mr. Pignati, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to mind spending money if it means he can spend time with other people. Though Mr. Pignati and John and Lorraine come from different walks of life, they share a desire for human connection and friendship.
Themes
As they pass through the women’s underwear section to get to the toy section, a saleswoman mistakenly calls Lorraine Mr. Pignati’s daughter. Lorraine quickly corrects her, then when Mr. Pignati’s face falls, Lorraine stammers that she’s actually Mr. Pignati’s niece, which seems to cheer him up. The woman asks if she’s interested in some nylon stockings. Lorraine tries to say no, but Mr. Pignati insists. Finally, Lorraine says yes and asks for a pair that’s clearly too big for her. Lorraine wonders what lie she’ll make up when Lorraine’s mother asks how Lorraine managed to buy her the stockings.
Lorraine’s quickness to correct herself by pretending to be Mr. Pignati’s relative shows her sensitivity to others’ feelings, to the point that she’s willing to lie to cheer up the old man. Lorraine’s choice to buy a larger size of nylons suggests that she’s getting them in her mother’s size, further demonstrating the compassion for others that defines Lorraine’s character.
Themes
After they check out the toy department, Mr. Pignati asks if they can go to the pet shop. John groans, but Lorraine says yes. There, they find a tank full of piranhas and a cage of monkeys. “My little Bobo,” Mr. Pignati says to one of the monkeys. The three monkeys look terrified and cling tightly to one another. Watching them makes Lorraine smile. They look so lonely. John suggests Lorraine offer them some of her snacks. She agrees, and John hands some of the nuts to Mr. Pignati. But then a “nasty floorwalker” yells at them not to feed the monkeys. When John asks why, the floorwalker says, “Because I told you not to, that’s why.” Lorraine knows that John hates this—instead of giving a real explanation, the man just wanted to boss a kid around.
This passage further illustrates John’s and Lorraine’s opposite personalities. John is selfish and audibly unenthusiastic to do anything that Mr. Pignati wants to do that doesn’t benefit John personally. Lorraine, meanwhile, feels grateful to Mr. Pignati for all he’s done for her and John and feels obligated to let him pick the next place they browse. This scene also offers an additional example of John’s lack of personal responsibility: he seems to think the floorwalker owes him a sophisticated explanation for yelling at him, completely ignoring the fact that he was in the wrong when he fed the monkeys snacks.
Themes
They go to the sports department next. There, Mr. Pignati buys roller skates for the three of them, explaining to the teens that he used to love roller skating when he was younger. Lorraine wants to tell the old man not to waste his money, but she decides it’s better to let him have fun if he wants. John tells the salesman that they’ll all wear their skates out—even though they’re on the fifth floor. Lorraine tries to protest, calling him “crazy.” The minute she says it, she can tell that if she doesn’t go along with John’s plan, he’ll be disappointed—that she goes along with his crazy antics is the thing he likes best about her. So Lorraine sighs and agrees to wear her skates out of the store. As the three of them skate out together, Lorraine imagines they look like three silly monkeys.
This is another scene that hasn’t aged all that well. This subtle interaction between John and Lorraine is a bit more troubling than the book makes it out to be—it basically suggests that John and Lorraine’s entire friendship is based on Lorraine doing whatever John wants, even if it makes her uncomfortable. Healthy friendships have foundations of mutual respect—they don’t fall apart the minute one friend fails to tend to the other friend’s every need. With that being said, the final image of John, Lorraine, and Mr. Pignati is highly significant. It mirrors the earlier scene where they all howled like baboons together and shows the reader that the friendship between Mr. Pignati and the teens is continuing to deepen the more they bond over shared, happy experiences.
Themes
The chapter transitions into a letter written to an advice column called Dear Alice. The writer, a mother, explains that she’s worried about her young son who loves playing with a doll she bought him for Christmas. The woman’s husband hates it, and other adults have been making mean comments about it too—but the woman sees nothing wrong with it. Why can a little girl play “Cowboys and Indians” and people laugh and say she’s a “tomboy,” but when a little boy plays with a doll people “say he’s queer?” asks the woman.
Modern readers may find that this is another scene that hasn’t aged all that well, for a number of reasons. Anybody can play with dolls—they’re inanimate, un-gendered playthings; calling someone gay (“queer”) shouldn’t be an insult; and the game of “Cowboys and Indians” has its roots in an often racist, colonial mythology of the American West. With all that being said, this scene also gestures toward the theme of families misunderstanding and potentially harming their children.
Themes
