Death and Grief
The Pigman is told from the perspective of high school sophomores Lorraine Jensen and John Conlan. The book takes the form of a confession in which John and Lorraine look back on their experience getting to know an old man named Mr. Pignati and examine how a series of selfish, unthinking decisions they made contributed to his recent death. From the start, then, the book establishes death as one of its core ideas, and…
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Personal Responsibility
Though high school sophomores John and Lorraine might feel that the adults in their life underestimate and talk down to them due to their age, the reality is that they have a lot of growing up to do—in particular, learning to take responsibility for how their actions affect themselves and other people. In fact, The Pigman frames a strong sense of personal responsibility as the defining mark of maturity. At the beginning of the story…
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Family
Though Lorraine Jensen and John Conlan are quite different in most regards, they do have one major thing in common: they both come from dysfunctional families that don’t provide them the love, comfort, and support they need to flourish. John’s father (Bore) is recovering from alcoholism and constantly criticizes John, often comparing him to John’s successful older brother, Kenneth. John’s mother, meanwhile (the Old Lady), is a nervous, timid woman who is obsessed…
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Loneliness
John and Lorraine are typical teenagers: they think nobody understands them, they detest the way adults talk down to them, they feel alienated from their peers, and they’re often consumed with intense feelings of uncertainty, sadness, and loneliness. In fact, until Mr. Pignati enters their lives, they are each other’s only real friend. But the novel suggests that loneliness isn’t unique to adolescence; to the contrary, it portrays loneliness as a fundamental part of the…
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Compassion
In the first chapter that Lorraine narrates, she observes that what most sets her apart from her best friend, John, is that she “ha[s] compassion.” Indeed, at the beginning of The Pigman, John is virtually devoid of compassion. For instance, he mocks Miss Reillen, the school librarian, for being overweight (at least in John’s opinion) and wearing tight skirts. Lorraine, meanwhile, makes up for the compassion that John lacks. Though she admits…
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