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 that Miss Reillen’s skirts are perhaps a bit too tight, she acknowledges that Miss Reillen has a personal life that Lorraine and John have no way of knowing about and, as such, there might be some reason that she dresses the way she does—perhaps she’s putting all her resources toward caring for her sick mother and can’t afford clothes that fit her better. While Lorraine’s suggestions are purely speculative, they underscore one of the book’s central themes: people can—and often are—battling hardships that go unnoticed by outsiders.
Lorraine’s mother is often physically and emotionally abusive toward Lorraine. Over the course of the book, however, Lorraine gains a better understanding of how her mother’s personal struggles have contributed to her abusive behavior (though it must be stated that nothing justifies or excuses child abuse or abuse of any kind). Specifically, Lorraine comes to see how a lot of her mother’s cruel behavior and the criticism she directs at Lorraine are side effects of the stress and exhaustion of raising a child on her own on a meager nurse’s salary; indeed, Lorraine, on numerous occasions, notes how hard her mother works and how she’s sometimes caught her crying alone in the kitchen. Thus, while her mother’s behavior causes Lorraine undue hurt and suffering, Lorraine’s mother is herself suffering and so deserves support or, at the very least, compassion. Similarly, though John initially wants to hang out with Mr. Pignati as a way to get free food and other goodies, his attitude shifts as he and Lorraine get to know Mr. Pignati better. And when John learns how deeply Mr. Pignati’s wife Conchetta’s death has affected him, he realizes how important it is not to make assumptions about people. John and Lorraine’s friendship with Mr. Pignati thus reaffirms the importance of treating everyone with compassion and empathy, even people one thinks might not deserve or appreciate it, because one never knows what inner struggles people are dealing with.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Compassion ThemeTracker
Compassion Quotes in The Pigman
I should never have let John write the first chapter because he always has to twist things subliminally.
The one big difference between John and me, besides the fact that he’s a boy and I’m a girl, is I have compassion. Not that he really doesn’t have any compassion, but he’d be the last one on earth to show it. He pretends he doesn’t care about anything in the world, and he’s always ready with some outrageous remark, but if you ask me, any real hostility he has is directed against himself.
John told you about Dennis and Norton, but I don’t think he got across how really disturbed those two boys are. Norton has eyes like a mean mouse, and he’s the type of kid who thinks everyone’s trying to throw rusty beer cans at him. And he’s pretty big, even bigger than John, and the two of them hate each other.
Actually, Norton is a social outcast. He’s been a social outcast since his freshman year in high school when he got caught stealing a bag of marshmallows from the supermarket. He never recovered from that because they put his name in the newspaper and mentioned that the entire loot was a bag of marshmallows, and ever since then everybody calls him The Marshmallow Kid.
There was something about his voice that made me feel sorry for him, and I began to wish I had never bothered him. He just went on talking and talking, and the receiver started to hurt my ear. By this time Dennis and Norton had gone into the living room and started to watch TV, but right where they could keep an eye on timing the phone call. John stayed next to me, pushing his ear close to the receiver every once in awhile, and I could see the wheels in his head spinning.
“You’re ruining your lungs with that thing” was the first remark out of her mouth besides a cough from a misdirected puff from my cigarette. She sounds just like her mother when she says that.
“You never wanted to visit lonely people before, or is it that you only like lonely people who have ten dollars?”
“You think you’re the perfect headshrinker with all those psychology books you read, and you really don’t know a thing.”
“How long has she been gone?” Lorraine asked, trying to be kind, in that English accent of hers.
“She’s been out there about a month now.”
For a moment he looked as though he was going to cry, and then suddenly he changed the subject. Lorraine’s nervous radar was in full operation, and I could tell it made her sad to look at the old man.
The thing that made me stop going to the zoo a few years ago was the way one attendant fed the sea lions. He climbed up on the big diving platform in the middle of the pool and unimaginatively just dropped the fish into the water. I mean, if you’re going to feed sea lions, you’re not supposed to plop the food into the tank. You can tell by the expressions on their faces that the sea lions are saying things like
“Don’t dump the fish in!”
“Pick the fish up one by one and throw them into the air so we can chase after them.”
“Throw the fish in different parts of the tank!”
“Let’s have fun!”
“Make a game out of it!”
As I watched her I remembered all the times she said how hard it was to be a nurse—how bad it was for the legs, how painful the varicose veins were that nurses always got from being on their feet so much. I could see her standing under the street light… just standing there until the bus came. It was easy to feel sorry for her, to see how awful her life was—even to understand a little why she picked on me so. It hadn’t always been like that though.
Beware of men is what she’s really saying. They have dirty minds, and they’re only after one thing. Rapists are roaming the earth.
But now I understand her a little. I think the only man she really hates is my father—even though he’s dead.
I really did think Mr. Pignati would have wanted us to have a few friends over. Of course, he would have liked to be there so he wouldn’t feel he was missing anything. I knew how much he’d enjoy hearing about a party when he came home. He’d want to know every little detail, just like he asked about everything we did in school.
Several other broken pigs were laying all over the floor, and the only thing I could think of at that moment was the proud and happy look on Mr. Pignati’s face when he had shown us the pigs that first day.
Our life would be what we made of it—nothing more, nothing less.
