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 with ensuring that John doesn’t agitate his emotionally volatile father—and in the process, she often fails to address John’s needs. Lorraine, meanwhile, is raised by her single mother who works long hours as a home nurse to support Lorraine. Lorraine’s mother constantly criticizes Lorraine’s appearance and has convinced her that she’s overweight and unattractive—neither of which are true. She’s always warning Lorraine about the evils of men and boys—and threatening to punish Lorraine if she catches her “in a car, necking like a slut.” And if Lorraine does something her mother deems bad enough to warrant punishment, she beats her.
Growing up in unsupportive and sometimes unsafe environments affects John and Lorraine deeply, though they respond to their parents’ bad parenting in different ways; while Lorraine internalizes a lot of her pain and develops a low self-esteem, John engages in reckless behavior like drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes and acts out in school and at home. While the book hints that Lorraine and her mother might be capable of salvaging their relationship in the future, the book’s ending offers no definitive sense of closure for John or Lorraine, and it’s possible that they’ll continue to endure abuse, neglect, and a lack of support from their families. At the same time, both characters undergo significant personal growth over the course of the novel, despite coming from dysfunctional families. While The Pigman rather optimistically suggests that children from dysfunctional homes can persevere and grow despite their families’ failure to give them the love and support they need, the book also demonstrates the serious, lasting effects that parents’ failures can have on their children.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Family ThemeTracker
Family Quotes in The Pigman
I should never have let John write the first chapter because he always has to twist things subliminally.
Then I heard this “Uggauggaboo,” and I’ll be darned if it wasn’t Mr. Pignati starting in. And before you knew it, all three of us were going Uggauggaboo, and we had Bobo, two chimps, and the gorilla worked up into such a tizzy I thought the roof of the monkey house was going to fall in.
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.
I had become a disturbing influence, as they say. If I light up a cigarette, all my mother’s really worried about is that I’m going to burn a hole in the rug. If I want a beer, she’s worried I’m not going to rinse the glass out.
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.
“My father says I have to go to a psychiatrist.”
“He’ll forget about it in a day or two,” I reminded him.
“I know.”
