HyoJi’s Writing Assignments – The Pigman

Interpretation Explain how Paul Zindel's using both Lorraine and John as the narrators affects our understanding of the events in The Pigman. John and Lorraine narrate alternate chapters, and I was able to understand how each character felt about certain events. As I got both of their perspectives, I could have better understandings of the events. In addition, it was narrated as the first person point of view, the feelings of John and Lorraine were very delicate. This also helped me understand more about the events in The Pigman. Where is the climax of the story? The climax of the story occurred when Mr. Pignati found John and Lorraine had a crazy party in his house. When the Pigmansaw that oscilloscope and pig figures were broken, he fainted from shock. This developed his heart disease and worked as one significant factor that made him die of heart attack. In addition, the party changed the Pigman’s feeling on John and Lorraine. He had thought them as his true friends but he felt that they betrayed him. This is because John and Lorraine didn’t handle the party and finally destroyed his valuable things. Furthermore, the party developed John and Lorraine’s conflicts between their parents. As police accused them of trespassing the house, Lorraine’s mom realized that Lorraine lied to her. John’s father got to think John as a troublemaker. Therefore, the climax of the story was the part that the Pigman arrived at home and found the crazy party.

Critical Characterize Paul Zindel's style of writing. How does it contribute to the value of the novel? In The Pigman, Paul Zindel used simple sentences. This would help readers clearly understand what events occurred and how characters reacted to the events. In addition, there are many conversations in the book. This created humorous atmosphere in the book, and therefore, readers could feel interesting to read the book. Compare and Contrast John and Lorraine. John and Lorraine shared similarities and differences. Both John and Lorraine got flaws from their poor family life. John’s father is an alcoholic, and he always humiliated John by comparing him with his older brother. John therefore became a heavy drinker and heavy smoker thata fifteen boy should not do. Lorraine’s mother pathologically concerned and suspected of Lorraine’s activities. Lorraine thus had paranoia. In addition, John and Lorraine had specific dreams that were fit to them. John wanted to

be an actor and he was good looking. Lorraine would like to be a writer and she was good at observations. However, Lorraine was compassionate while John was not. When they lied to the Pigman and got 10 dollars, Lorraine had compassion for old Mr. Piganti and tried to give 10 dollars back to him. In contrast, John was indifferent to the old man and even used 10 dollars to drink beers. Furthermore, John was suitable for the leader while Lorraine was not.John had a good look, intelligence and charms that could attract people. However, Lorraine was just a normal girl who was not exactly beautiful and smart.

Critical/Personal Response What faults in our society does Paul Zindel point out in The Pigman? In The Pigman, the author pointed out two faults in our society: lies and alcohol. First of all, most of character lied in the book. John and Lorraine not only lied to their parents, but also deceives Mr. Pignati and took10 dollars from him. However, Mr. Pignati’s lie was different from above wrong lies. Mr. Pignati lied to John and Lorraine that his wife was travelling. This was because he didn’t want to remind himself that his wife was dead. Therefore, I considered that the author wanted to tell that lying isn’t always wrong: lying can serve as a form of self-protection or self-preservation. Moreover, teenagers drank alcohol and smoke in the book. John tried to escape from the school, responsibilities and family by drinking and smoking. His father could influence to this as well. John had seen that his father drank and actually his father encouraged him to drink when John was 10 years old. From this fact, I think the author wanted to say that adults should supervise teenagers well so they could go to right track of the life. If you had to pick one thing John and Lorraine really shouldn't have done, which one would you pick? What one thing was their biggest mistake? I thought John and Lorraine should not take Mr. Pignati to the zoo at the end of the book. When he found that Bobo died, he fainted from shock and died.Their biggest mistake was that they ignored Mr. Pignati’s condition. He firstly said that he didn’t want to go because he didn’t relieve from heart disease perfectly. However, John and Lorraine mentioned Bobo to go to the zoo with him. If his condition was good, he could be alive whether he fainted from shock.

Personal Response Did you enjoy reading The Pigman? Why or why not?

I didn’t enjoy reading The Pigman because there were too many coincidences in the plot. John and Lorraine could meet Mr. Pignati in the real life because they lived near his house. At the end of the book, Bobo was died just after the Pigman suffered from heart disease. Even John and Lorraine took him to the zoo after Bobo died.Because of these artificial coincidences in the book, I couldn’t focus on reading. I felt hard to stick with the plot because the plot didn’t come to my mind. Why do some people make crank phone calls? There is a thrill in the crank phone calls while deceiving strange people. If a person pretends to be a charity group like John and Lorraine did in the book, strange people will not suspect and keep talking to the phone. It can be very funny to look people are deceived. In addition, we deceive strange people so we don’t need to worry about punishment unless they trace back.