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The Pigman
Published 1968

I  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul Zindel was born on May 15, 1936, in Staten Island, New York. When Zindel was very young, his father abandoned him, his mother, and his sister, reducing his family to poverty. Frequent moves throughout the ethnic neighborhoods of Staten Island made Zindel and his family perpetual outsiders. Furthering the anguish caused by these dislocations, Zindel was diagnosed for tuberculosis at age fifteen and spent a year and a half in a sanatorium called Stony Wold. Despite these setbacks, Zindel managed to graduated from Port Richmond High School only one year late, and he went on to Wagner College in New York, where he graduated with a chemistry degree in 1958.

Zindel worked for a short time as a technical writer before he returned to Wagner, earning a master of science degree. He taught chemistry at a Staten Island high school from 1959 to 1969. Even before Zindel graduated from college, he began to write for the theater; his early work was promising enough to earn him a Ford Foundation grant to sharpen his talent at Houston's Alley Theatre.

Zindel's play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds won immense commercial and critical success—an Obie for best off-Broadway play (1970), a Pulitzer Prize for drama, a New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best American play (1969-1970), and a Drama Disk Award (1971). Although Zindel regards himself primarily as a playwright and screenwriter, he is a critically and commercially successful young adult writer as well. His marriage on October 25, 1973, and the birth of two children have provided Zindel with a collaborator and fresh material for years to come.

Zindel's fiction seems to reflect his difficult childhood and adolescent experiences, particularly his father's abandonment. Parents and teachers in Zindel's novels generally appear hostile, although adult women are portrayed more sympathetically than adult men. Sympathetic adult male characters such as the Pigman are rare in Zindel's work. The author's novels usually feature adolescents recovering self-love by questioning those people—parents, peers, teachers—who make them doubt themselves. Ultimately the protagonists defend themselves by cauterizing their wounds from rejection and seeking solace elsewhere. For twenty years, adolescents have responded favorably to Zindel's work.

II  OVERVIEW

Zindel's novels, with their mixture of humor, romance, and realism, frequently appeal to young readers. Many adolescents can empathize with John's struggle with his elderly parents and Lorraine's conflict with her twisted mother in The Pigman. The rich artistry of Zindel's best fiction helps train young readers for the complexities of authors such as Joseph Conrad and William Faulkner, and Zindel's self-generated symbol system prepares the way for the fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and other complex symbolic novels. The Pigman thus provides a great bridge to more demanding reading experiences.

III  SETTING

The Pigman takes place in New York City, on Staten Island. John's father works for the Stock Exchange, and his family seems comfortably well off, but Lorraine and her mother live near the poverty level. Mr. Pignati, a retired electrician, can afford to take John and Lorraine on a buying spree, but his house is in disrepair. Little in the novel determines the exact time of the action, but it seems to take place during the early or mid-1960s. Franklin High School, the Baron Park Zoo, the Moravian Cemetery, Beekman's Department Store, and the homes of the major characters in the novel provide sites for the action.

IV  THEMES AND CHARACTERS

John Conlan's father and mother, whom he has dubbed Bore and Hyper respectively, are more than forty years older than John. His mother is a compulsive cleaner, while his father, a former alcoholic with heart trouble, wants John to join him and John's older brother Ken at the Exchange. The Conlans appear worn out as parents and irritated by John's youthful imagination, and they wish he were grown up and out of the house. John, meanwhile, does his best to justify this irritation. John's ambition to become an actor does not meet with his parents' approval, and his flamboyance contrasts with his parents' conformity.

Lorraine Jensen's mother, a nurse who specializes in the care of dying cancer patients, steals from the families she helps and has a morbid fear of men, probably because her former husband abandoned her several years earlier. Lorraine's insecurities stem from Mrs. Jensen's constant nagging and devastating remarks about Lorraine's appearance. Lorraine's interest in writing and psychology arises from an attempt to understand her mother and her own situation.

Norton Kelly, another important character, is John and Lorraine's age. He enjoys thievery and inflicting cruelty on others, probably because he feels rejected himself. Norton and John are both outsiders, but they hate each other. Norton wants to steal from Mr. Pignati and hopes to use John as an informer against the old man. Norton's anger over not being invited to the party at Mr. Pignati's house and his envy of John and Lorraine result in the destruction of Mr. Pignati's pig collection. This act, more than the other destruction caused by the party, damages John and Lorraine's relationship with Mr. Pignati, for Norton destroys the symbol of Mr. Pignati's love for his deceased wife.

Angelo Pignati, a retired widower, is at once a parent and a child to Lorraine and John. He enjoys their company as if he were their child and is eager to roller skate, play games, and tell jokes. At the same time, he substitutes as a parent, opening his home to Lorraine and John and giving them treats their parents deny them. More important, Mr. Pignati trusts them, and he forgives them after the disastrous party.

Mr. Pignati's dual role as parent and child suggests the idea of alienation between adults and children that John voices in his closing narration at the zoo. John realizes that people must choose between the role of parent or child, because the middle ground is extremely precarious. Mr. Pignati trespasses on the role of child and pays with his life; John and Lorraine trespass as well, sidestepping adult responsibility with their careless, childish actions. Thus the child in them dies with Mr. Pignati; they realize that they must assume blame for Mr. Pignati's death, and that it is no longer possible for them to deny responsibility for their own actions. The grim implication of this reality is that Lorraine, John, and Mr. Pignati's best moments occur when all are lying. Eventually, truths start to emerge, despite the characters' efforts to avoid them, and the consequences are all the more painful because these truths have been suppressed for so long.

V  LITERARY QUALITIES

Characterized by fast-paced, melodramatic action and realistic dialogue that tends toward hyperbolic wit, The Pigman cleverly alternates between John's and Lorraine's first-person points of view and develops a natural system of symbols. The narration recounts John and Lorraine's association with Mr. Pignati, who is already dead when their 'memorial epic' begins. Four perspectives actually exist in the novel: those of John and Lorraine, the characters who participate in the novel's events and who do not know what is going to happen; and those of John and Lorraine, the narrators who know about Mr. Pignati's death and speculate on its significance. These varied perspectives allow for dramatic irony because the narrators, and to some extent the reader, know what is going to happen, while the characters do not. Since John and Lorraine the narrators have realized that Mr. Pignati's death is the direct result of their actions, their narration gives the novel's tragic outcome the sense of inevitability that is a hallmark of a strong plot. The contrasts between John's and Lorraine's personalities also enhance the narrative: John, dramatic and flashy, describes action well, and Lorraine, intuitive and analytical, ably assesses its significance. Roles are ultimately reversed, however, when in the final chapter John articulates the significance of the novel. His interpretation is all the more powerful because it reveals an inner self that his vivacity usually hides.

Angelo Pignati serves as the symbolic core of the novel. His name suggests the duality of his personality. He is both pig and angel; his house is messy and cluttered, yet he provides security and warmth. He has chosen the unlikely symbol of a collection of pig figurines to express his love for his wife. The duality of his nature is also evident in his wavering between the roles of child and adult; in this sense, he represents adolescence. His death makes John and Lorraine realize that they cannot play both roles indefinitely, and that it is time for them to become adults.

VI  SOCIAL SENSITIVITY

The Pigman exhibits Zindel's typical negative portrayals of adults. John's parents and Lorraine's mother are uncaring and critical of their sixteen-year-old children. Authority figures and others who might be expected to be helpful—teachers, police officers, nurses—only serve to aggravate John and Lorraine's problems. Adolescents enjoy Zindel's caricatures, and many consider them realistic. Perhaps this anti-establishment attitude reflects a 1960s cultural influence, which encourages antagonism between adolescents and adults.

Despite its caricatures of adults and its pessimistic, melodramatic ending, The Pigman credits the hero and heroine for their mature attempt to determine whom they have injured and how to cover the liability. Following the death of Mr. Pignati, Lorraine and John must become their own parents; they must become adults.

VII  TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

1. What is unsatisfying about John's relationship with his parents and Lorraine's with her mother?
2. Lorraine seems more deeply attached to her mother than John does to his parents. What is the basis of Lorraine's relationship with her mother?
3. What do John and Lorraine find attractive about Mr. Pignati?
4. Norton Kelly and John hate each other even before Norton crashes John and Lorraine's party and destroys Mr. Pignati's pig figurines. Why? Why have they associated with each other previously?
5. Sometimes Mr. Pignati is described as a 'baby,' a 'child,' and a 'kid,' while at other times John and Lorraine describe themselves as the Pigman's children. Which, if either, is Mr. Pignati's true role, parent or child?
6. What causes Mr. Pignati's death? What is the significance of his life and death to Lorraine and John?

VIII  IDEAS FOR REPORTS AND PAPERS

1. Report on Zindel's use of symbols in The Pigman. Be sure to consider Mr. Pignati's pig collection and the animals at the zoo, particularly Bobo the baboon.
2. John and Lorraine sometimes narrate the same events. Determine what each tends to observe and judge, and the effect their judgments have on the reader.
3. Mrs. Jensen specializes in the care of the dying but steals from their families. She is abnormally afraid of sexual contact and her relationship to her deceased husband seems to reflect her entire character. Describe her character and explain the reasons for her behavior.
4. The Pigman features puzzles, quizzes, drawings, and newspaper clippings in its text. Determine their function in the novel.
5. Describe what John and Lorraine have learned from their friendship with the Pigman.

IX  RELATED TITLES AND ADAPTATIONS

Zindel wrote a screenplay adapting The Pigman to film. Although Brighton Productions never released the movie, Zindel regarded his screenplay as a success. Zindel's sequel, The Pigman's Legacy, proved less effective than his screenplay. John and Lorraine find another old person to exploit, and the whole plot of The Pigman repeats itself, negating John and Lorraine's development in The Pigman. Closer in spirit to The Pigman are some of Zindel's other novels, such as My Darling, My Hamburger, which explores the complicated and painful relationships among four high school seniors and their parents.

Contributed by: Craig Barrow

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Source: Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults. Copyright by Gale Group, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

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