The Pigman

The chapter begins with a letter from the Dear Alice column in the newspaper. A woman writes asking for advice about her five-year-old son who likes to play with dolls. She sees nothing wrong with it, but it makes her husband angry. The woman laments the double standard over what type of toys children can choose based on gender roles and expectations. John cut out the letter because it reminds him of Norton. He wants to explain more about Norton since he will be important later in the story. Norton played with dolls when he was younger, but when kids made fun of him, he went crazy and adopted a hyper-masculine persona, bullying others and stealing from his family and businesses around town. John dislikes him and thinks Norton could one day become a murderer.

One month after John and Lorraine begin visiting Mr. Pignati, Norton invites John to have a drink at the cemetery. He asks why they are spending so much time with the old man and wants to know if there is anything in the house worth stealing. John explains that he is a nice man, and there is nothing of any value in the house except tools and electronics. Hearing this, Norton perks up and says he could sell some of it to the guy who buys his shoplifted items. When John refuses to give any more info, Norton calls Lorraine a name, and John defends her. Not afraid of the bully, John stands up prepared to fight and calls Norton by his hated nickname, “Marshmallow Kid.” Norton backs down, but as John leaves, he threatens to visit Mr. Pignati.

John thinks about when and why he began drinking. When he was younger, and his father still drank, John finished what was left in the beer glass, and his father thought it was funny. Struggling to find his place in the family since he did not feel like he measured up to his brother Kenny, John kept up the performance to get attention. When his father stopped drinking, John continued. He sees his parents as old and tired and his presence in the house as an annoyance to them. Conversely, when he is with Mr. Pignati, he feels welcome and at home. John vows that if Norton does anything to harm the Pigman, he will kill him.

By Christmas, Lorraine and John are visiting Mr. Pignati every day. Lorraine continues lying to her mother, telling her she is at Latin Club. Her mom is suspicious and tells her she doesn’t want her riding home with other people. In the evening, Lorraine’s mother brings her dinner but tells her she must iron her uniform for tomorrow before she can eat. Lorraine explains her mother’s distrust of men stems from what happened with her father. He was unfaithful, contracted a sexually transmitted disease and passed it to Lorraine’s mother. Her parents were high school sweethearts who seemed like the perfect couple, and their tragic ending makes her sad. Lorraine’s mother is grateful for the stockings but suspicious about where she got the money. When Lorraine tells her she used her bus money and skipped lunch, her mom becomes angry, saying, “It doesn’t look right for a girl to be walking along the streets” (88).

Lorraine meets John at Mr. Pignati’s house nightly, and they have started bringing their own drinks and snacks. One night in January, Lorraine notices Mr. Pignati is sad and pale. He tells them that Bobo would not eat the chocolate bar he brought him that day because he is getting old. Lorraine shudders, suddenly remembering the lady at the subway proclaiming that death is coming. Lorraine tries to lighten the mood by serving candy and decides it is time to tell Mr. Pignati the truth. She and John reveal they are not charity workers but high school students who pulled a prank. They explain that they regret the prank but are very glad they met him. Mr. Pignati turns his head and stares at the wall. Finally, sobbing, he exclaims that his wife is dead and they loved each other very much: “He tried to cover his eyes and turn his head so we wouldn’t have to see him like that” (93). The two teens can only sit and helplessly watch him cry. Lorraine offers John another piece of candy, and when she tells him it is a chocolate-covered ant, he runs to the kitchen to spit it out. Mr. Pignati laughs and suggests they play a game called “Assassin.” He tells them a story that involves a wife, husband, lover, boatman, and assassin. In the story, the wife dies, and he asks them to list in order which is responsible for her death. The list is a psychological test to see what a person values most out of magic, fun, sex, love, and money. John’s answers show his order is magic, sex, money, fun, and love, and Lorraine’s are magic, love, fun, sex, and money. She thinks both lists are accurate to their personalities.

After the game, John decides to roller skate in the house. At first, they have fun, but Lorraine worries that with limited space in the house, they might crash into something and get hurt, but John ramps up the fun by turning it into a game of tag. Mr. Pignati chases John up the stairs on his skates but suddenly grabs his heart and falls to the bottom of the stairs.

John calls the police, and an ambulance takes Mr. Pignati to the hospital. John and Lorraine tell the police that they are his children, and John rattles off a string of lies, amazed at how gullible they are. Lorraine blames John for Mr. Pignati’s heart attack, claiming he should not have let him chase him up the stairs. John tries to calm her fears, though internally, he admits the scene rattled him and wishes he could have a drink. The next day, John and Lorraine skip school to visit Mr. Pignati in the hospital, bringing him flowers they stole from the cemetery. He looks better than he did the previous day and is happy to see them. He tells them to keep the keys to his house and help themselves to snacks. Mr. Pignati worries about Bobo and asks John and Lorraine to stop by the zoo and check on him. Anxious to get out of the hospital, John and Lorraine promise to visit Bobo and take him his favorite snacks. They return to Mr. Pignati’s house, and Lorraine makes spaghetti. While she cooks, John goes upstairs, puts on one of Mr. Pignati’s suits, and draws on a mustache. When he comes downstairs, Lorraine tells him he looks great, and Lorraine then rushes upstairs and returns wearing one of Conchetta’s revealing dresses. John tells her she is beautiful and chases her back upstairs. They pretend he is a wealthy businessman and she is his love interest, and as they laugh, John throws Lorraine on the bed and kisses her despite her protests: “When I moved my lips away from hers, we just looked at each other, and somehow we were not acting anymore” (110). They return downstairs to eat dinner and toast the Pigman.

Lorraine is at home with her mother, who complains about her latest nursing job caring for a terminal cancer patient. The woman’s husband is making inappropriate sexual advances, but she has made it clear she is not interested. At school, Lorraine notices John is wearing a clean shirt and has started combing his hair. She still thinks about how they looked at each other over the candlelight when they dressed up at Mr. Pignati’s house. Since then, John has acted awkwardly around her, and they often argue like adults, but Lorraine secretly loves it. Using a pay phone inside the school, Lorraine calls the hospital to check on Mr. Pignati, and the nurse tells her he will not be home until Saturday at the earliest.

Lorrain begins cooking dinner regularly for John at Mr. Pignati’s home, though it is mostly TV dinners. They have decided to clean up the house before he returns home. However, due to spending so much time there, both are falling behind on their school assignments. One day, they decide to skip school, and Lorraine cooks breakfast for John, but they end up arguing because Lorraine burned the toast and John does not like her coffee. After another argument over taking out the trash, John rounds up all the beer in the house and announces he is having a few friends over on Friday night. Lorraine thinks this is a bad idea since she has experienced another bad omen, a nightmare where she was trapped in the pig room with a casket. Lorraine does not tell John about the nightmare but calls him insane for thinking of hosting a party.

John does not see a problem with having friends over and thinks Mr. Pignati would approve. He invites Dennis because he can steal alcohol from his house; however, he is careful to make sure Norton is not invited. Lorraine, who has lied to her mother about her whereabouts, is hesitant about eating Mr. Pignati’s food but decides to put out all the strange snacks they purchased at Beekman’s, like the chocolate-covered ants. John starts running through the list of invitees and explains that each person has a fault. He lists certain weaknesses about each person, some dealing with their physical appearance and others relating to what he sees as personality flaws. John explains that some guests invited others, so the guest list has swelled to 40 people. When the band shows up, the party intensifies as the inebriated teens begin to dance and sing loudly, and Lorraine is worried the nuns across the street will notice the noisy party. She mills about serving snacks and watches as the party quickly grows out of hand, but John does not respond to her worries and enjoys getting drunk. He claims not much damage is done despite a few spilled drinks, cigarette burns, and a broken lamp. Someone brings out the roller skates. Several girls go upstairs and raid Conchetta’s closet. Lorraine joins in and wears the same dress she wore when kissing John. Lorraine gets jealous when she realizes John allowed one of the other girls to wear her roller skates.

When Norton arrives, angry that he was not invited, things take a turn. John tries to assuage him with small talk, but it is clear he is there with a vendetta. John notices Norton has disappeared and finds him upstairs stealing some of the Pigman’s electronics. They begin to fight, but John, still wearing roller skates, easily falls, leaving him vulnerable to a gut punch from Norton. Just as Norton is escaping, Lorraine yells that a cab has arrived outside and Mr. Pignati is walking up the steps. John races after Norton, whom he finds in the pig room smashing all the figurines. They fight, and Norton ends up on the floor with a bloody nose. Mr. Pignati opens the door and stares at the scene just as John blacks out.

Police officers take Lorraine and John home, though John is still passed out drunk. Lorraine begs them not to take her home, claiming her mother will beat her. When she asks about Mr. Pignati, the officer tells her he is upstairs crying. Lorraine, still wearing Conchetta’s white dress, is terrified of what will happen when her mother sees her. The police officers tell Lorraine’s mother about the party, but she is angrier about how Lorraine is dressed. Lorraine is too ashamed to answer when her mother asks about her clothes; after she doesn’t respond, her mother slaps her on the face. After washing her face and changing her clothes, Lorraine prepares for the confrontation: “A moment later she was in the doorway, looking at me, the expression on her face somewhere between disbelief and disgust” (132). Lorraine’s mother slaps her face again, calling her a liar, and when Lorraine pleads that she did not intend to lie, her mother breaks down into tears. Thinking about all the times she has seen her mother secretly crying, Lorraine feels empathy for her, but she does not feel her mom deserves her forgiveness. Lorraine feels guilty about hurting Mr. Pignati. After they calm down, Lorraine explains the situation with Mr. Pignati, relieved now that the truth is out. Before ending the conversation, Lorraine’s mother asks if Mr. Pignati ever tried to sexually assault Lorraine, and she assures her that he did not. Later, Lorraine cannot sleep because she feels so guilty over what happened to Mr. Pignati’s house.

John and Lorraine meet the next morning, and he tells her his parents barely noticed that the police brought him home drunk, but they do want him to see a psychologist. John calls Mr. Pignati to apologize, but it is clear he does not want to talk to them. John offers to clean the house, but Mr. Pignati refuses; however, when he asks if they can meet him at the zoo to feed Bobo, Mr. Pignati agrees. Lorraine is sad to see how thin and sick Mr. Pignati looks, and she is ashamed to see how quickly he has forgiven them. When they arrive at the primate house, Lorraine can sense something is off as there is no sign of Bobo. They ask a zookeeper cleaning the enclosure about Bobo, and he tells them the baboon died from pneumonia last week. Mr. Pignati cries out Bobo’s name and collapses dead on the ground.

John yells for someone to call an ambulance and tells Lorraine to run away. For a moment, he is alone with Mr. Pignati’s body in the monkey house. John already knows he is dead, but he checks for a pulse and whispers in Mr. Pignati’s ear, “Did you have to die?” (144). John sits and contemplates his relationship with Lorraine. He thinks she does not truly understand him or realize that he cares about many things. He especially cared for Mr. Pignati and felt sorry for someone that had been forgotten by society for simply growing old. John thinks that despite what happened, he and Lorraine brought some joy to the old man’s life. As he sits, he contemplates his mortality, the critical words of his parents ringing in his ears, and wonders if all humans are just like monkeys in cages, waiting for someone to feed them peanuts. John had never been bothered by the sight of a corpse before but looking at Mr. Pignati’s dead body makes him shudder, and he feels like he is living a nightmare. He wonders why Lorraine worries so much about him smoking cigarettes when he is going to die anyway. John thinks he would rather die than be miserable like the adults in his life.

Once the ambulance takes away Mr. Pignati’s body, John walks out into the zoo to find Lorraine. She yells at him that they murdered the Pigman, but John does not respond. He thinks that, ultimately, it was the Pigman’s fault for hanging out with children. However, he admits to himself that they had also interfered with Mr. Pignati’s life, and guilt and sorrow are their punishment. John and Lorraine made their choices, and only they are to blame for the consequences. Lorraine bursts into tears, and John takes her hand and leads her out of the zoo.