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The Oath
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Pigman, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Death and Grief
Personal Responsibility
Family
Loneliness
Compassion
Summary
Analysis
The narrator (John) isn’t a big fan of school—actually, he doesn’t like much of anything—and this may explain why he got to know “this old guy we nicknamed the Pigman.” John used to hate school so much that he would “set off bombs” in the school bathrooms, earning him the name “the Bathroom Bomber.” He made the “bombs” out of firecrackers with clay molded around them and candles for fuses—they took about eight minutes to go off, so he’d never get caught. Plus, the Dean would usually blame it on the kids who’d go into the bathroom to sneak cigarettes.
From the start, this narrator (who is soon revealed to be John Conlan) seems like a typical high school student; he claims to hate everything and acts out as a result. And despite the maturity he and Lorraine displayed earlier in their vow to tell the whole truth about whatever happened between themselves and Mr. Pignati, this section reveals that John is still rather immature, causing trouble and then blaming others for his actions.
Themes
The narrator (John) was behind other pranks, too, like orchestrating a “supercolossal fruit roll,” where kids would roll old apples and oranges down the classroom floor to mess with a substitute teacher. The only time a fruit roll failed was when a retired postman was teaching science class—the man seemed so happy talking about his career at the P.O. that the narrator didn’t have the heart to prank him. Anyway, the narrator’s pranking days are behind him now that he’s a sophomore; the worst thing he does these days is write on desks—which he does now. (The book features a messy, handwritten message that reads: “HELP ME!!! A rotten science teacher has given me a drug to change me into a teeny weeny mosquito,” with the text getting smaller and more illegible as the message gets further along.)
John’s goofy mosquito message shows his present lack of maturity. Still, though for the most part John seems rather self-involved and immature at this point in the story, his choice not to go through with the “supercolossal fruit roll” suggests that he’s capable of some degree of empathy. It seems that hearing the retired postman talk so passionately about his career at the P.O. instilled some compassion in John for the old man, and so he chose to call off the prank and just let the man be.
Themes
With that out of the way, the narrator (John) explains, now it’s time to curse—something Lorraine has begrudgingly allowed, so long as the narrator censors his swearing with “@#$%.” He’s okay with this, because the mysteriousness of this message makes it almost better than writing out an actual curse word.
John’s need to swear—or at least mystify people—suggests an underlying restlessness and need to get others’ attention. It’s a bit of a stretch at this point, knowing so little about John, but it’s possible that he’s not getting the healthy sort of attention and support he needs elsewhere (from his parents, for instance), and so he acts out, swearing and intimidating people, to get the attention he craves.
Themes
Next, the narrator (John) explains why he calls Miss Reillen the Cricket. She’s a little plump but wears tight skirts anyway, and so her nylons rub together when she walks, making a chirping sound. The narrator ends things here, so he can give Lorraine her turn at the typewriter before she has a heart attack.
Though John has thus far demonstrated a slight capacity for compassion, this passage shows that he is more often cruel and critical of others, seemingly for no reason other than for his own amusement.
Themes
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