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Chapter 2
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
John narrates this chapter. John confirms Lorraine’s observation that he is quite handsome—but it doesn’t let him off the hook, except maybe with Miss King, the “old maid” English teacher who always laughs at him and calls him “a card.” John likes that the Pigman doesn’t try to use modern slang to sound cool—he calls John and Lorraine “delightful.” Lorraine is always reading about “nutty people.” He’d almost forgotten about the paranoia article she showed him. The only part that stuck out to him was the story about the woman who hoarded towels, sheets, English muffins, and bathrooms. In their friendship, “Lorraine remembers the big words, and [John] remembers the action.” This makes sense, since John’s going to be an actor and Lorraine’s going to be a writer.
Unlike Lorraine, who has internalized her mother’s criticism and believes that she’s ugly or at least plain, John enthusiastically confirms that he is just as handsome as Lorraine says he is. Further cementing their opposite personalities is John’s continued judgment of others. Here, he ridicules Miss King for using (what she thinks is) contemporary slang to try to connect with her students. But what most sticks out in this section is John’s more favorable assessment of the Pigman: he was capable of connecting with John and Lorraine, calling them “delightful,” without actually trying—something that few adults in their lives seem able to do.
Themes
John thinks Lorraine could be more confident—it’s crazy the way Lorraine’s mother makes it seem like Lorraine is an ugly monster. She has electric green eyes—or she did until Pigman died. John thinks Pigman’s death has something to do with Lorraine wanting to be a writer. He and Lorraine have both been a little off since, and they’re still trying to figure out why they did what they did.
Though John might be rather self-absorbed and inconsiderate of others’ feelings, he clearly does seem to have a soft spot for Lorraine and cares about her, as demonstrated by the compliments he pays her in this section. This passage also gives insight into the profound effect that the Pigman’s death had on Lorraine and John, though it’s not yet clear when he died or how (or even if) John and Lorraine were involved in the death.
Themes
Everything began when Lorraine, John, Dennis Jobin, and Norton Kelly were making prank phone calls last September. They began with simple gags but eventually created a game where the objective was to keep the person on the phone as long as possible. They’d pretend they were calling on behalf of a game show and claimed that the person had won a prize. Dennis lasted the longest, since he happened to dial an old woman who was lonely and just wanted someone to talk to. He made up some horrific story about asking for advice about a rat-transmitted skin disease he was dying from—and kept the woman on the line for over two hours.
Though the teens are calling strangers as part of a prank, the communicative aspect of the game—talking to another person, however inane the conversation may be—speaks to their inner (and perhaps unrealized) desire to connect with others.
Themes
Even though Lorraine blames a lot of things on John, she can’t blame Pigman’s death on him. He would’ve died anyway, and “you can’t really say they murdered him.” And it was Lorraine who picked out the Pigman’s number to call anyway.
John’s attempt to blame the Pigman’s death on Lorraine for something as innocuous as dialing a telephone number (which apparently set off a train of events that eventually ended with the Pigman’s death) is flimsy at best, and it shows how immature and unwilling to accept personal responsibility John is at this early point in the story.
Themes
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