Previous
Angelo Pignati (“The Pigman”)
Lorraine’s mom is a home nurse. She has a hard life—her work doesn’t pay well and she struggles to raise a child as a single mother. But she takes her stress out on Lorraine, relentlessly criticizing her daughter’s behavior and appearance and even beating Lorraine on some occasions. (Note that while the book seems to portray Lorraine’s mother’s behavior as merely strict, modern audiences would likely—and justifiably—consider it abuse.) Lorraine’s father cheated on Lorraine’s mother when she was pregnant with Lorraine, leading to their separation. Because of this, Lorraine’s mother maintains a hatred of men, boys, and sexuality, and she tries to instill this hatred in Lorraine. Though Lorraine’s mother’s behavior and ideas hurt Lorraine, Lorraine maintains a degree of empathy toward her mother that only grows as the story progresses—she understands that her mother acts the way she does because she’s unhappy and has a hard life, not because of anything that Lorraine has done wrong. At the end of the novel, Lorraine and her mother seem to come to an understanding, though it’s left ambiguous whether they’ll be able to heal old wounds or whether their home life will continue to be unhealthy and unstable.
Lorraine’s Mom Quotes in The Pigman
The The Pigman quotes below are all either spoken by Lorraine’s Mom or refer to Lorraine’s Mom. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
The thing that made me stop going to the zoo a few years ago was the way one attendant fed the sea lions. He climbed up on the big diving platform in the middle of the pool and unimaginatively just dropped the fish into the water. I mean, if you’re going to feed sea lions, you’re not supposed to plop the food into the tank. You can tell by the expressions on their faces that the sea lions are saying things like
“Don’t dump the fish in!”
“Pick the fish up one by one and throw them into the air so we can chase after them.”
“Throw the fish in different parts of the tank!”
“Let’s have fun!”
“Make a game out of it!”
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8
Quotes
As I watched her I remembered all the times she said how hard it was to be a nurse—how bad it was for the legs, how painful the varicose veins were that nurses always got from being on their feet so much. I could see her standing under the street light… just standing there until the bus came. It was easy to feel sorry for her, to see how awful her life was—even to understand a little why she picked on me so. It hadn’t always been like that though.
Chapter 10
Quotes
Beware of men is what she’s really saying. They have dirty minds, and they’re only after one thing. Rapists are roaming the earth.
But now I understand her a little. I think the only man she really hates is my father—even though he’s dead.
Get the entire The Pigman LitChart as a printable PDF.
Lorraine’s Mom Quotes in The Pigman
The The Pigman quotes below are all either spoken by Lorraine’s Mom or refer to Lorraine’s Mom. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
The thing that made me stop going to the zoo a few years ago was the way one attendant fed the sea lions. He climbed up on the big diving platform in the middle of the pool and unimaginatively just dropped the fish into the water. I mean, if you’re going to feed sea lions, you’re not supposed to plop the food into the tank. You can tell by the expressions on their faces that the sea lions are saying things like
“Don’t dump the fish in!”
“Pick the fish up one by one and throw them into the air so we can chase after them.”
“Throw the fish in different parts of the tank!”
“Let’s have fun!”
“Make a game out of it!”
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8
Quotes
As I watched her I remembered all the times she said how hard it was to be a nurse—how bad it was for the legs, how painful the varicose veins were that nurses always got from being on their feet so much. I could see her standing under the street light… just standing there until the bus came. It was easy to feel sorry for her, to see how awful her life was—even to understand a little why she picked on me so. It hadn’t always been like that though.
Chapter 10
Quotes
Beware of men is what she’s really saying. They have dirty minds, and they’re only after one thing. Rapists are roaming the earth.
But now I understand her a little. I think the only man she really hates is my father—even though he’s dead.
