Discussion Topic
Conflicts in Paul Zindel's The Pigman
Summary:
In The Pigman by Paul Zindel, the main conflicts include the internal struggles of the protagonists, John and Lorraine, as they deal with their guilt and grief over Mr. Pignati's death. Additionally, they face external conflicts with their dysfunctional families and the societal expectations placed upon them as teenagers.
In The Pigman, what is the conflict in chapters 3 and 4?
"The Pigman" by Paul Zindel is an interesting book, because a lot of the time two different chapters are relating the same events. That's because one chapter will be told by John, and the next chapter will be told by Lorraine. Chapters 3 and 4 are this way. They are both focused on the "phone marathon" game that John and Lorraine like to play. The game is simple. Call a random phone number, and keep the person talking as long as you can. Lorraine cheats a bit and intentionally calls Mr. Pignati.
On a very surface level, a conflict is simply keeping a person on the phone. It can't be easy all of the time. But the main conflict of the story is an internal conflict for Lorraine. As she speaks with Mr. Pignati, she begins to sense his loneliness. Lorraine starts to feel guilty for making...
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the phone call and lying to him.
There was something about his voice that made me feel sorry for him, and I began to wish I had never bothered him.
She feels especially guilty when she convinces him to donate 10 dollars to a fake charity.
What is the main conflict in Paul Zindel's The Pigman?
The conflict of a story is defined as the struggle between opposing forces. One way to simplify the struggle is to determine if it is man vs nature, man vs man, man vs self, or so on. For John and Lorraine in Zindel's The Pigman, the conflict is man vs man because these two protagonists both struggle with their relationships with their parents. For example, John calls his father "Bore" because they are always arguing about the way John should behave. Lorraine's mother continually tells Lorraine whom to trust, how to act, and what money not to spend. Neither of these home environments create an atmosphere of love and understanding in which grown teenagers can thrive. As a result, they latch onto the kindness they find with Mr. Pignati.
Mr. Pignati is also a protagonist, and his greatest struggle is admitting that his wife actually died and is not on vacation in California. This could be categorized as man vs. self because he has to admit the truth within himself in order to satisfy the conflict. It takes his friendship with John and Lorraine to help him admit to himself that his wife is truly gone.
In an interesting twist, however, the conflict turns from the three protagonists against the world to Mr. Pignati against John and Lorraine. When the teens have a party at his house while he is in the hospital, the place gets trashed and he comes home early to see it all. He feels betrayed by John and Lorraine, but they apologize and he forgives them. Overall, though, John and Lorraine's main conflicts are with their parents and Mr. Pignati's is with himself.