Full title  A Day No Pigs Would Die

Author  Robert Newton Peck

Type of work  Autobiographical fiction

Genre  Rural American Novel

Language  English

Date of first publication  1972

Publisher of first publication  Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Narrator  Robert Peck

Point of view  First person

Tone  Lighthearted, optimistic

Tense  Present

Setting (time)  Late 1930s

Setting (place)  Learning, Vermont

Protagonist  Robert Peck

Rising action  Robert receives a pig as a gift from a neighbor. He and the pig become best friends.

Climax  Pinky has to be killed so that the family will have enough to eat in the winter.

Falling action  Robert's father dies.

Themes  The trials of becoming a man; the difficulty of being an outsider; free will versus expectations; acceptance of the inevitability of life

Motifs Death; education; consistency; possession

Symbols  Haven's tools; Haven's signature