The Pigman Chapters 5 & 6 Summary & Analysis

Chapters 5 & 6

Summary: Chapter 5

The next day, Lorraine doesn’t want to collect the check from Mr. Pignati, so John goes home and asks his mom for money. She refuses because John’s dad is mad that he put glue in the telephone lock so no one can make calls. John refuses to take responsibility for his action. He meets Lorraine and expresses his intent to get the check from Mr. Pignati. They argue, and John claims that Mr. Pignati is lonely, even suicidal. Lorraine attempts to resist his reasoning, but John wins her over.

Mr. Pignati, a retired, overweight electrician in his late fifties, welcomes John and Lorraine. Unsurprised that they are teenagers, he invites them in and offers them homemade wine. He explains, seemingly on the verge of tears, that his wife is visiting relatives in California, which explains his messy house. Mr. Pignati then demonstrates a technique for memorizing a list of items by creating a mental picture, which only John successfully uses. When Mr. Pignati invites them to meet him at the zoo the next day, John makes their excuses to leave. A visibly disappointed Mr. Pignati gets a check for them and then asks about the zoo again. John and Lorraine are about to walk out the front door when Mr. Pignati insists on showing them his pigs. They follow him to a room at the back of the house that is filled with colorful pig figurines, which Mr. Pignati and his wife collected from all over the world.

Summary: Chapter 6

John cashes the check and buys beer and cigarettes. He wants to go the zoo with Mr. Pignati as a way of paying him back for the money, but Lorraine refuses. She goes home and is both surprised and scared to find her mom, a private nurse and single parent, back from work. Lorraine lies that she’s been at a club meeting and out with kids for a soda. Lorraine’s mom doesn’t like her going out because she fears that all boys are sex fiends. Lorraine’s mom complains about their lack of money and talks about saving money by stealing food from her clients and getting a kickback from the undertaker. She wants Lorraine to stay home from school the next day to help clean, but Lorraine lies that she has a test. Lorraine calls John and agrees to cut school and go to the zoo tomorrow.

John and Lorraine meet Mr. Pignati in the morning. He is excited to see them, but Lorraine identifies three omens that, in hindsight, she believes should have told her not to get involved with Mr. Pignati: the woman selling peanuts is antagonistic; Lorraine is attacked by a peacock; and Lorraine sees a kid who makes her feel like an animal in a cage. They visit different animals before going to see Mr. Pignati’s best friend, Bobo, a mean, ugly baboon. While Mr. Pignati feeds Bobo, John and Lorraine take the zoo touring car. When they return, a gorilla starts making noises and John “talks” with him. Soon, humans and primates are all calling “Uggauggaboo.”

Analysis: Chapters 5 & 6

The scenes from these chapters show how and why Lorraine and John are so quick to develop a relationship with the odd, older Mr. Pignati. Mr. Pignati is desperately lonely, and when the two kids come to his home, he presents different inducements for them to stay longer, including giving them wine despite their youth and showing them the pig room hidden behind black curtains. John fails to share his response to the pigs. He seems at a loss for words because he only says, “Pigs, pigs, pigs!”—words that connote excitement but no real meaning. The pigs’ symbolical resonance for Mr. Pignati is clear, however. They represent his relationship with his beloved wife, Conchetta. Indeed, coupled with Mr. Pignati’s overall sense of sadness and bewilderment, the pig room emerges less as a joyful place, which all its color and diversity should assert, than a somber location, most akin to a shrine or memorial. Chapter 5 also reveals another key characteristic inherent to Mr. Pignati: his desperation to keep John and Lorraine from leaving him. He appears to accept them however they are, for instance, not wondering why kids their age are collecting money for a charity. When Mr. Pignati invites them to the zoo several times, the weight of his loneliness is made apparent. Mr. Pignati may have a wife “in California,” but he also has a void that he wants to fill with friends, however age-inappropriate they may be.

As soon as John and Lorraine receive Mr. Pignati’s donation, John uses the money to fuel his addictions. However, he also recognizes the meanness of his action because he suggests going to the zoo with Mr. Pignati the next day as a way of thanking him. This “payback” will allow John to assuage his guilt at taking advantage of Mr. Pignati, a man so clearly in need of companionship. While Lorraine initially refuses to go to the zoo, her interactions with her mother at home that evening seem to be the catalyst for the next day’s change of heart. While Lorraine’s mother bemoans their financial woes, Lorraine, perhaps because of all her psychological analysis, recognizes the poverty of their emotional life. While Lorraine and her mother eat food stolen from her mother’s dying patients, Lorraine cannot help but feel a complete lack of nourishment of the soul. On some level, she understands that she needs more human connection to survive. In addition, she is smart enough to recognize that even if she doesn’t feel driven to connect with Mr. Pignati, John wants to go, and she must keep John happy to feed the relationship that is most important in her life.

Accordingly, Lorraine accompanies John to the zoo the next morning to meet Mr. Pignati. While she shares many details of the day that highlight fun, even joyful, moments, in her recounting for the “official” record, Lorraine still manages to put the emphasis on the negative aspects. Specifically, she talks about the three “omens” that were trying to tell her that she should disentangle from the friendship with Mr. Pignati before it even begins. Not only do these omens all represent hostile feelings like antagonism, assault, and entrapment, but they also reveal Lorraine’s ability to recast a good day as overwhelmingly negative and ominous.

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