The Pigman: Motifs | SparkNotes

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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Alcohol

From the first chapter of the book, alcohol plays a prominent role in the lives of John and Lorraine. Despite only being a sophomore in high school, John drinks beer regularly, a habit that Lorraine believes he learned from his alcoholic father. She explicitly states that John’s father’s constant drinking formed an association for John between alcohol and maturity. The teens’ relationship with Mr. Pignati includes a ritual of drinking wine. The negative ramifications of alcohol are abundant throughout the book. John’s father had to stop drinking due to sclerosis of the liver, and at the party, all the high school kids become drunk and unruly. John’s behavior at the party is greatly magnified by his consumption of alcohol.

Pretending

All the main characters are often pretending in one way or another. Characters use pretending, which Lorraine often calls “playing,” to escape their own lives. Mr. Pignati pretends that his wife Conchetta is visiting relatives, and John and Lorraine pretend to be anyone but unhappy high school kids. Mr. Pignati rolls around the house on roller skates like a kid with John and Lorraine, and while he is in the hospital, they go to his house and play at being adults, drinking wine and cooking dinner. They dress up in the Pignatis’ clothing, too, which differentiates them from their normal selves to such an extent that John kisses Lorraine.

As they share their false reality, pretending also draws John, Lorraine, and Mr. Pignati closer. Their fantasy world in which the three are a family is far more warm and pleasant than actual reality. Sometimes Mr. Pignati, John, and Lorraine’s shared lie brings them happiness, such as when John and Lorraine must claim to be Mr. Pignati’s children to visit him at the hospital, an act that brings a smile to Mr. Pignati’s face. However, in the end, Mr. Pignati trusted “his kids” too much, which leads to a dissolution of the family and his own death.

Parents

The presence of John’s and Lorraine’s parents always looms negatively in the background of the novel. Although John’s and Lorraine’s parents are not central figures, the relationships that John and Lorraine have with them affect all their other relationships. Since John and Lorraine lack loving, compassionate, nonjudgmental parents, they seek such figures elsewhere. For John and Lorraine, Mr. Pignati fulfills that role. John and Lorraine acknowledge that Mr. Pignati is nothing like their actual parents but, rather, is like a parent they wish they had in his generosity and good nature. The roller skates that Mr. Pignati purchases for John, Lorraine, and himself symbolize this dynamic: Skates are a frivolous, unnecessary gift that make them feel loved and connected to one another. While John’s and Lorraine’s parents by no means represent ideal parents, neither does Mr. Pignati. He treats them as kids by spoiling them while at the same time treating them as equals with whom he can share wine and confidences. No healthy parent–child relationship is depicted in The Pigman.