The Pigman Chapters 11 & 12 Summary & Analysis

Chapters 11 & 12

Summary: Chapter 11

John calls the police because he knows that Mr. Pignati is having a heart attack, and an ambulance soon takes Mr. Pignati to the hospital. Claiming to be Mr. Pignati’s kids, John and Lorraine answer questions from the police. Alone again, Lorraine blames John for what happened, telling him he takes things too far, and John snaps that she reminds him of his mother. The next day, John and Lorraine skip school and visit Mr. Pignati at the hospital. He says he feels well and will be released in a few days. He asks them to look after the house and go to the zoo to feed Bobo.

Afterward, John and Lorraine return to his house. Lorraine cooks dinner while John explores upstairs. In the bedroom, he tries on one of Mr. Pignati’s suits and feels like a famous actor playing a role. When Lorraine sees what he looks like, she excuses herself and eventually returns in a white, ruffly dress of Conchetta’s with makeup and high heels. John says she looks beautiful and runs after her. She dashes up the stairs, and he follows her into the bedroom. Keeping true to his role, John asks for a kiss. The two teens laugh, but John throws her on the bed. Lorraine tells him to stop, that she is no longer joking, but she keeps laughing. John kisses her. When the kiss ends, the acting is over. Lorraine says they should go downstairs, and they eat the congealed spaghetti for dinner and raise a toast to Mr. Pignati.

Summary: Chapter 12

At school the next day, Lorraine notes that John is better groomed than usual. They call the hospital to ask about Mr. Pignati. The nurse says he will be monitored at least until Saturday and tells them not to worry about “their father.” They go to Mr. Pignati’s house most days that week, but they never have as much fun as the first night.

On Friday, they skip school and spend the day at the house. Lorraine makes John breakfast, but he complains about everything. Afterward, she asks him to take out the garbage and he tells her to shut up and do the dishes. Lorraine leaves him alone to watch TV. She knows that John’s mood is a result of Monday’s kiss. She wonders if he is thinking of her in a romantic way, admitting that she already has a crush on him. John stops sulking, and they clean up the house so it will look nice for Mr. Pignati’s return the next day. They leave the pig room untouched, though, and Lorraine reflects on a recent nightmare. In the dream, Lorraine was drawn into the pig room against her will. There Lorraine saw that the pigs were arranged on a long black box that she recognized as a coffin. She was about to open the coffin and cried and asked God to stop her from lifting the lid. That’s when the dream ended, Lorraine waking up, screaming. As Lorraine thinks about the nightmare, John interrupts her thoughts to announce that they are going to have a few friends over that evening for drinks.

Analysis: Chapters 11 & 12

Once Mr. Pignati is safely tucked away in the hospital, John and Lorraine have a chance to play out their fantasies of being independent adults instead of kids with distant parents. The first night they spend at Mr. Pignati’s house is the most significant. Both dress up in what they perceive to be clothing and accessories worn by glamorous, dashing adults. John even pencils in a moustache and Lorraine places a feather boa in her hair. On this evening, fantasy and reality blend as their typical, crazy play turns serious when John kisses Lorraine. They both started this game knowing the parameters, however. John saw himself as an actor playing the role of a handsome European businessman, and Lorraine refers to the clothing they wore as “costumes.” But the realness of the kiss changes everything, which John understands. “When I moved my lips away from hers,” John writes, “we just looked at each other, and somehow we were not acting anymore.” Complicating matters even more, Lorraine admits to having a crush on John, which astute readers will have guessed already, but John has not shown any similar feelings toward her. Lorraine, and the reader, can’t help but wonder which version of John initiated the kiss. Is it the John swept away by the artificial adult role or the real, teen John?

The rest of the week plays out in a way that shows how that kiss affects John’s and Lorraine’s feelings and behavior. While Monday felt magical to them both, opening confusing, even exciting, possibilities about their relationship, as each day passes, they move further from the people they were that night. With each day, they spend less time at the house. On Tuesday they have dinner, on Wednesday they stay for just a snack, and on Thursday they don’t go to the house at all. John and Lorraine’s decision to skip school and spend all day Friday at Mr. Pignati’s house seems like an effort to bring back the fun in a faltering relationship. As Lorraine points out, they have been awkward around one another since Monday. However, the demise of the relationship also resonates on a figurative level, following the course of a romantic relationship that starts out with excitement, mystery, and romance and then slowly devolves into bickering, boredom, and then silence.

The fantasy has played out, and for Lorraine, adult life isn’t nearly as wonderful as she imagined. Only when John tacitly apologizes by taking out the garbage does the mood shift. Now they are a couple again, this time united in cleaning up the house. Whereas Lorraine feels content to spend a quiet evening at home, sitting on the sofa “admiring how clean everything looked,” John isn’t. He announces they will have a party. The way he refers to inviting a few intimate friends for a “quiet little drink” indicate that he is back in the role of that actor playing a European businessman. He talks as if he is planning to host a sophisticated, adult affair, not a teenage party.

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