Free Essays on The Pigman

The Pigman Theme Essay In the novel The Pigman by Paul Zindel, many themes appear throughout the book. However, the most prominent are: older people can be friends but shouldn’t be looked at as parent figures, platonic relationships should stay strictly platonic, and the last main theme is: underage drinking and smoking are very harmful. Some of these are themes one might not expect to see in a book such as The Pigman, yet are as imminent as the characters themselves. The first theme involves older people and friendships with them. Since this book was mainly about kids making friends with an older man, examples are plentiful. The following is an example of John Conlan’s poor relationship with his parents, because of the time he spent with Mr. Pignati: â€Å"My mother started her high frequency cackling, but it was Bore who got on my nerves.†(pg.136). John doesn’t even know what his parents told him, let alone care about it. However, if asked about his conversation with Mr. Pigna ti, John would tell everything with incredible accuracy. This shows that when you look up to your adult friends like a parent, your relationship with your actual parents begin to drift. The second theme from The Pigman is that platonic relationships should stay platonic and not become anything more. A good example of what happens can be found on page 108. In this segment, John and Lorraine are dressed up and they start goofing around and then they kiss. As soon as this happens, they both get really quiet and decide to go downstairs and eat dinner. Originally John and Lorraine were just friends, then as soon as it started to become something more, it became very uncomfortable and they quickly moved to something else. When two very good friends both know when something gets weird, it shows that both of them aren’t ready to become more than Friends. The third theme runs throughout most of the novel. It’s alcohol and how it effects under-age drinkers. A go... Free Essays on The Pigman Free Essays on The Pigman The Pigman by Paul Zindel is a story about two sophomore high school kids who develop a relationship with a lonely old man. John Conlan the class clown and Lorraine Jensen the shy girl have become good friends since she moved to town a year ago. One of their after school activities is prank calling people. This eventually becomes to dull, so they made up a contest to see who could keep the person who answered the phone on the longest. This afternoon it was Lorraine’s turn to cover her eyes and point to a name. She ended up picking a man who only lived a few blocks away. This is how she first met The Pigman. When Angelo Pignati answered the phone that day, Lorraine pretended that she was asking for donations for the L & J Fund, Lorraine and John Fund. Mr. Pignati finally said he would donate to their cause, and they agreed to pick up a check the next day. Eventually Lorraine and John ended up spending almost every afternoon or every evening with The Pigman. They had t his informal relationship where Mr. Pignati liked to do things for them in return for their company. Mr. Pignati’s favorite spot to visit was the city zoo where he would send time with Bobo his pet baboon. One day while they were chasing each other through The Pigman’s house on roller skates, he had a heart attack. Mr. Pignati had to stay in the hospital for a few days and asked John and Lorraine to keep an eye on his house. They agreed. This is where thing started to go wrong between them and The Pigman. John decided that they needed to throw a party before The Pigman came home from the hospital. That’s just what they did too, they threw the biggest party of the year. Then they got the surprise of their lives when The Pigman came home early. They had just destroyed his house, and most of all they had just ruined their friendship. They called to apologize to him, and they wanted to meet him at the zoo to visit Bobo. When they got to the monkey ho... Free Essays on The Pigman The Pigman Theme Essay In the novel The Pigman by Paul Zindel, many themes appear throughout the book. However, the most prominent are: older people can be friends but shouldn’t be looked at as parent figures, platonic relationships should stay strictly platonic, and the last main theme is: underage drinking and smoking are very harmful. Some of these are themes one might not expect to see in a book such as The Pigman, yet are as imminent as the characters themselves. The first theme involves older people and friendships with them. Since this book was mainly about kids making friends with an older man, examples are plentiful. The following is an example of John Conlan’s poor relationship with his parents, because of the time he spent with Mr. Pignati: â€Å"My mother started her high frequency cackling, but it was Bore who got on my nerves.†(pg.136). John doesn’t even know what his parents told him, let alone care about it. However, if asked about his conversation with Mr. Pigna ti, John would tell everything with incredible accuracy. This shows that when you look up to your adult friends like a parent, your relationship with your actual parents begin to drift. The second theme from The Pigman is that platonic relationships should stay platonic and not become anything more. A good example of what happens can be found on page 108. In this segment, John and Lorraine are dressed up and they start goofing around and then they kiss. As soon as this happens, they both get really quiet and decide to go downstairs and eat dinner. Originally John and Lorraine were just friends, then as soon as it started to become something more, it became very uncomfortable and they quickly moved to something else. When two very good friends both know when something gets weird, it shows that both of them aren’t ready to become more than Friends. The third theme runs throughout most of the novel. It’s alcohol and how it effects under-age drinkers. A go...

The Meanings and Connotations of Junior and Senior

The Meanings and Connotations of Junior and Senior The Meanings and Connotations of â€Å"Junior† and â€Å"Senior† The Meanings and Connotations of â€Å"Junior† and â€Å"Senior† By Mark Nichol Aside from their literal meanings, junior and senior have an array of connotations related to hierarchy. Junior, from the Latin term juvenis, from which juvenile is also derived, refers to someone younger than another. It also applies to a young person or, more specifically, a son. Until well into the twentieth century, a boy or a young man might be addressed as Junior (though it was generally considered derogatory or at least condescending when directed at an adult), and the tradition persists of appending the abbreviation Jr. (no intervening comma is necessary) to the name of a male child who shares his father’s exact name. Junior also applies to academic standing; in a four-year collegiate or secondary school system, a junior is someone in the third of four years of study. Schools for students in grades seven through nine (formerly grades seven and eight) in a K–12 system are often labeled â€Å"junior high schools.† The word can also refer to someone of inferior rank (â€Å"lieutenant junior grade,† for example, as opposed to a full lieutenant, or â€Å"junior account executive†) or, in fashion, a clothing category for slender women and girls. As an adjective, junior means â€Å"younger,† â€Å"youthful,† â€Å"more recent† (with a connotation of inferiority or subordination), â€Å"lower in rank,† or â€Å"on a smaller scale.† It also applies to class standing or, as part of the phrase â€Å"junior varsity,† an athletic team subordinate to the varsity, or the primary team. Senior, borrowed directly from Latin and meaning â€Å"older,† is related to senile and senescence but has usually more positive connotations than those cognates. It refers to someone older than another or of higher rank. A senior in college or high school is in the final year of study, and senior might also refer, in an academic context, to a high-ranking fellow at a university. The abbreviation Sr., following a name (again, with no intervening comma), indicates that the man so named has a son with the exact same name. As an adjective, senior designates someone or something as having been born, or established or enrolled, before another, or being of higher rank. (Some military hierarchies have, for example, senior captains, who rank above captains.) Senior has also become a synonym for elderly with what is widely considered a more positive connotation; it’s a truncation of â€Å"senior citizen.† It’s applied in phrases such as â€Å"senior center† and â€Å"senior rights.† Like junior, senior can have a derogatory connotation, though, as in â€Å"senior moment,† a light-hearted reference to forgetfulness as a symptom of aging, it is usually not meant to insult. But take care with using either term to note, respectively, someone’s youth or inexperience or their age. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:16 Substitutes for â€Å"Because† or â€Å"Because Of†Body Parts as Tools of MeasurementDouble Possessive