Pig Heart Boy by Malorie Blackman

843 Words2 Pages

Recently in class I have read the novel “Pig Heart Boy” by Malorie

Blackman. In this essay I will show how the main themes are presented

& developed in this story.The novel is set in the twentieth century in

London

Recently in class I have read the novel “Pig Heart Boy” by Malorie

Blackman. In this essay I will show how the main themes are presented

& developed in this story.

The novel is set in the twentieth century in London and tells the

story of a boy who had a heart problem & the only way to resolve this

would be for the boy to receive a pigs heart but there were a lot of

people who didn’t agree with it, when they found out after telling

Cams best friend. Within a short period the story was sold to the

newspaper and the secret was out.

In my opinion the main themes in this novel are Xenotransplants,

communication & coping with illness.

A first person narrator tells the story of the novel. This helps to

present & develop the themes as it shows that the narrator is there

&he can hear and describe everything & get accurate detail. It also

makes you feel for the character as you see into his mind and read

what he is thinking.

The first main theme is serious illness suffered by a teenager & how

this impacts on their lives. The reader first gets the impression that

Cam is ill in chapter one when cam is struggling in the pool “I’m

drowning I’m going to die”. This theme is introduced and shows the way

Cam is realising his fate. In Chapter Two Cam realises that he has

little time left “The noise was deafening shouting, screaming,

shrieking it was so thunderous”. This shows he is in pain & he feels

he can’t go on. In chapter three the arguments at home begin. This

affects Cam as he can’t cope with his mum & dad shouting over him

makes him feel unwanted. As he is in the way because they are always

arguing over him “As I turned the key in the front door I could hear

at once that mum and dad were at it again”. This is the start of the

pig heart argument.

In chapter eight Cams teacher asks him to explain the operation to

the class, as he starts to explain it he goes into too much detail and

it soon becomes too much for the pupils and the teacher &is asked to

stop. This shows he feels different from his classmates so much so

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