Zindel's Use of Literary Devices in The Pigman

Zindel had a Pigman just like John And Lorraine who helped him through his life and embraced him to be the talented author he really is. He worked first as a technical writer at a chemical company then as a high school chemistry teacher. As he taught he continued to write plays, Marigolds of his plays was soon turned into a television show. A children's book editor from Harper and Row asked Zindel if he wanted to be a writer and he accepted. He soon came out with The Pigman a Story about two teenagers that have an unlikely friendship with an old man. Paul Zindel was born on May 15th 1936 on Staten Island, New York. When John and Lorraine started messing around with Mr.Pignati all of their lives went from faulty to terrible. This happened because neither John nor Lorraine were mature enough to be friends with Mr.Pignati. They were two untrustworthy sophomores that threw parties and played immature pranks. When they finally realized what maturity was it was too late, they had already caused too many hardships in Mr.Pignati's life causing him to have a stroke, and ultimately his death. Which causes John and Lorraine to write an epic about Mr.pignati, so that he will always be remembered as a kind, fun loving, old man. That had helped them out of their troubles and treated them as their parents should have treated them in the first place. He was the only one to ever really care for them and treat them nicely, through piles of gifts and compliments like they have never seen before. Paul Zindel uses the literary elements symbolism and foreshadowing to express the theme, true maturity can only be attained when one forsakes the thoughtlessness of adolescence, while still maintaining a child's sense of joy and wonder.

Paul Zindel uses...

... middle of paper ...

...nough to be friends with an old man like Mr.Pignati and because of that it ultimately led to Mr.Pignati’s death. Zindel tells us that there is a boundary between the young and the old that must not be crossed, or suffer consequences of maturity.

Works Cited

Buller, Jeffrey L. “The Pigman.” Masterplots II: Juvenile & Young Adult Fiction Series (1991): 1-2. Literary Reference Center. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.

Clarke, Loretta. “The Pigman: A Novel of Adolescence.” English Journal 61.8 (Nov. 1972). Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Carolyn Riley and Phyllis Carmel Mendelson. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale Research, 1976. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.

Wilson, Nance S. “ZINDEL, Paul.” Continuum Encyclopedia Of Children’s Literature (2003): 848-849. Literary Reference Center. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.

Zindel, Paul. “The Pigman.” kindle. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.