The Pigman and Me Is a Story That Delves Deaply Into the Area of Interpersonal Relationships

The Pigman and Me

A Reader Response Journal

By: Jackson Hennes

The Pigman and Me is a story that delves deeply into the area of interpersonal relationships. Zindel uses the relationship between himself and Jennifer to explore the concept of first love and the inherent need of children to have a friend of their own age to discover ideas that older persons can only tell them about and that is if they are capable of expressing themselves in the appropriate manner. Paul’s sister, Betty on the other hand displays the importance of that relationship with an older person and how a balance needs to be present for children to be able to thrive and grow. Zindel’s best experiment and explanation of human relationships however is present in the dinners between the Zindels, the Vivonas and Nunno Frankie and Nonna Mamie. It is during these dinners that he showcases the importance of understanding differences and interpreting nonverbal communication. It is in this situation where all the characters must work together to accept each other for who they are and what they stand for and represent. This ultimately becomes impossible for Paul’s mother as she can not handle the relationships that grow between Vivonas and her own children, culminating in a nasty split between the two families and the separation of what might have been life long friends.

In exploring these very complicated relationships with students I chose to have the students recreate these dinners and role play to accomplish a better understanding of how each character added to the collective character of the book and realize why it is so important to gain good interpersonal skills. This placed the interpersonal learners in their best environment and helped to engage other learning styles as well in an understanding of the importance of such skills. This technique also allows an excellent environment for the visual/spatial learner and the bodily/kinesthetic learner.

Mr. Zindel’s use of lists in this novel is a very interesting concept to me. I found it very useful in assisting me to remember key points and important information as well as helping me to recognize the more humorous aspects of the novel. This style allows the reader to gain a better understanding of the narrator’s point of view and gain a better perspective of the setting in which this novel takes place. Undoubtedly, this adds to the overall experience for the reader and increases comprehension of the story much as an outline would. This style also adds to the ability to carry out a classroom discussion by enabling a discussion of the lists themselves and how they relate to the novel.

Ohio’s writing process standard states that students in the 5th – 7th grades should be able to construct paragraphs that show an overall organizational structure throughout the work. It goes on to state that these paragraphs should have consistent ideas that follow a logical order. By challenging students who have read The Pigman and Me to write a persuasive paper from one of two points of view from the story, students will enjoy an engaging activity that allows them to improve these skills. If half the class writes an opinion of why the two families split based on Paul’s view and the other on Paul’s mothers view a perfect opportunity is created for students to debate the merits and accuracy of the events of the two characters points of view. Students would first write their paper using the formal writing process and then commence to debate the position of the characters. This activity would also require students to better understand their character and fill in gaps in the point of view of their character’s account of the story. While this activity supports the benchmarks outlined by the writing standard found at it also provides a more interesting and stimulating format for exploring and improving their skills in the writing process.