• is called "The bathroom bomber"
• he and his classmates roll scrawny fruits, such as apples and oranges, to the substitute teachers
• he writes weird things on his desk
• is a difficult child who only thinks of nonsense
• isn´t interested in school at all
• he finds school overcrowded

• she has a miserable look
• a comrade

• librarian at Franklin
• wears tight skirts and nylon stockings
• she is fat
• you can hear every move she makes because of her nylon stockings.

• always sees the good side of a person and of things.
  ->"maybe she hasn´t got enough money to buy new things "
• her mother is a nurse
• helpful, considerate, solicitous
• wants to heal the world
  -> she wants to convice John that smoking is bad for his health (S 14. 1- 8)

• handsome
• blue-eyed
• 6 feet tall
• longish-brown hair
• his eyes look through a person
• drinks and smokes excessively
• maybe the best liar at all ("fantastic everyday lies")

• her clothes are too tight as a matter of fact
• her nylons do make this scratchy sound
• but she isn´t trying to be sexy (again her positive view of persons)
• she has outgrown her clothes, perhaps she has no money to buy new ones
• "nobody knows what problems she has"
  -> that shows again Lorraine´s profound character.

• keeps her ill mother in the middle of the living-room
• that´s probably why she isn´t married and doesn´t get one.
• Lorraine feels pity for her.

That´s what John likes of Mr. Pignati. He says that they´re delightful. He does not pretend to be modern and up to date.


Then John starts telling how it all began:

- First Dennis K. and Norton K. started telephone gags just to be joky.
- Dennis is described as someone who talks slowly and behaves as if he had a brain damage-

Then, they started a new game in which the object was to keep a stranger talking on the phone as long as possible, though.

Then, for the first time, John´s father is talked about.
-> he is a dull person according to John
    (he put a lock on the phone so that he can´t phone)
-> he is often in a bad mood and bellows.
-> they had a lot of trouble with each other lately.

John says that he goes a little bit crazy when he feels he´s beeing picked on or not being trusted.

At the end of Chapter III the reader is said that Lorraine was the one who picked out the pigman´s phone number. .

In Chapter IV Lorraine refers to what John has said of Norton.
Here are some of her descriptions of Norton

Norton:

John and Lorraine visit Mr. Pignati who is very glad to see them. He shows them around the house and the two children get the first view of the Pigman´s pig collection. His pigs are from all over the world. He has glass pigs(Schweinchen aus Glas), clay pigs(Schweinchen aus Ton) und marble pigs (Schweinchen aus Marmor) . Mr. Pignati is very proud of them. At the end of Chapter V Mr. Pignati gives them a $10 Dollar check.

Chapter VI starts with Lorraine and John going to Tony´s Market. They have received the $10 donation from Mr. Pignati. There at Tony´s Market everyone can buy alcohol and cigarettes no matter how old one is.
John cashes the check he got from Mr. Pignati and takes the money for alcohol and cigarettes whereas Lorraine buys a chocolate drink from her own money. She doesn´t want to be involved in that matter and tries to compensate her feeling of being guilty as much as it is now possible.

->Lorraine is the first who feels pity for the old man and is ashamed for the whole matter. Unlike her John shows himself superficial(oberflächlich) and unscrupulous (gewissenlos).

In Chapter VI we see Lorraine in an argument with her mother...
It is said that "she is quick with her hand" what certainly means that she often slaps her daughter´s face when she´s angry or outraged.
Later she phones John and they agree on a zoo visit. There, at the zoo, they want to meet Mr. Pignati.
The next day Mr. PIgnati arrives on time. First they are a bit ashamed to go out with someone who´s much older than they are.
Lorraine is afraid of some of the animals. She is scared of the snakes(Schlangen) and of the peacock(Pfau) whereas John especially likes the dangerous animals such as alligators, vultures and snakes.

So we can add some character traits ...

John: daring (wagemutig), loves the risk
Lorraine: timid (ängstlich), nervous

Then, Mr. Pignati introduces his best friend Bobo, a baboon, to them.

The baboon who lives in the monkey house is described by Lorraine:
- the ugliest, most vicious(gefährlich) looking animal
- monstrous teeth that look like dentures (Zahnprothese)
- voracious (gefräßig)

John and Lorraine are anything but keen on Bobo. That´s why they leave Mr. Pignati with his best friend alone for about half an hour .
John makes fun of a gorilla that is also in the monkey house.

In the zoo Mr. Pignati invites them to a snack.
He buys them

• two cutton-candies-on-a-stick.
• a banana split
• a bag of peanuts
• a cherry ice-cream
  

The next day they go to school as usual. At half past three they accidentally go into Dennis and Norton but John and Lorraine don´t want to tell them where they are going. That´s why they pretend to walk around. So they go to a cemetery where they have beer together at Masterson´s tomb instead of visiting Mr. Pignati as they initially intended to do.

John says: "cemeteries are one of the loveliest places, of course, when you are not dead". Maybe their stay at the cemetery is a hint for the sad ending of the story.

As it has grown dark, they drop their initial plan to visit Mr. Pignati and both return home. We learn something about John´s family. John calls his mother "the old lady". His father is 60 and sells lots. His mood depends on who many lots he has sold a day.
Later on John talks with his father about his future plans. John wants to become an actor but his father is not keen on that idea.
His father is tired doesn´t want to be disturbed so JOhn´s mother tells him to go somewhere else. So John and Lorraine go to Mr. Pignati again.

John and Lorraine are at Mr. Pignati´s home.
Lorraine feels pity for the Pigman and keeps on thinking about Mr. Pignati and his dead wife Conchetta.
She is pretty sure that they were happily married. She is convinced that they lived together in harmony and that they had a lot of hobbies in common.They seemed to have cooked together, had gone shopping together and seemed to have liked the same things.
Later on Lorraine and John go home. At home Lorraine ponders upon her mother and how hard her life as a nurse was and still is. In her thoughts she compares her family life with that of Mr. Pignati and his wife when Conchetta was still alive. She is convinced that their family life was intact unlike that of her mother and hers. Unlike Mr. Pignati and his wife Conchetta, Lorraine and her mother eat out of tins. Her mother sometimes even brings the tins home from her job in order to save money. So we can assume that Lorraine and her mother have very little money. The more she thinks about her mother, the more she feels pity for her mother´s sad life and her hard work. It´s the first time that she really shows understanding for her mother´s bad moods when she comes home.
The next day they intend to meet Mr. Pignati at the ferryhouse at 11.30. First they take a ferry and then they get into a subway. Mr. Pignati is at the meeting point in time and shows them arround. He knows the city very well and Lorraine imagines how he and his wife used to go shopping together.
First they go to a toy department where Mr. Pignati buys Lorraine three pairs of nylon stockings. Then they enter a pet shop where they see among other animals 3 monkeys, one of them looks like Bobo. After that the Pigman purchases three roller skates for Lorraine, John and for himself.
All three are very happy.

• At the beginning of the Chapter, John talks about his relation with Norton and about his bad character because Norton has suggested to meet at the cemetry near Masterson´s tomb again. As John knows Norton´s bad traits( Characterzüge) he is very suspicious and reveals Norton´s evil character to the reader in detail. So the reader learns a lot of important facts about Norton:
  
• • he played with dolls as a kid
  • he is a tough guy - because he throws stones at other people
                             - because he beats everybody up
                             - because he calls everybody "sissy"(Weichling)
  • keeps on stealing things
  • his eyes even drift out of focus when you´re talking to him.
    
    
    
• There at the cemetry Norton menaces to harm the old man if he doesn´t get more information about him. Norton threatens to visit the Pigman together with Dennis. John is angry about that and leaves him immediately.
  
  In addition to that we get a closer view of his family: John´s brother is called Kenny and he seems to very very intelligent and good at school. He seems to be very talented except of drinking and smoking. As the reader already knows John´s mother has the nickname "OLD LADY" and his father has the nickname "BORE"
  

• Lorraine is at home. Her mother is angry because she believes that her daughter was given a lift by a young man and ignored her strict rules concerning this item. Her mother doesn´t want her daughter to be picked up in a car by somebody because she is afraid that her Lorraine might be raped.
  That´s why she wants her to ride the bus with the money she gets from her.
• Lorraine gives her mother the nylong stockings she got from Mr. Pignati and pretends that she did not take the bus in order to save the money and to spend it on the nylon stockings.
• The reader gets more information about Lorraine´s parents. Her father seems to have made love with another woman while her mother was pregnant.
• Later Lorraine and John visit Mr. Pigman. Bobo wouldn´t eat and therefore Mr. Pignati is very worried and sad. They watch a comedy on TV. Then they confess him not being charity workers and apologize for not having said the truth, but Mr. Pignati is in thoughts and doesn´t really listen to them. He remembers the time when his wife Conchetta was still alive.Tears run down his face and he breaks into sobs when he mentions Conchetta´s death.
• At the end of the chapter they start scating inside the house. Yet Mr. Pignati suddenly presses his right hand to his chest and falls to the bottom of the stairs.
  

• It is obvious that Mr. Pignati had a heart attack and therefore he is taken to hospital.
• John and Lorraine pretend being his children in order to be allowed both to stay in the house and to visit him in hospital. They keep the keys of his house.
• Lorraine first blames John for Mr. Pignati´s heart attack.
• The next day they visit him in hospital and have a ´small talk´ with him.
• Mr. Pignati seems to be well again. He is enthusiastic and sur eto be able to leave hospital soon.
• Mr. Pignati wants them to take care of Bobo and to look after the house while he is in hospital.
• Then Lorraine and John return to Mr. Pignati´s house where they feel comfortable.
• While Lorraine is preparing the meal, John goes upstairs and puts on a suit which belongs to Mr. Pignati.
  
  • they eat spaghetti with sauce
  • they watch TV
  • John tries to seduce Lorraine but doesn´t really have success. Although she is keen on how he looks in his suit she is too shy and clumsy to make love with him. However it´s the first time that they kiss each other.
    
    

• At the beginning of Chapter XII Lorraine and her mother have once again a conversation.
• Later John and Lorraine meet in town. It is the first time that John has combed his hair
• They phone the hospital and learn that Saturday is the earliest Mr. Pignati is allowed to leave.
• So they almost spend a week, having breakfast and dinner together in his house.
• On Thursday they go to a library because they need some information about "American Democracy".
• On Friday John keeps complaining about Lorraine and Lorraine starts to feel pity for John´s mother.
• She is almost driven crazy by his moods and his laziness.
• He refuses to help her in the household
  (He does not take out the garbage)
  (He does not help her clearing the table or washing the dishes)
• Lorraine is sure that she loves him and that he really likes her but she is too clumsy to do anything.
• At the end of Chapter XII she has a nightmare. Lorraine is pretty sure that the dream is an omen of death.
  (The dream foreshadows Mr. Pignati´s death. )
• John plans to make a big party this Friday evening as Mr. Pignati is due to return from hospital the next day.
  

• John and Lorraine prepare a cocktail party.
• Dennis is invited to the party but not Norton as he is such a tough boy.
• It´s their first possibility to return an invitation because they have never been allowed to make a party at home.
• Many of their ´friends´are invited but each of them has a problem all his own:
  
  - Helen is very fat.
  - Jane A. is much too tall and has therefore problems to find a friend.
  - Josephine is a complete waste and not worth mentioning.
  - Tony R. likes operes which makes him an outcast.
  - Marlon B is always worried about getting liver problems or something like that. In addition to   that he reads too much.
  - Nick L. is terrified of girls.
  
  
• Later on Lorraine phones her mother and tells her that she is with a girl friend having dinner together and doing her homework.
• At least at first, the party is a full success.
  
  -> more than 40 guest have come.
  -> the food is eaten in no time.
  -> a band plays music " the house really started to jump".
      So one can assume that they play the music verly loudly.
  -> Many are drunk
  
  
  The Party turns into a disaster
  
  
• At 10:30 Norton arrives. He´s angry not having been invited to the party.
• The stairs are draped with bodies at the end of the cocktail party.
• A cigarette burned a hole in a rug.
• One of Lorraine´s friends wears a dress that belonged to Conchetta but she´s too fat for it.
• Norton breaks Mr. Pignati´s wonderful pigs.
• The Pigman comes home and sees what is going on in his house.
  
  

• The police arrive and take John and Lorraine home. Mr. Pignati is shocked to see his house in a mess and starts crying in his bedroom. Helen K. has demolished one of Conchetta´s dresses, Conchetta´s pig collection is destroyed and a hole is burned in at least one of the rugs.
• John is too drunk to feel ashamed or anything like that whereas Lorraine feels pity for all that happened.
• Lorraine´s mother is both furious and concerned to see her daughter be taken home by a policeman. On the one hand she is angry about her daughter Lorraine because it´s obvious that she lied on the phone but on the other hand she is worried that her daughter might haven been touched sexually by an obscene old man.
• Lorraine has bad dreams all night and keeps thinking of Mr. Pignati. She feels so ashamed.
• The next day at eleven o´clock John phones Lorraine and they meet in town.
• After a short stop at Tony´s market they ring up the Pigman who answers in a low voice.
• John apologizes for the mess in his house and proposes his help but the Pigman has already tidied up.
• As Mr. Pignati denies her help John proposes to meet in the zoo in order to feed Bobo. Having pangs of conscience (Gewissensbisse haben) John and Lorraine would do anything to put things right again.
• Mr. Pignati agrees and so they meet at the zoo. Yet they can´t find Bobo anywhere.
• Instead they learn that Bobo died a week ago. Thereupon Mr. PIgnati is so shocked that he suffers a second heart attack which means his final death.
  
  

• Both now feel pity for all that has happened and in addition to that they know that they are to blame for the Pigman´s death.
• They are ashamed and ponder upon the past weeks. Lorraine blames John for that misery and especially for Mr. Pignati´s death.
• They seem to have learned that they are responsible for their own life and that nobody else is to blame for his death, not even Norton.
• From now on they do know that they can decide what tomorrow brings. Their actions of today influence the world of tomorrow. --> to the TOP

They complete one another:
Lorraine is a timid, shy and nervous person and likes being near someone who is daring(wagemutig) and strong.
On the other hand John likes being admired by Lorraine. Near her he feels strong and important. Maybe he also likes her conscientiousness , her helpfulness and her soliticious character, all these traits he lacks.