The Pigman Should Be Taught In Schools In The Pigman By Paul Zindel

In The Pigman (2005) by Paul Zindel, two teenagers, John and Lorraine, form an unusual friendship with an old man, Mr. Pignati. Over the past few years, this book has become one of many illicit books in schools because people believe that it is inappropriate. However, The Pigman should be taught in schools because it contains characters that many readers can relate to and teaches valuable lessons. Many students who read this book can relate to what the two main characters deal with at home. Mrs. Jensen, Lorraine 's mother, is very overprotective and is constantly reminding Lorraine to stay away from boys. When Lorraine says that she has been hanging out with kids at a local diner after school, her mother tells her that she is no longer allowed to go because there are always boys hanging around there. She does not want Lorraine hanging around boys because she believes that boys " 'only [have] one thing on their minds '" (46). Mrs. Jensen also tells her daughter that she is " 'not a pretty girl '" (11). Lorraine hearing this from her mother makes her become very insecure about her body

Many people believe that The Pigman should not be taught in schools because it contains bad role models and inappropriate content not suitable for young teenagers. They claim that John and Lorraine are poor role models because they made a bad choice and lied to Mr. Pignati in order to get money from him. Although they did lie to him at first, John and Lorraine eventually tell Mr. Pignati the truth about who they really were. They both realized that they had made a mistake that they needed to fix. Students will learn to do the right thing even if they do not feel like they should. Also, people believe that the cursing in the book is inappropriate for young readers. However, this is spurious because there are not many curse words mentioned in the book. Additionally, John uses symbols when he writes a curse word so that the reader can come up with another word. [add