The Pigman Essay

The 40 Developmental Assets are the positive building blocks that young people use to guide them to a successful future. These assets can even be seen in fictional book called The Pigman by Paul Zindel. One of the 40 developmental assets thats in The Pigman is “responsibility”. Responsibility is the ability to act or decide something by yourself. Responsibility or lack of responsibility is seen in The Pigman when John and Lorraine take responsibility for their lies, when John and Lorraine throw a wild party at Mr. Pignati’s house, and how John always drinks and smokes.
One way responsibility is seen in The Pigman is when John and Lorraine take responsibility for their lies. Well, at the beginning of the book, we learned that John is a frequent liar. He lies to get out of trouble. So he told Mr. Pignati that they are charity workers. Later on in the book, John reveals that him and Lorraine aren’t adult charity workers and says, “ We just had to be honest with you because we like you more than anyone we know. ” (Zindel 102) That quote showed that John was really starting to care for Mr.
Pignati and he didn’t want to live his life on one big lie. In this way, John and Lorraine took responsibility for their lies they created. One way responsibility isn’t seen in The Pigman is when John and Lorraine threw a wild party at Mr. Pignati’s house. One day out of the blue when John, Lorraine and Mr. Pignati were hanging out, Mr. Pignati had a terrible heart-attack and was rushed to the hospital. John thought it was a great idea to throw a party so he said, “ Don’t you think Mr. Pignati wants us to have a social life? He smiled, his great big eyes glowing. (130) That quote doesn’t relate to responsibility because during the party many things happened that John and Lorraine didn’t anticipate to happen. Music was played so loud, you could hear it outside. Also Mr. Pignati’s precious pigs got destroyed and his dead wife Concetta’s dress got ripped and ruined. In this way, John and Lorraine didn’t take responsibility for their actions. Another way responsibility isn’t seen in The Pigman is how John is always smoking and drinking. Well, in the beginning of the book, Lorraine was talking about John’s dad and how he was a heavy drinker until he developed sclerosis of the liver.

And she thinks he influenced John to do these things at a very young age. Lorraine is always trying to show John what drinking and smoking can do to you. Once Lorraine showed John the book on Sigmund Freud and said, “I almost had him convinced that smoking was an infantile, destructive activity when he pointed out a picture of Freud smoking a cigar on the book’s cover. ” John replied, “If Freud smokes, why can’t I? ” Then Lorraine said, “Freud doesn’t smoke anymore…. He’s dead. ” (8) This quote shows that John really doesn’t care that smoking and drinking can do terrible things to your body.
He doesn’t care because he drinks and smokes to escape his problems. In this way, John isn’t taking responsibility for his own health. One of the 40 Developmental Assets thats seen in the novel The Pigman by Paul Zindel is “responsibility”. When John and Lorraine take responsibility for their lies, when John and Lorraine throw a wild party at Mr. Pignati’s house, and how John always drinks and smokes are some ways The Pigman shows characters acting responsibly and characters acting irresponsibly. Its clear when people act responsibly things turn out much better for everyone.