Sunday, October 20, 2013

In The Pigman by Paul Zindel, what does John write on the table?

In the first
chapter of 's , John is the narrator and he is typing on a typewriter in
the school's library. He introduces himself by giving examples of rebellious things that he has
done in school. The first example is being the Bathroom Bomber. He claims to have set off
twenty-three bathroom bombs, but now he is bored with that. His next high school claim to fame
is organizing what he calls "fruit rolls." This is when he gets every kid to buy an
old apple at lunch on Wednesdays to roll at substitute teachers during the next class period.
Ironically, he says the following right before writing on the desk before him:


"But I gave up all that kid stuff now that I'm a sophomore. The
only thing I do now that is faintly criminal is write on desks. Like right this minute I feel
like writing something on the nice polished table here. . ." (6).


John does a lot worse than writing on desks for sure. He's a liar,
smoker, drinker, partier, and a swindler. The way he and Lorraine get to know Mr. Pignati is
because he cons the poor man out of $10.00 by claiming he and Lorraine work for charity. On the
other hand, John is also a pretty funny guy and he writes the following on the library
desk:

"HELP ME!!! A rotten science teacher has given
me a drug to change me into a teeny weeny mosquito. . . Please help me. . . Please help me"
(6).

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