During our class discussion of The Pigman, we talked about Lorraine’s role as a female narrator. Especially since The Pigman is sandwiched between two exceedingly masculine novels in our reading list, The Outsiders and The Chocolate War, examining Lorraine’s narration provides some insight into the role of the female voice in YA lit. It would not be inaccurate to make the generalization that the plots which surround female narrators in YA tend to center around romance. Seventeenth Summer is an obvious (and early) example of this trend, and this trend certainly continued in many of the female-narrated YA novels that I encountered as a teen. Contrasted with male-dominated books like The Outsiders and The Chocolate War, where a central conflict is not romance, but power structures and violence, this seems to send the message that girls care about boys, and boys care about fighting.

This is obviously not a groundbreaking revelation, but it does provide a framework through which we can approach the half-male, half-female narration in The Pigman. Lorraine does not spend the whole story pining over her attractive male friend. When she discusses her feelings for John, it isn’t filled with flowery imagery à la Seventeenth Summer; she only mentions it a couple of times near the end of the novel, and it certainly is never the central focus of the plot or even her own personal character development. Lorraine certainly has her flaws, but she also is the voice of reason in several points of the story. She is also a seemingly relatable character- and probably (and importantly) not just to female readers. In a genre where boy-crazy, clique-obsessed girls are a commonly-used female voice, Lorraine’s narration made The Pigman refreshing to read.