Autobiographical
Fiction--A Day No Pigs Would Die by
Richard Peck
1. Peck,
Richard. (1994). A Day No Pigs Would Die. New York: Laurel-Leaf.
2. Plot Summary. A Day No Pigs Would Die is told through the eyes of young Robert
Peck, the son of a Shaker farmer and pig slaughterer who live off the land. In
the beginning of the story Robert helps his neighbor’s cow give birth and in
return receives a sow that becomes his much-loved pet name Pinky. Later in the
story we find out that the pig is barren and Rob must help his father slaughter
the pig due to Pinky’s lack of contribution to the family’s needs. Through this
difficult experience Robert begins to understand what it means to be a man. In
the end, Robert’s father ends up dying slowly and at the age of 13 Robert assumes
the responsibility of the family farm.
3. Critical Analysis. A day no pigs would die is written in first person and everything
we see and hear is through the main character Robert Peck. From the beginning
of the story the reader is hooked with Robert skipping school, “I should have
been in school that April day” (P.8) because he has had enough of other boys
making fun of him at school because he’s different, “I’d teach him to make fun
of Shaker ways.” (P.8)
From the
very beginning we see the themes of life and new beginnings. In chapter 1 we
see the birthing of Apron’s calf with Robert’s help, “after a few bad tries, I
got one pant leg around her calf’s head and knotted it snug.” (P.9) Then
throughout the story we see the birthing of Miss Sarah’s litter, “No matter how
many times a barn cat has her kits, it’s a wondrous thing to see”(P.39), and
the beginnings of spring, “Most of the land lay open to sun; and it was soft
and brown, ready to be mated with seed.”(P.34) Here we also see the beginning
of the relationship between Pinky, the pig that Rob received for helping birth
Mr. Tanner’s calf, “You mean--this pig is going to be mine?, Yours, my boy.
Little enough for what you did.”(P.20)
This new
beginning also symbolizes the beginning of Robert’s slow transition from a
young ignorant boy to a much wiser, and responsible young man. At the beginning
of the story where we see the young character’s ignorance when he puts his arm
inside the cow’s mouth trying to help her breath, “somebody told me once that a
cow won’t bite. That somebody is as wrong as sin on Sunday…she bit and bit and
never let go.” (P.11) Later on when Rob’s father, Haven Peck is asking Rob
about how he tended to the apple trees in the orchard, Rob realizes the reason
they didn’t produce a good crop was because Rob didn’t treat the trees correctly,
“I did it wrong. That’s why the spanners were so numbered.”(P.87)
As the story
progresses and seasons change, so does Rob, based on the events that shape him
in becoming a mature, young man. In chapter 11 his father catches a weasel and
they bring Ira Long’s little terrier named Hussy to get her weaseled so that
she’ll be able to track weasels and eventually kill them. Little Hussy is put a
barrel along with the weasel. After the horrific sounds and bloody fight “the
weasel was dead. Torn apart into small pieces of fur, bones and bloody meat…The
dog was alive but not much more. One of her ears was tore off and she was wet
with blood…One of her front paws was chewed up so bad, it wasn’t a paw
anymore.”(P.82) So Rob insist that they kill the dog because she is suffering
and so they do, “Papa put a bullet in her, and her whole body jerked to a
quivering stillness.”(P.82) At the end of the chapter Rob buries Hussy, says a
prayer and tells her, “you got more spunk in you than a lot of us menfolk got
brains.”(P.83) showing his maturity evolving.
The climax
of the story takes place on a dark and cold winter in December when Rob’s
beloved Pinky must be put to death because, “She was bred and she was barren.
And she ate too much to keep as a pet.”(P.100) He’s father being a butcher, “stuck her throat
deep and way back, moving the knife back through the neck toward him-self,
cutting the main neck artery.”(P.102) At
this point Rob’s heart is broken and in a way killing Pinky is a rite of
passage into manhood, when his father says, “That’s what being a man is all
about, boy. It’s just doing what’s got to be done.” (Pg. 103) This event sets
the stage for what is to come next which is the slow death of Robert’s father.
His father
knows that he is dying and prepares rob by telling him, “Come spring, you
aren’t the boy of the place. You’re the man. A man of thirteen. But no less a
man. And whatever has to be done on this land, it’s got to be did by you,
Rob.”(P.91) In the end of the story, Robert’s father passes away, representing
Robert’s transition into manhood by him making the arrangements for his
father’s burial, and taking over the farm and taking care of his mother and
elderly aunt. Rob calmly, and maturely takes care of all the arrangements that
need to be made to bury his father, “I told Mr. Wilcox, who was a good Shaker
man and who took care of our dead.”(P.105)
I would
agree and disagree with Newsweek that “every page is diffused with wit and
charm and glowing warmth.” The first half of the story is filled with beautiful
scenes from the four seasons and the author’s use of sensory detail makes the
reader feel as if he were there in Learning Vermont. The humor is seen when Rob
is told by his Aunt Matty that he needs a tutor because he got a D in
English. Rob begins to laugh because he
thought he was going to get some unknown bad tasting remedy to fix him but
instead he says “I sure knew what a “tooter” was. Jacob Henry had one. It’s
real name was a cornet, and he played it in the school bad.”(P.43)
Unfortunately
the second half of the novel is not so humorous and lively, if anything its graphic
and cruel. In chapter 13, Mr. Tanner brings his boar named Samson to mate with
Pinky to prove that she is not barren. Here the mating ritual is very graphic,
“Pinky was squealing from his weight and the hurt of his forcing himself upon
her.”(P.95) The killing of the weasel, the shooting of little Hussy, the
slaughter of Pinky and the death of Robert’s father towards the end of the
story add to the stories recurring events that represent death in the novel.
The novel is
written in simple, colloquial language with phrases such as, “We’re beholding
to you.” And “I ought to lick you proper.”(P.15) and “I don’t cotton to raise a
fool.”(P. 15) this takes the reader right into the heart of the setting in
Learning Vermont. The story is also
filled with many metaphors such as, “clean as a cat’s mouth”(P.13) that add to
the richness of the language used by the characters.
If readers
would like to find out what happens to the farm after Rob takes over they can
find out by reading, A Part of the Sky,
the sequel to, A Day No Pigs Would Die.
4. Comments from other reviews
v “Reading this book is like sipping
hot cider in front of a crackling potbellied stove. Every page is suffused with
wit and charm and glowing with warmth.”- Newsweek
v “You’ll find yourself caught up in the novel’s
emotion from the very opening scene. . . . Love suffuses every page.”–The New
York Times
v "With plenty of Yankee common
sense and dry wit, and some pathos as the boy at 13 takes on the duties of a
man. For boys of this age and for the young of any age."--School Library
Journal.
v “A lovely book. . . . Honest, moving,
homely in the warm and simple sense of the word. . . . It is small, accepting
and loving and it succeeds perfectly.”–Boston Globe
Bibliography
Brownson,
Ann. School Library Journal, Apr2011, Vol. 57 Issue 4, p64-64.
Spark Notes.
8 June 2014. < http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/adaynopigs/context.html >.
Peck, Richard.
(1994). A Day No Pigs Would Die. New
York: Laurel-Leaf.
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