Blog Leader. "Death of a Pig"

I thought this essay by E.B. White illustrates how close and interdependent of a relationship farmers can have with their animals. In the essay the farmer speaks of making multiple trips throughout the day to try to heal his pig that has come down with an unknown illness. The farmer explained the usual routine of raising a pig to be slaughtered, but he spoke of the pig with such emotion that it made me think if the animal were to get better; would he have even slaughtered it? I guess that you could look at this essay in different ways. One being   that his concern was so immense for the pig, because his own well being depended on the pig’s health getting better. Or what I would like to believe is that in tending to the ailing pig, he grew an attachment and wanted to do anything he could to make the animal feel better. The farmer did speak of hot dry weather, so I could see the importance of the pig to the farmer being both too.

There was even a collective mourning from the community when the news spread of the passing of the pig. This tells me how important the animals must be to all the farmers well being. The farmer also speaks of not seeing people for extended periods of time so I think that the animals at the farm must also serve as an emotional support to those that raise them, even if it is sometimes to sustain his own well being. I found the essay to be a funny one too. Especially when the farmer speaks of dinner dates and making the conclusion of there being a conspiracy to make dinner dates at times that are inconvenient to the ones involved.