Death of a Pig

I think Jason was correct in saying that this piece was predominantly about the relationship between a person and an animal. This was showcased by his relationship with the pig and also with his dog, although the main subject was the pig. I had quite a few questions while reading this such as:

Was this his first time raising pigs? Was this his first pig who died? Where did his sense of guilt and grief come from? Did he feel like he failed as a farmer or as a caregiver? And how does this sense of guilt play into the fact that he is a pig farmer who raises animals for slaughter?

Although I couldn't conclusively answer any of these questions, I could tie in my own personal experience which made it easier to relate. For awhile my younger brother raised ducks for fun, but after they reproduced my dad would usually slaughter the younger ducks because it's quite hard to care for 20+ pet ducks. I usually kept my distance because I'm a vegetarian and I knew that in the end they would become meat ducks. At one point, we had a duckling who came down with some sort of sickness and I was the one who began caring for him. I had to feed him all of his meals and even took him outside in the grass to play. In the end he died and it was pretty heartbreaking. I feel like this is a similar experience to the farmer in the story, but we have different ideas of what animals are to used for.

The author used descriptive imagery which helped develop a fuller story line and used plenty of personification. I found both of these methods to be very fitting for this type of essay.