"Death of a Pig"

“The Death of a Pig” written by E.B. White provides interesting insight of the relationship between a farmer and his pig.   The story overall has a very solemn tone when it uses describes various facets of the story.  The farmer describes society as desultory and at one point even says that he believes that the pig did suffer.  This use of diction with negative words helps to create this much darker tone.  The comparison that White makes to compare this relationship of the farmer and the pig to that of a parent and child is one that usually is not scene.  My father grew up on a farm and said he never really felt any attachment to the animals, which is usually the relationship portrayed in many writings between a farmer and his animals.  The sympathy that the farmer felt for the pig is a bit unusual.  I have a friend back home who used to raise pigs to sell at the fair very similar to how White describes the pig being bought in the spring and raised until it’s time for their slaughter in the fall.  My friend said that she very much felt a connection with her animal because she had to work with it and make sure that it was ready for the fair but she still was very happy to send it off to the slaughter house because in the most pigs are not meant to be pets.  She felt it was better to let it have a good short life rather than let it keep growing to the point that it can’t walk anymore because she felt she couldn’t kill it.  This side of empathy on the part of the farmer is rarely scene and even though the story still does not end well for the pig, it provides a different point of view that is refreshing to see even if the piece was written many years ago.