Taran Bansgopaul - 2S

“Pig money”

The name of the story is entitled “Pig Money” and the author of the story is Elizabeth Walcott.
The perspective in which the narrator is written in the third person. There are two different forms
of language the story includes: Creole and broken english.

The paragraph is about a girl named Ianthe and her family being in poverty, she takes care of a
hog that she will sell soon. Everyday she goes with a bucket to get hog food and get water for
her mother from the standpipe. People would refer to the animal as a hog but when you sell the
hog it would be considered as profit named “Pig Money”. Eventually, they find out how her
brother Joe has a scholarship. Their parents were discussing how they would deal with the
expenses of Joe’s scholarship, specifically the clothes for him to attend school. The father said
that they have no other way to sell Ianthe’s Hog for money for Joe’s school expenses but the
mother argued that it was her own hog but the father said “Cahn help dat,” “it got to sell to buy
de t’ings Joe needed…” Ianthe said how she was going to buy some items such as a skipping
rope and a pencil with the money sold from the hog but the father disagreed and told her to
“shut up.” The mother comforted her, telling her how she is not ready for big school. Eventually,
her father told her to go get hog food although she was reluctant and knew she would get no
money from the profit of the hog she went to get hog food as she was afraid of her father.
Finally, Joe standing there saying nothing he said “Yuh shan’t have to go fuh no mo’ hog - food'
' and Ianthe said' ' Yuh goin’ to do good at school, Joe? Yuh goin’ be a great man like Pappie
say?

The events of the story take place in poverty, Ianthe house was on a high hill overlooking the
red-roofed houses dotted about on the green-and-brown green land sloping down to reach the
beaches and behind her house the hill was higher with small houses all over the hill. While in
front there was an ocean and even sand. The story says how all the hill, sea and sky was
“Nature’s masterpiece”. They were all shades of blue, green and white. An example of imagery
used in the story is “In front was a vast expanse of ocean, shading from indigo-blue to emerald-
green and a serried line of breakers bursting over the reef on to the beige-coloured sand. This
line includes visuals as it describes what is in front of the hill and how it looks in the story of “
Pig Money”.

One character that interest is Joe the reason i choose this character is because of his attitude
towards his sister specifically, on how he “Yuh shan’t have to go fuh no mo’ hog - food' to his
sister as he felt guilty and bad about himself on how she had to get hog-food and knowing how
all the money would go to him for school because of his scholarship. Showing that he cares
about his sister more than himself as he knows his sister is sacrificing all her hard work for his
own sake. We can see that Joe has a lot of sympathy for his sister as he said “When I’m a man,
I promise, I promise…” showing that he cannot bear to see his sister cry losing all sense and
even crying infront of his sister. He lost all words when he saw his sister cry he couldn't express
how he felt because “all he wanted to do for himself, for his parents and all above, for Ianthe
who had to give up her pig money to help him to go to the big school. Showing how much guilt,
pity and sympathy he has for his sister which is a bond that could never be broken.

There was much to like about this story, mainly how the narrator described the setting of the
story and how it looked. The characters were very unique; they all had different views on what
to prioritize as the father prioritized the son (Joe) as he got a scholarship and was depending on
him to do good in school to make it in life and the mother, although having some sympathy,
eventually agreed with the father. The interesting part was how Ianthe would be so dedicated to
feeding the hog to buy her skipping rope and pencil box. This story was very detailed and as
said the characters all were unique in their own way. This story as said in the story shows how “
Men must work and women must weep”.