I’m not sure how particularly Australian it is, but phrases such as, ‘Well, Pig flipped his wig’ add to the humour. The use of idiomatic expression in this book is particularly appealing. The morality in this picture book for young readers is just a little more complex than that, should the reader be old enough to recognise it. This allows us to empathise with Pig a little, too, and results in a story that isn’t black-hat, white-hat. Is that a self-satisfied grin if ever you saw one? My daughter definitely feels sorry for Trevor, and was even a little upset when I laughed, but this grin is definitely for the adult co-readers if not for the children themselves - Trevor knows full-well that he is the Designated Good Dog. Take a look at the following facial expression: The interesting thing about Trevor (apart from his hilariously Australian name) is that he seems to know that he’s the goody-two-shoes of this story.
He thereby projects his own failings onto his opponent, making the insult even more comical. When Pig tells Trevor he is ‘a sausage-shaped swine’, this demonstrates the ultimate lack of self-awareness after all, Pig has been named after a swine.
The main character in a good story is not self-aware of his moral need, otherwise you have no story at all. Notice that on the penultimate spread, Pug’s bandages are shielded by the arm of the clown toy, who has sort of come to life as a character in its own right…Turn the page and we see what has really happened. The close up is necessary because we need a bit of a build up - to be given the wider context so quickly would ruin the surprise ending. Next we see wonderful use of the close up, on Pig and Trevor’s faces. Pig’s lack of character change is all the more comical because the previous two double spreads lead us to think that this is your average moralistic story about a dog who learned to share: The character arc has happened in Trevor, who has realised that Pig needn’t always be the top dog (quite literally) around here. He may be just as selfish as he ever was, but wrapped up in bandages, there’s nothing he can do about Trevor using his toys. The transgressive thing about this story is that Pig has not necessarily changed at all. Blabey makes the most of this discomfort in the illustrations, and the following facial expressions (from the subsequent book, Pig the Fibber) say it all: Trevor and Pig, reluctant housematesĪ note on Pig’s scope of change: Usually in picture books (and indeed in film for adults), main characters have some sort of epiphany and realise they’d better start treating others better. Here we have the naturalistic environment of two dogs pushed together by dog-owners oblivious to the machinations of dog-friendship. In real life, people who don’t like each other tend to avoid each other, so storytellers must contrive naturalistic scenes in which opponents have to somehow work out their differences. The main character and the opponent must find themselves thrown together. Pig desires to keep all of his toys to himself. Main characters also need an obvious desire. Pug’s moral need is that he needs to start treating other dogs better, and learn to share his toys.
Pug’s psychological need is that he’s scared that if he shares his toys he’ll lose control of them. In Pig the Pug, the character’s moral and psychological needs are spelt-out for the young reader on the very first page:
Pig ends up covered in bandages, completely unable to escape Trevor’s attentions. He piles up all his toys and sits on top of them, but the pile collapses. Trevor suggests they play together, but Pig refuses. Pig is greedy and selfish and refuses to share his toys. Pig the Pug and Trevor the sausage dog live together in a flat.
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