Children and Divorce
Chapter 2 of this book is titled “Mum and Dad” and it is at this early point in the story that the happy family atmosphere assumed by the young protagonist evaporates. It only takes five more chapters to reach “Not Jack’s Dad” and the family unit changes according to that inference. The event which instigates the entire plot is precipitated by another member of this sudden stepfamily dynamic. Jack’s emotional connection to the title toy is deeply embedded within the emotional upheaval caused by his parents’ divorce.
Transitions and Replacements
The man that Jack’s mother has tapped to replace Jack’s dad in her life straddles the themes of emotional upheaval caused by divorce and adult expectations of easy transitions for children. The man who is “not Jack’s dad” is mirrored in the toy that is not Jack’s pig. A girl from school named Holly unexpectedly becomes Jack’s friend and protector and then, later, even more surprisingly becomes his stepsister. This transition from friend to family member has an emotional impact that is further compromised when Holly is the one responsible for Jack’s pig being lost. The pig is replaced with expectations that this transition will be an easy one for the boy. That the bulk of the plot is devoted to Jack’s attempts to find his beloved toy pig says everything about Jack’s own feelings toward how easily something meaningful can be replaced.
Disposability
The fantasy element of the book in which Jack goes in search of his beloved lost pig is arguably the section of the book which is most deeply settled in thematic realism. The story is partially a commentary on the undeniable fact that we live in a disposable world in which many of the most essential consumer products are constructed with built-in obsolescence. The consumers goods with which many people become most emotionally or psychologically connected—from automobiles to cell phones—are designed with the expectation of being replaced within just a few years. Jack’s odyssey to recover his lost pig takes him to a strange place called Disposable which conveys the underlying message that something that is so easily dispensable is by definition also lacking worth.
