Zindel had a Pig Man just like John and Lorraine who helped him in his life and accepted him to become the talented author which it really is. He worked first as a technical writer at a chemical company, then as a high school chemistry teacher. While teaching he continued to write plays, his plays Marigolds were soon made into a television show. A children's book editor at Harper and Row asked Zindel if he wanted to be a writer, and he agreed. He soon came out with The Pigman, a story about two teenagers who have an unlikely friendship with an old man. Paul Zindel was born on May 15, 1936 in Staten Island, New York. When John and Lorraine started messing around with Mr. Pignati, their entire lives went from flawed to terrible. This happened because neither John nor Lorraine were mature enough to be friends with Mr. Pignati. They were two unreliable sophomores who threw parties and pulled immature pranks. When they finally realized what maturity was, it was too late, they had already caused too many difficulties in Mr. Pignati's life, causing him to have a stroke and ultimately his death. Which prompts John and Lorraine to write an epic about Mr. Pignati, so that he will always be remembered as a kind, fun-loving old man. This had helped them out of their troubles and treated them as their parents should have treated them all along. He was the only one who truly cared for them and treated them well, receiving piles of gifts and compliments like they had never seen before. Paul Zindel uses literary elements, symbolism and foreshadowing to express the theme, true maturity can only be achieved when one abandons the carefreeness of adolescence, while maintaining a child's sense of joy and wonder. Paul Zindel uses...... middle of paper......enough to be friends with an old man like Mr. Pignati and because of this ultimately led to Mr. Pignati's death. Zindel tells us that there is a line between the young and the old that must not be crossed, or he will suffer the consequences of maturity. Works Cited Buller, Jeffrey L. "The Pigman." Masterplots II: Fiction Series for Children and Young Adults (1991): 1-2. Literary reference center. Network. January 23, 2014.Clarke, Loretta. "The Pig Man: a novel about adolescence." English newspaper 61.8 (November 1972). Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Carolyn Riley and Phyllis Carmel Mendelson. vol. 6. Detroit: Gale Research, 1976. Literature Resource Center. Network. January 22, 2014.Wilson, Nance S. “ZINDEL, Paul.” Continuing Encyclopedia of Children's Literature (2003): 848-849. Literary reference center. Network. January 24, 2014.Zindel, Paolo. "The Pig Man." turn on. Np, nd Web. January 22. 2014.