40 Developmental Asset Essay on John Conlan
Have you ever wondered what makes your life complete? A recent study has come up with a list of 40 Developmental Assets that help lead teens build a jubilant and prosperous life. These assets allow people to address their life and see what assets they are lacking and what assets they possess. Throughout the novel, The Pigman, these assets play an immense role in the ultimate outcome of the story. In The Pigman one of the main characters is John Conlan and despite having an absence of family support and a lack of responsibility he is proven to be very caring and protective over the ones he cares about.
John was confronted with much adversity during the novel The Pigman, but the asset of Caring was very prominent throughout. In this novel John befriends an old man named Mr. Pignati and throughout the novel they grow very close, almost like family. A certain time in the book comes to where Mr. Pignati is being threatened and John becomes very protective. “I knew I’d kill Norton if he tried to hurt the old man.” (Zindell 95) Throughout the book Mr. Pignati has been nothing but kind to John and in turn, John is returning the favor by trying to protect him which shows that he is caring and benevolent. Throughout the book John also is described as caring by his best friend, Lorraine Jensen. She cares for him and he in turn cares for her. “It is a fact that John has compassion deep inside of him,...” (Zindell 11). Lorraine is able to
…I’ve become convinced that there are some clear and powerful measures that can be taken during this crucial time in a young person’s life. Some of the ones that helped me come to mind, from finding strong mentors to being entrusted with responsibilities that forced me to get serious about my behavior. (Moore 179)
not pretty clothes when she would be too old to wear them” (3). While Ann wants the money to pay off the mortgage, she is not pleased that John spends his time working. As stated on page 3, “[Working] was to deprive her of his companionship, to make him a little duller, older, uglier than he might otherwise have been”. His demanding efforts to make money goes unnoticed by Ann. His status as her husband is similarly unappreciated. A change of mind enters Ann's head when Steven enters the farmhouse. Ann begins comparing the two men, Steven as “erect, tall, square-shouldered” (6) while John is “thicket, heavy-jowled and stooped” (6). Steven seduces Ann, which leads to the pair sleeping together. By cheating on her husband, Ann's behaviour is not only disloyal, but ungracious also. Steven is also unappreciative of his friendship with John, as betrayed him and slept with his wife. Although John commits himself to pleasing Ann, she is not too content. Since Ann does not notice o respect John's attempts to gladden her, he is an unappreciated character who should be treated with far greater amount of respect and admiration from fellow characters.
Throughout the story John’s thoughts and words really bring him to life. While he is in a cemetery drinking and smoking, John says “I’m looking for anything to prove that when I drop dead there’s a chance I’ll be doing something a little more exciting than decaying.” This shows John’s curiosity about the future. John seems like the kind of person that is always eager to learn new things. At the very end of the story John says “They build their own cages, we could almost hear the Pigman whisper, as he took his children with him.” What John means is that many people in general build their own “cage” and they only let certain people in. In the story John, Lorraine and Mr. Pignati did just this. They each lived in their own separate worlds until they met each other. When they met they opened each other’s eyes to the outside world. In the last part of the quote John is describing how when Mr. Pignati died he took John and Lorraine’s childhood with him. When the three of them were together they acted like children. Mr. Pignati was like the father they never had and when he died a part of them died as well.
The field of study that examines patterns of growth, change, and stability in behavior that occur throughout the entire lifespan is called lifespan development. Lifespan development takes a scientific approach in its study of growth, change, and stability. This development emphases on human development. Developmentalists study the course of development in nonhuman species, the most popular examine growth and change in people. In contrast I will focus on the ways people and myself change and grow during our lives, with the consideration of stability in our live span. Together, these findings suggest that we will go through
As Bernstein (2010) points out, often times people with ADHD “zone out” and miss valuable parts of conversations. This results in them bouncing back, often with a quick lie in order to continue the flow of conversation. These lies occur so quickly in order to fill voids of conversation, and so often, that they can sadly become a habit.
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