"You killed our little brothers" reference/foreshadowing theme in which Katurian kills Michal

Reversal to child's death

Reasoning/logic

Revenge

Spite

the torture inflicted upon Michal and the violence upon the girl from Little Jesus by adults that are trying to push a child to their breaking points and seeing what will result from being pushed that far

pg 33 "'You don't write about little green pigs any more, do you?'"

the Pillowman is in the final telling (pg 102-103)

The "Othering" of Man

Happiness and can it be forgotten.

Is it worth living a long, terrible life or a short, happy life?

Is it justifiable to kill for a "good" cause?

Is something worth it in the present if it will only be reversed in the future?

Religion/Christianity & the Afterlife

abuse

family dynamics

legacy

Jealousy

Religion

Individuality

Resisting conformity

Bullying

Controlling "caretakers"

Repeats "that little deaf boy" in some variation about 13 times

Racist (description of Chinese man & boy)

Ableist

"That was a happy ending" pg 60

"Once upon a time," pg 31

Racist stereotyping of Chinese people

Isolation of the old man in the tower

Children put in harmful situations

Little boy = similar to Michal, theme of mental incapacity

Tragedy

Emulates Katurian's stories at first

Odd methods of salvation

The pied piper is actually the cart man

It's suggested that the pied piper brought the rats in order to have an excuse to take the kids

Has mercy on the kid by cutting off his toes because he shared a sandwich with him

Who's who/ who dies in different versions

pg 34 "he burnt the story," but someone else threatens to burn his stories

Happy disposition

Barefoot

Unique green pig becomes like everyone else

The pink pigs become green pigs

The original green pig stays pink and becomes a bit peculiar again

Original pink pigs cry like babies when they become green

At the start, one pig was sad while the others were happy. At the end, one pig is happy and the others are sad.

deception: the Pied Piper bringing the rats to create the problem for the villagers but using that to achieve his real goal which is to take the village children

suffering leads to better outcomes: the boy getting his toes cut off can't follow the Pied Piper so he survives

kindness is rewarded: the boy offers his sandwich to the Pied Piper and he saves his life

pillow over parents heads + pillow over michal's head

Katurian not caring that he might die, he just doesn't want his stories to die. He wants them to live on

Enforcing conformity - especially with farmers

Changing colors/faces

Repeated bullying

Repeated Biblical references and prayer

Inability to return to what color they used to be

No child death (that is discussed at least)

"Uh-huh." "Ah-hah" after discoveries are made about each man (Rapist, Murderer, man in cage)

The caged man is worse than a murderer or rapist, even a nun cannot pray for him.

"Uh-huh" "Ah-hah"

Refers to the caged man as "our man"

"The last words our man ever says are 'Will I go to Hell?' And the last sound he ever hears is the highwayman quietly laughing." (18)

gibbet= gallow

Repetition of the phrases "excessive fucking force", "entirely innocent individual", and "two wrongs do not make a right"

Excessive "fuck"s, emphasizing how strongly Ariel feels

'Good policeman' with variations on the words 'good' and 'policeman' -- Tristan

"Two wrongs do not make a right" - Tristan

Sense of justice: Ariel wants to be known as a protector of children and is willing to do anything to make that happen.

Aftermath of trauma

Retribution: Because Ariel cannot take out his anger on his father, he gets catharsis out of torturing/killing/beating up those who harm children. - Tristan

Hypocrisy: Ariel talks very negatively throughout this monologue about how he despises people who would be violent blindly towards children, yet his answer is to be blindy violent. This all comes to a head when he mentions that he, like his father became a violent alcoholic, which does satisfy the comedic beat, but also proves that while he holds disdain for his father, Ariel is an imperfect character whose tragic flaw is that no matter how far he tries to run, he is running in the circle his father left for him. - Tristan

The "sense of justice" theme gets turned around when Ariel realizes how awful it would be to torture Katurian with the electrodes, but feels that it is a suitable punishment for even writing a story about killing children.

It is revealed that Ariel's fantasy of being a savior for children spawned from him having an adverse childhood, wishing he had someone to protect him from danger, specifically a better father figure.

Ariel is against the murder of kids, but not against the murder of adults.

Rather than giving things (violent punishments) to adults who harm kids to cause fear and punishment, Ariel's dream is to have kids give things (sweets) to him out of respect and gratitude. - Tristan