47 pages • 1-hour read
The Christmas Pig
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Parts 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 7: “The Island of the Beloved” - Part 9: “Home”
Part 7, Chapter 50 Summary: “The Island of the Beloved”
Hours pass, and Hope wakes up Jack and the Christmas Pig, telling them to jump out of the tapestry and land near the island. Jack jumps out, landing in the shallow ocean water around the sunny island, which sports palm trees and white sand. Toys rush out to see what is happening, and Jack is overjoyed to see DP. He laughs and cries, then hugs DP and tries to explain everything.
DP greets Jack and invites him into his little beach house, where he lives with Jack’s old toilet-paper angel, which Toby the dog destroyed. Jack is amazed to be reunited with his old toys. DP explains that Jack and his mom’s love brought him and the angel to the Island of the Beloved when their bodies were destroyed in the human world. DP admits to Jack that he was broken apart when a truck drove over him on the highway; there is now nothing left for Jack to find but bits of cloth and beans. Jack is upset by this news and wants to take DP home. DP tells him that this is possible because Christmas Eve is a night for miracles, but Jack suddenly realizes that the Christmas Pig is not there with them.
Part 7, Chapter 51 Summary: “The Truth”
DP explains that the Christmas Pig cannot come to the Island of the Beloved; if Jack wants to take DP home, then the Christmas Pig must be sent to the Wasteland. DP assures Jack that the Christmas Pig chose to sacrifice himself in order to make Jack happy. Jack is upset because he has grown to love the Christmas Pig, who is such a loyal friend. Jack decides to rescue the Christmas Pig, and DP praises him for making the right choice. DP will live in happiness on the Island of the Beloved forever, and Jack and the Christmas Pig will return home to the human world. Jack and DP share an emotional hug, and the angel offers to help Jack find his way back to the Wastes and rescue the Christmas Pig.
Part 7, Chapter 52 Summary: “A Famous Friend”
The angel leads DP and Jack through the island’s beautiful streets until they reach the Grotto. They knock on a door, and Jack is astonished when Santa answers it. They explain their problem, and Santa offers to use his sleigh to drop Jack into the Wastes, although he cannot stay there to help the boy. Jack agrees and climbs into Santa’s sleigh. DP assures Jack again that he is making the right choice. Jack tearfully hugs DP one last time, then takes flight.
Part 7, Chapter 53 Summary: “The Sleigh Ride”
Santa whisks Jack into the sky, and they talk about Christmas magic and gifts. Jack assures Santa that he doesn’t need his Christmas wish of a bike if he can only find the Christmas Pig. Santa tells Jack that no one quite knows where the Loser came from, but the villain has always been greedy for Things that are loved, and it makes him angry that he cannot have them. Jack wonders where the Christmas Pig is now.
Part 7, Chapter 54 Summary: “Return to the Wastes”
As Jack and Santa skim over the Wastes, Jack spots Compass and asks where the Christmas Pig is. Compass says that the Loser has already brought the Christmas Pig to his lair. Jack hopes that the Loser has not eaten him. He tells Santa to drop him off, then asks the Compass to take him straight to the lair. Santa wishes him good luck and flies away.
Part 8, Chapter 55 Summary: “The Crater”
The Loser lives in a hole in a crater, where he keeps a fire burning to dispose of the bits of Things that he has eaten. Upon reaching the downward slopes leading to the crater, Jack says goodbye to Compass and carries on. He slips and begins sliding down the rubble and into the crater, terrified that he will land in the flames.
Part 8, Chapter 56 Summary: “The Loser’s Lair”
Jack sits up and surveys the lair. It is a massive underground cavern with a fire burning in the middle and caged toys and Things hanging around it. He spots the Loser on the other side of the cave, eating forks and straws, then sees the Christmas Pig hanging in a cage nearby, along with Jack’s broken angel. The Loser taunts the Christmas Pig and tells him that he will feel fear before he dies, but the Christmas Pig insists that he has nothing to lose and no fear of death.
As the Loser feasts on more Things, Jack climbs the walls of the cave until he reaches the Christmas Pig’s cage. The Christmas Pig is astonished to see him, and Jack tries to explain his decision to come back and rescue him. The Christmas Pig urges Jack to get home, as there are only a few more minutes until midnight in the human world, when Christmas Eve’s magic will be gone. Suddenly, a spotlight falls onto Jack as the Loser spots him.
Part 8, Chapter 57 Summary: “The Last Hope”
The Loser approaches Jack, excited to have a living boy in his cave. Jack asks him to let the Christmas Pig and the broken angel go, since they are special and he cares about them. The Loser laughs and says that Jack will soon be trapped in the Wastes and eaten. Jack has an idea. He tells the Loser that he cares about all of the Things in the lair and that he has a way to rescue them all. Because his words fill the Things with Hope, their cages break open, and they begin to scramble away. Jack sees the ceiling open up, and the more hope that the Things have, the bigger the hole becomes. The Things begin to float up toward the Land of the Living, and the Loser starts to panic. Jack hears a clock chiming midnight as the enraged Loser tries to grab him, but Jack holds onto the Christmas Pig and the broken angel’s hands and feels himself falling.
Part 9, Chapter 58 Summary: “Found”
When Jack wakes up, he is lying under the Christmas tree, holding hands with the Christmas pig and the angel. His mum wakes him up and tells him how worried she was when she couldn’t find him. Jack tries to explain what happened, and his mum assumes that it was all a dream. Jack notices that Santa has delivered his new bike and has also found the angel and put her back onto the tree. Jack realizes that this is how he, the Christmas Pig, and the angel were rescued from the Land of the Lost.
Holly comes out of her room and apologizes to Jack. She assures him that she won’t bully him anymore. Jack forgives her and remembers what he learned about her in the Land of the Lost. He tells her that she should stop gymnastics and embrace her new passion, music. Holly is amazed that he knows about her interest, and she admits she doesn’t like gymnastics anymore. Holly and Jack open one present each—a guitar and a bike— and say goodnight to each other. Jack cuddles the Christmas Pig and wishes him a merry Christmas as they fall asleep.
Parts 7-9 Analysis
In these passages, Jack must face his biggest danger yet: Coping with Loss and Change on a whole new level as he bids farewell to DP, confronts the Loser in his lair, and rescues the Christmas Pig. Throughout the novel’s climactic adventures, Rowling’s use of ominous imagery captures the dark and deadly nature of the Loser’s cave, intensifying the suspense surrounding Jack’s rescue mission. She vividly describes Jack’s dangerous descent into the crater, stating, “He went as fast as he dared, half-blinded by the fire and smoke coming from the hole in the middle of the crater, and soon […] he began to cough from the thick black smoke, which […] reeked of burning plastic, fabric, and foam” (248). These details implicitly categorize the Loser as a creature of refuse, garbage, and pollution, and it is clear that his lair is a place of filth that can only inflict harm and misery on those trapped within it.
As the story reaches its climax, the characters reach new heights in their efforts at Forging Bonds through Loyalty and Sacrifice. As Jack comes to save the Christmas Pig, who was himself willing to give his life for Jack’s happiness, this bold rescue mission confirms that both characters are equally courageous and generous of spirit. Even before Jack makes his way to the Loser’s lair, the Christmas Pig’s secret plan to give himself up to the Loser reveals his commitment to the boy. As DP explains to Jack, “He knew your heart from the beginning and he believed he could never be to you what I am. So he decided to sacrifice himself, because your happiness was more important to him than his own” (228). However, as Jack confronts the possibility of his new friend’s death “when it was too late,” he suddenly understands that he has “come to love CP, not instead of DP, but quite separately, for his brave and good self” (230). By risking his own safety to rescue the Christmas Pig, Jack shows that his new understanding of the importance of loyalty and sacrifice.
In the end, Jack also wins his own internal battle of coping with loss and change when he realizes that the best antidote to sadness and despair is the new friend he met in the Land of the Lost: Hope. By channeling his own hope and encouraging the Things to regain theirs, Jack breaks the Loser’s power and rescues everyone in the lair, including the Christmas Pig. To emphasize the philosophical importance of hope, Rowling describes the joyful moment when the Things’ collective hope frees them from their predicament. As she states, “The hole grew larger and larger. It was wide and golden, and then the real magic happened: instead of dropping a single shaft of golden light, […] the sparkling, circling light descended in a spiral and [saved] hundreds and hundreds of astonished, delighted Things” (259). This momentous ending emphasizes the role of hope in creating new beginnings and breaking free from the negativity that comes with loss.
Upon Jack’s return home, the author further emphasizes the importance of accepting changes with good grace, for Holly has matured in Jack’s absence and realizes that she must stop coping with her own sadness by bullying Jack. As Holly tells him, “I believe you were in the Land of the Lost. […] And I’m glad you saw DP and that he’s happy. And I’m sorry—so, so sorry […]. And I promise I won’t bully you, not ever again” (268). With the children’s reconciliation, they realize that their respective experiences have helped them to accept all the changes in their family structure.
As Jack and the Christmas Pig settle into their new life together in the human world, they celebrate their success in forging bonds through loyalty and sacrifice. After all the pair’s adventures together, the Christmas Pig is now Jack’s favorite stuffed toy. The two cuddle together, just as Jack always did with DP, and Jack finds his new friend just as comforting. As the boy lies “cuddled up in bed breathing in CP’s smell, which was of canal water and smoke,” he knows that the Christmas Pig will “eventually come to smell of home, and of the warm cave under Jack’s blankets” (270). Notably, the novel’s final scenes hint that the magic of Christmas Eve will continue long after the holiday is over, for the Christmas Pig is still “alive” enough to whisper “Good night, Jack” (270) to his beloved friend. These scenes suggest that Jack will grow to treasure the Christmas Pig just as much as he did DP.
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