Exploratory/Expository

Mahir Rahman

Hidden from Family Tradition

Joao Ubaldo Ribeiro discusses in “It Was A Different Day When They Killed the Pig” about a family’s tradition of killing a pig, and how their son, Aloisio, is affected emotionally through the killing. Aloisio is depended on by his family, to kill a pig one day but his emotions and feelings weaken him into doing so. In the story, “It Was a Different Day When They Killed the Pig”, Freud’s concepts of wishful impulse and infantile sexuality are displayed through the change in the behavior of the main character, Aloisio due to his family’s yearly tradition of killing a pig. These two ideas of Freud are expressed in Aloisio’s change from being a child into an adult. 

Aloisio wants to confront his father and question him about the traditions of killing pigs,  however, he is scared of his father’s reactions and develops this concept by Freud called “wishful impulse”. The story shows a good relationship between the father and son, but Aloisio tends to questions his father’s tradition. Freud quotes that “Wishful impulses…, without them the reaction to later traumas would have taken a normal course” (Freud 2228). By hiding your thoughts in the present, you are making benefits for it at the same time. In the story,  it says “But did not dare ask the father why he was going to do that, not so much because he was afraid the father would be angry”(Ribeiro 188). Aloisio developed many questions in his mind, however, they were all pushed back because of him thinking how his father would respond. These actions result in another Freud concept called repression.  In Freud’s second lecture, he explains that during the repression, “we’re now offering opposition to the forgotten material’s being made conscious, must formerly have brought about the forgetting and must have pushed the pathogenic experiences in question out of conscious” (Freud 2212). This process of repression is similar to what the main character Aloisio was going through. In the process of killing a pig, Aloisio goes through intense emotions of fear and acts of repression to control his traumatic experience. Aloisio witnesses his father killing a pig, however, the whole time he is looking at the eyes of the pig. Aloisio develops emotions where he starts feeling bad for the pig and ends up crying. These emotions built up into fear and Aloisio wanted to hide from it, he uses “going to the bathroom” as a way to hide from these fearful emotions. In the story, it says, “But he could not keep himself from feeling an immense fear when after all the preparations and rites he had never imagined” (Ribeiro 190). Aloisio wanted to isolate himself from these things his father does. These feelings build-up, but are unable to be expressed emotionally. They need an outlet to be released but are expressed physically.

Similar to wishful impulse, Freud’s concept of infantile sexuality is also displayed in the story. In the story, Aloisio watches his father kill the sow Noca. If Aloisio showed emotion,  then that was considered a sign of weakness. As Aloisio’s says, “If it was me, Aloisio thought, people would laugh” (Ribeiro 189). This would show to Aloisio’s parents that he is weak and he would not become a man because of these feelings. Aloisio wanted to prove to his parents that he would enter adulthood and become a man. In the story, it says, “But there were some children whose pig killers were their own fathers” (Ribeiro 187). This shows that children, mostly the sons, follow their father’s footsteps and will perform those acts when they are older. Due to his father being pig killers, Aloisio will eventually learn from the influence of their parents.  This connects to what Freud says in his lecture. Freud quotes “The child takes both of its parents, and more particularly one of them” (Freud 2232). This conveys that a child mostly follows one of the two parents. In this case, it is Aloisio trying to follow his father. In Aloisio’s mind, he wants to become a person who kills pigs as well, but he has repressed thoughts due to his fear. His fear is what builds his emotions and thoughts up to repression. During the process of killing a pig,  Aloisio forced himself to be there when actually he never wanted to be there. These emotions of Aloisio show that he is still a child and it would take him time to handle this situation. Aloisio was traumatized because of the killing and was on the verge of breaking down and never being able to stop crying. 

Ultimately, Freud’s concepts of wishful impulse and infantile sexuality are displayed entirely in “It Was a Different Day When They Killed the Pig”, through the change in Aloisio’s behavior.  He grew up watching his father kill the pig, but was never happy. Aloisio wanted to experience manhood so he could be worthy to his parents and society. He was willing to do anything, even watch the killing of the pig. Aloisio had a relationship with the sow Noca and it being killed traumatized him. The death of the sow Noca first exists in his conscious and then is repressed into the unconscious mind. Wishful impulse and repression are expressed in Aloisio by his change from being a child into an adult through the killing of the pig. Through Freud, nothing should be hidden, especially if it’s something about how you feel. Your life is depended on the decisions that you make and how you feel about certain things.