Chapter Books

Pinocchio

productimage-picture-pinocchio-2-242_png_200x761_q85It seems like we’ve been reading Pinocchio aloud forever, but this week we finished it. The story is hailed as a classic, and it’s a very different animal than the Disney movie — as pretty much anyone who mentions the book will point out.

People who like the story often speak of it as a moral tale. It is that, though it’s really not about lying. Pinocchio’s nose does grow when he lies, but it’s a minor, passing element in the story. The more significant moral preoccupation is Pinocchio’s development of a heart; he grows in his consciousness and compassion for other people, particularly Geppetto (who made him as a puppet carved out of hard wood) and the blue-haired fairy (who watches over him, guardian-angel-like). Time and again Pinocchio fails his guardians, but they steadfastly love and forgive him. Finally he follows Geppetto into the belly of a sea monster (descending into hell, as some have interpreted it) and rescues him.

Everyone knows the ending: he becomes a “real boy.” In addition to being humanized, Pinocchio develops wisdom to counteract his original naivete. He’s duped several times in the story by scammers of various kinds, but by the end he has learned that “bad company corrupts good morals.”

It was a curious experience, reading this aloud. It felt strange to read “jackass” so many times during Pinocchio’s stay on Toy Island (I think it’s Pleasure Island in the Disney version), where another heavy-handed moral lesson is taught: love learning or you’ll become a donkey. There is quite a bit of darkness and brutality reported in a matter-of-fact tone, and a dream-like absurdity in Pinocchio’s adventures that I kept expecting the girls to react to. In fact it reminded me of one of my recurring dreams, in which I’m searching for something and various responsibilities go unmet because I can’t find what I’m looking for. Pinocchio’s simple goal of getting home to Geppetto is thwarted so many times by poor decisions, and with such bizarre consequences, that we start believing he might wake up and discover it was all a dream. He’s a picaresque hero, moving through space and time, but not really getting anywhere in terms of growth and change until the very end.

Umberto Eco acknowledges that Pinocchio isn’t a garden variety moral tale. He writes, “Pinocchio is one of the great subversives of the written page, a madcap genius hurtled along at the pleasure and mercy of his desires, a renegade who in many ways resembles his near contemporary Huck Finn.” Maybe the problem is that he’s far less likable than Huck. For the most part I find this a very odd story, and its categorization as a children’s classic is bewildering. I am not sure how much of my so-so experience with it has to do with the translation, which often seemed awkward, and the illustrations, which were cartoonish and failed to enhance the story at all. This version was on the new books rack at the library, and because it looked colorful, I picked it up. I have a feeling another translation might have impressed me more favorably. I guess I learned my own moral lesson — or at least, literary lesson: translation and physical presentation really do matter. Not that any of this bothered my read-aloud audience, both of whom were at the older end of the intended audience. They remained engaged till the very end and seemed to enjoy the story.

3 Comments

  • Amy @ Hope Is the Word

    I think my eldest might’ve tried to read this one before. I’ve never read it, but I have found my reading of novels of which I’ve only seen the very well-loved movies (Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins immediately come to mind) has been very interesting, to say the least.

  • hopeinbrazil

    I tried to read this to my boys when they were young and they begged me to stop since it was so dark. I haven’t given it a try since then. Thanks for your intriguing review.

  • Barbara H.

    This is one I hadn’t thought of reading – sometimes I forget that some of these well-known stories were originally books before they became films. But I’ve been amazed that some fairy tales were much darker than the books and film versions we have of them now. This doesn’t sound like one I’d want to check out.