TOMAS OPPUS CAMPUS

San Isidro, Tomas Oppus, Southern Leyte

Contact No: 09486089319
Email: tomas_oppus@southernleytestateu.edu.ph
Website: www.southernleytestateu.edu.ph

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Erika A. Almoguera BSEd-English

Child and Adolescent Literature

The Adventures of Pinocchio By Carlo Carlo Collodi

Literary Analysis

In “The Adventure of Pinocchio”, authored by Carlo Collodi in 1883, tells about an

enchanted wooden puppet whose mischievous and lazy nature lands him in many
punishing situations. It is the story of Geppetto, a poor puppeteer who uses an enchanted
piece of wood to carve a marionette boy he calls Pinocchio. Throughout the novel, the
narrator and characters repeat didactic lessons about the importance of hard work and
respecting one's parents.

The main character of this novel is Pinocchio which means “little pine” that
denotes as “little selfish” according to the secret language of Collodi. In the novel, he was
described as rogue, naughty, impertinent, capricious, shameless person who falls prey to
temptation and misbehaves even with his father, Gepetto. The best-known feature of
Pinocchio is his nose which grows longer as he tells a lie. To emulate how one lie tends to
necessitate more lies to support it, Collodi depicts Pinocchio's nose growing
uncontrollably as his lying digs him into a deeper hole. His growing nose is a nightmarish,
tangible representation of the immoral behavior that adults are trying to train out of him.

Right in the beginning of the story, it is clear that the story is full of magic and
mischief wherein the puppet being crafted started to cries in pain and laugh. The author
begins the story with a puppeteer who are not shocked to the puppet he carves as it
becomes animated and even reacts to the puppet’s behavior like a father scolding his son.
As Pinocchio begins with his troublemaking, Gepetto spend the night in prison as he is
accused as an abusive parent to Pinocchio. So, he returns home alone and meets the
talking crickets which warning him about rebelling against parents. By this scene, the
author introduces the major theme which is about living with consequences. It also
displays the theme of being lazy as Pinocchio only wants vagabond life rather than
pursuing an education and job. Also, Collodi intended to impart moral lesson such as
sacrifice of parents and appreciation of the son as Pinocchio realizes his negative
behavior towards his father.
 TOMAS OPPUS CAMPUS
San Isidro, Tomas Oppus, Southern Leyte
Contact No: 09486089319
Email: tomas_oppus@southernleytestateu.edu.ph
Website: www.southernleytestateu.edu.ph

Excellence | Service | Leadership and Good Governance | Innovation | Social Responsibility | Integrity | Professionalism | Spirituality

On the following chapters, Collodi still shows the theme of punishments as

Pinocchio continue to misbehave. His interaction with fox and cat shows greediness and
dishonesty as he was fooled that the gold coins he has will be multiplied if he goes along
with them. Again, he faced consequences by suffering from the fox and cat’s brutal
attempts to rob and kill him for his gold. He would have been rejoicing with his father if
only he goes straight home instead of running for his life. After he was saved by a fairy,
Collodi shows the theme of dishonesty as Pinocchio lies that he still have the gold coins.
With those lies, Pinocchio’s nose grows longer that he cannot move which symbolizes the
he is trapped by his own lies. After the many circumstances he faced as a result of his
actions, he laments his miserable state and wishes he could go back in time and be a good
boy from the start—another of Collodi’s moralistic messages to his readers.

In exchange for allowing the polecats to steal chickens, the dog would receive a
chicken of his own. As a positive consequence of his irony behavior, Pinocchio receives
the gift of freedom. As Pinocchio find out that Gepetto is looking for him and he’s nearly
reaches him, he was thwarted by the storm and landed on the island full of hardworking
people. His laziness arises and believed that he isn’t made for work. Eventually, Pinocchio
redeems himself, eschewing his laziness and proving that he can be a diligent student.
However, Pinocchio uses dishonesty again to get out of trouble and continue to
misbehave doing negative decision makings which brings him into various consequences.
He turned into a donkey which symbolizes his laziness. In a nightmarish reversal of
expectations, he is forced to do nothing but labor because of his workshy natures. In his
last trials, he saved his father from the dogfish’s stomach which turned Pinocchio into a
new leaf. Finally the obedient and hardworking child every authority figure has
encouraged him to become, Pinocchio learns the value of sacrifice for the benefit of
others. A happy ending to an otherwise dark and moralistic tale, Pinocchio gets to live
with the positive consequences of his virtuous behavior.

Like many classics, Pinocchio has important moral lesson for children that
disobedience does not pay, telling lies is seldom prudent, and boys who love and take care
of their parents will be rewarded. It remains as one of the best children’s classics and has
many adaptations and even translated into different languages. Along this perilous
journey, the magical puppet learns how much turmoil, heart, and hard work it takes to
become a “real boy.” With a nose that grows larger with each lie he tells, Pinocchio has
become an enduring icon in children’s literature, and now his story is brilliantly
reimagined in this stunning gift edition.