48 pages • 1 hour read
Carlo CollodiThe Adventures of Pinocchio
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1883A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
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Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
Pinocchio’s Burned Feet and Hunger
Content Warning: The source material uses outdated and offensive language about individuals with physical and intellectual disabilities. This guide includes this language in quoted material when necessary.
Pinocchio runs away from home, which ultimately leads to the arrest of his father, Geppetto. Pinocchio is pleased with this turn of events and happily returns home. However, the wise talking cricket advises him that running away from home was a poor decision: “Woe to boys who refuse to obey their parents and run away from home! They will never be happy in this world, and when they are older they will be very sorry for it” (8). Pinocchio regrets it even sooner than the cricket suggests; without his father, he has no food and is hungry and miserable. He huddles close to the fire after a bucket of water is tipped on his head in town, but this leads to his wooden feet burning off during the night. Pinocchio’s anguish at this turn of events is evident in his distressed explanation to Geppetto: “‘I came home and put my feet on the stove to dry them because I was still hungry, and I fell asleep and now my feet are gone but my hunger isn’t! Oh!—Oh!—Oh!’ And poor Pinocchio began to scream and cry so loudly that he could be heard for miles around” (13).
This conforms to the pattern established by Collodi, whereby Pinocchio misbehaves and then, as a consequence, suffers discomfort or distress. His burned feet and hunger are a form of symbolic poetic justice; Pinocchio continues to suffer throughout the fable as he ignores the advice of his caregivers. This alludes to the didactic nature of Collodi’s fable, which aims to teach children to behave, to listen to their elders, and to study and work hard.
The Animals in the City of Simple Simons
Through the characters in the City of Simple Simons, Collodi continues to employ literary features typical of fables, such as animals as tropes of moral or immoral behavior. These animals symbolize the existence of exploitative, duplicitous, rich individuals, as well as exploited masses (the “Simple Simons”) who unwittingly fund the lifestyles of the rich. The fate of the “combless chickens,” “tailless peacocks,” and butterflies who had “sold all their lovely colors” warns the readers of the importance of being skeptical and discerning before investing money with unscrupulous but charming individuals (38). The exploitative individuals who gain their wealth through unscrupulous methods are illustrated through the animals who navigate the dirty and impoverished streets in “beautiful coaches” (38). Tellingly, these animals are vultures, foxes, and hawks, which are traditionally characterized as wily, deceitful, and immoral.
The Donkeys From the Land of Toys
Collodi’s belief that people who do not study or work hard become metaphorical donkeys—indolent and unintelligent—is allegorically represented in the fate of the little boys in the Land of Toys, who turn into donkeys after five months of recreation: “[F]ate has decreed that all lazy boys who come to hate books and schools and teachers and spend all their days with toys and games must sooner or later turn into donkeys” (78).
The fairy warns Pinocchio that “boys who do not listen to their elders always come to grief” (69). The fairy’s warning is echoed in the warning from the weeping donkey, who tries to repeatedly buck Pinocchio off (a clue warning Pinocchio to remain with the fairy, rather than make the mistake of going to the Land of Toys): “Remember, little simpleton! Boys who stop studying and turn their backs upon books and schools and teachers in order to give all their time to nonsense and pleasure, sooner or later come to grief” (74).
Pinocchio turning into a donkey is foreshadowed in this warning, as well as in the fact that all of the donkeys wear shoes. The reader later understands that the donkeys who tow Pinocchio, Lamp-Wick, and the other boys to the Land of Toys were once little boys themselves, who were sentenced to spend the rest of their lives as donkeys as punishment for their laziness and disobedience. Collodi hopes that through the symbolism of the donkeys, his readers will be encouraged to resist the temptation of spending their days idly playing and avoiding work and study, as the donkeys symbolize Collodi’s view that laziness in children leads to unhappiness and to a life of ignorance and mindless labor.
