The Original Pinocchio, Deeply Repentant, Unlike the Disney and Jordan Peterson Pinocchio

What can we learn by reflecting on the original Pinocchio
story, written by Carlo Collodi in the late 1800s?
Does the Pinocchio story retell the story of the Golden Ass,
the ancient Roman novel where Lucius is magically
transformed into a donkey, and back again?
How does the original Pinocchio differ from the Pinocchio
in the Disney movie, also referenced by Jordan Peterson?
How does the original Pinocchio story reflect the monastic
ideals of obedience and repentance?

Please, we welcome interesting questions in the
comments. Let us learn and reflect together!
At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources
used for this video. Feel free to follow along in the
PowerPoint script we uploaded to SlideShare.

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The original Pinocchio was very different from the happy-go-lucky Disney and
Jordan Peterson Pinocchio. Although the Disney movie included the most
memorable most memorable stories of the original, the short length of the movie
fails to render the deeply penitential tone of the original, which emphasizes how
daily struggle is needed to replace bad habit with good habits, how salvation and
spiritual growth is never instantaneous but is rather a life long-term process, where
for every two steps forward we take one step backwards. The original rebellious
Pinocchio was much more of a rogue than the pleasant Disney, he is a juvenile
delinquent from the moment he has been carved.
Another difference is the original Pinocchio lives in a magical land much like that
described by Apuleius in the Golden Ass. In the Disney version, there’s only one
magical puppet, Pinocchio, but in the original version magical puppets are not
unusual. In the original Pinocchio, the blue fairy is not a little Tinker Bell character
but is a full-grown fairy and a main character in the story.

When Geppetto asks his friend, Master
Cherry, for wood to “make a beautiful
wooden puppet” “that would know how to
dance, to fence, and to leap like an acrobat,”
he gave him an enchanted piece of wood that
complains when you try to chisel and plane it.
Geppetto brings this piece of wood home to
his humble abode, which was a “small ground
floor room that was lighted only from the
staircase. The furniture could not have been
simpler: a bad chair, a poor bed, and a
broken-down table at the end of the room.”
Illustration, 1902 edition, by Carlo Chiostri, and A. Bongini)

Geppetto “took his tools and set to
work to cut out and model his puppet.”
“He first made his hair, then his
forehead, then his eyes. When the eyes
were finished, he was astonished when
they moved and looked fixedly at him.”
“He then carved the nose, but no
sooner had he made it then he began
to grow. And it grew, and grew, and
grew, until in a few minutes it had
become an immense nose that seemed
as if it would never end. Poor Geppetto
tired himself with cutting it off.”

“The mouth was not even
completed when it began to
laugh and deride him.” “Then
he fashioned the chin and the
throat, then the shoulders, the
stomach, the arms, and the
hands. The hands were
scarcely finished when
Geppetto felt his wig snatched
from his head. He turned
around and” “saw his yellow
wig in the puppets hand.”
Illustration, 1904 edition, by Charles Copeland

He yells at the puppet, “You young
Rascal! You are not yet completed, and
you are already beginning to show want
of respect to your father!” drying a tear
from his eye. “When Geppetto had
finished the feet, he received a kick on
his nose.” “When his legs became flexible
Pinocchio began to walk by himself and
to run about the room; until, having gone
out the house door, he ran jumped into
the street and escaped.”

After getting into some mischief
Pinocchio returned home while
Geppetto was out. He was startled
and looked up to where he heard a
voice and asked who this was. The
response: “I am the talking cricket
and I’ve lived in this room a
hundred years and more.”
Pinocchio protested, “Now this
room is mine,” so please leave.

The cricket answered, “I will not go until I’ve
told you a great truth.” “Those boys who rebel
against their parents and run away capriciously
from home will never come to any good in the
world, and they will eventually repent bitterly.”
After telling the cricket he has no desire to
attend school, that he would rather “run after
butterflies or to climb trees or to take young
birds out of their nests.” Pinocchio was angered
by the cricket’s continuing lectures and
flattened the cricket against the wall by
throwing his hammer at him.

After some misadventures, Pinocchio returns home.
Pinocchio announces that he will go to school the
next day, but he needs some school clothes.
“Geppetto, who was poor, and who had not so much
as a farthing in his pocket, then made him a little
dress of flower paper, a pair of shoes from the bark of
a tree, and a cap of the crumb of bread, which thrills
the little puppet.”
Then Pinocchio says he has no spelling book. So
Geppetto, “putting on his old fustian coat, all patched
up and darned, ran out of the house. He returned
shortly, holding in his hand a spelling book for
Pinocchio, but his old coat was gone. The poor man
was in his shirt sleeves” in the snow. Touched by his
generosity, “Pinocchio threw his arms around
Geppetto’s neck, he kissed him again and again.”

We can deduce several truths about European peasant life in several centuries past.
First, peasants and shopkeepers were so desperately poor that they likely bartered
when they ran short of money. The fact that this story is set in a magical land
suggests that the peasants were quite superstitious.
The next day, on the way to school, Pinocchio sees a sign for the great puppet
theater, and he wants to buy a ticket. What did Pinocchio do? Of course, he sells the
spelling book to buy a ticket to see the puppet show! The arguing puppets in the
show, Harlequin and Punchinello, seeing our mischievous puppet, shout,
“Pinocchio! Our brother Pinocchio!” While Pinocchio joined the puppets on stage
for dancing and hugs and celebration, the crowd hisses and boos, for the play had
been interrupted! But after he ruined the show, the showman is so upset that he
threatens to feed his cooking fire with his puppet Harlequin, who had allowed
Pinocchio to ruin his show. Pinocchio then begged to be put to the flames instead,
sparing Harlequin.

Illustrations, 1902 edition, by Carlo Chiostri, and A. Bongini)

The fire eater of the circus witnessed
this unexpected offer of self-sacrifice
by this rogue puppet and has pity on
him. When he asks about his father,
and how he earns his money,
Pinocchio responds, “My father never
has a penny in his pocket. Why, to buy
a spelling book for me to go to school,
he was obliged to sell the only coat he
had to wear, a coat that between
patches and darns, was barely fit to
wear.” This so affected the fire-eater
that he gave the rogue puppet five
gold coins to give to his father.

But then Pinocchio runs into the two scoundrels, the fox and the
cat also depicted by Disney. How do they tempt our lay-about
puppet Pinocchio? That all he needs to do is bury those five gold
pieces in the field of riches in the village down the road, that
overnight they will multiply into 2,500 gold pieces, which has
Pinocchio dancing for joy! This is like today’s Nigerian prince who
promises you a million dollars if you will only pay the hundred-
dollar export fee. But after they spend one gold piece at a
sumptuous meal for three at the tavern, he only has four gold
pieces, but then two thousand dollars is still worth waiting for
overnight.

That night an insect, dimly seen on the bark
of the tree, the ghost of the talking cricket,
warns Pinocchio, “Don't trust, my boy,
those who promise to make you rich in a
day! Usually they’re either mad, or rogues.
Hear me, go back!” “The cricket then says,
‘Good night, Pinocchio, and may heaven
preserve you from dangers and assassins.’
No sooner had he said these words,” “than
the road became darker than ever.”

Just as the cricket predicted Pinocchio,
meets up with the assassins on the
dark road, telling them he has no
money, and when they try to pry the
money out of his wooden mouth, he
“caught a hand with his teeth, and
with one bite, bit it clean off, and spat
it out. Imagine his astonishment
when, instead of a hand, he perceived
that he'd spat out a cat’s paw!”
Travelers Attacked by Robbers, 1600's

Pinocchio and His Sister With the Blue Hair
Pinocchio managed to break free, “and
after a desperate chase of two hours
through the green woods,” “he came
to a small house in the woods white as
snow.” He banged on the door
desperately when he saw “a beautiful
child in the window, she had blue hair
and a face that was waxen white, eyes
closed, with her hands crossed.”

She said, “In this house there is no one, they’re
all dead.” Then the assassins caught up with
Pinocchio and hung him from a noose thrown
over the limb of a tree. They waited for him to
die, but after he struggled and kicked for three
hours they left, saying goodbye till tomorrow.
The beautiful child with blue hair came again to
the window and saw poor Pinocchio hanging
from a branch of the big oak, more dead than
alive. She was moved by compassion. “Striking
her hands together, she made three little claps.”
She instructed the birds and the animals of the
forest to bring her the poor Pinocchio and had
him placed on a little bed.
Illustration, 1892 edition, by Enrico Mazzanti

She asked the three doctors of the forest
to examine him: the crow, the owl, and
the talking cricket. After Pinocchio “was
seized with a fit of convulsive trembling,”
“the talking cricket said, ‘That puppet
there is a confirmed rogue,’ ‘a ragamuffin,
a do nothing, a vagabond, ’a disobedient
son who will make his poor father die of a
broken heart.’” From beneath the covers
they heard our puppet crying.

Our crow doctor said
solemnly, “When the dead
person cries, it is a sign that
he is on the road to get well.”
The owl doctor added, “I
grieve to contradict my
illustrious friend and
colleague, but for me, when
the dead person cries, it is a
sign that he is sorry to die.”
Illustration, 1902 English edition.

These three doctors prescribed
bitter medicine to cure our ailing
puppet, but of course, our
puppet refused his medicine. So,
“the door of the room flew
open, and four rabbits, black as
ink, entered carrying on their
little shoulders a little funeral
bier,” which frightened our
Pinocchio.

The biggest rabbit said, “You only
have a few minutes to live, as you
have refused the medicine which
would have cured you of your
fever.” This made Pinocchio eager to
take his medicine, causing our black
rabbits to sigh. “’We must have
patience! We have made our
journey in vain,’ after taking the
little funeral bier again on their
shoulders, they left the room
grumbling and murmuring between
their teeth.” Illustration, 1902 edition, by Carlo Chiostri, and A. Bongini)

Then the blue fairy asked Pinocchio about how he came to
be swinging on the tree. He told her the complete story, in
detail, until he came to the final detail of the remaining
gold coins. When he said the four gold coins in his pocket
had been lost, “his nose, which was already long, grew at
least two fingers longer.” When he said he lost them in the
wood, his nose grew some more. When the blue fairy said
she could find anything in her woods, his story changed,
he had swallowed them with his medicine.

“Pinocchio’s nose then grew to such an
extraordinary length that the poor
Pinocchio could not move in any direction.
When he turned to one side, he struck his
nose against the bed or the windowpanes.
When he turned to the other, his nose he
struck the wall or the door. When he raised
his head,” he risked sticking it into the eye
of his protector. When she laughed at him,
he asked why.
“Lies, my dear boy, are found out
immediately, because there are two sorts
of lies, lies that have short legs, and lies
that have long noses.”

Our fairy with blue hair let Pinocchio roar and cry
for half an hour, “but then she had pity on him,
clapped her hands, and a thousand woodpeckers
flew and perched on his nose. They pecked with
such zeal that in a few minutes his enormous and
ridiculous nose was reduced to its former size.
The puppet, drying his eyes, said ‘How much I
love you!’
‘I love you also,’ answered the fairy, ‘and if you
will remain with me, you shall be my little brother
and I shall be your good little sister,’ and said that
his Papa would join them tonight.” He was so
eager to meet his Papa that our fairy with the
blue hair let him go, asking him to be careful. Illustration, 1892 edition, by Enrico Mazzanti

But then, whom do you think Pinocchio meet on this sparsely traveled
road? None other than the scoundrels, the fox and the cat, who
reminded our puppet of their field of miracles, that overnight will grow
four gold coins into two thousand gold coins. And we all know what
happens to gold coins that have been planted in the field of miracles.
When Pinocchio learns he has been robbed, he pleads his case before the
forest court. The big ape who was the judge has him thrown into jail for
his foolishness, until he is released under a general amnesty four months
later. After more misadventures spanning three more chapters, he finally
starts trudging back to the little white house of the good fairy with the
blue hair, he wonders how angry she and his Papa will be.

Our rogue puppet makes a speech to
himself and is now “determined to change
and become orderly and obedient, for at last
I’ve seen that disobedient boys will come to
no good and gain nothing.” He is now eager
“to embrace him and to cover his Papa with
kisses,” “hoping for his and the good fairy’s
forgiveness of such an ungrateful boy. Will
the fairy forgive me my bad conduct to her?
To think of all the kindness and loving care I
received from her,” “it be possible to find a
more ungrateful boy and one with less heart
than I have.”

When he arrives, in place of the
little white House he saw a
“marble stone, on which were
engraved these sad words:
‘Here lies the child with the
blue hair, who died from
sorrow, because she was
abandoned by her little brother
Pinocchio.’” “He fell with his
face on the ground, covering
the covering the tombstone
with a thousand kisses, burst
into an agony of tears.” Illustration, 1902 edition, by Carlo Chiostri, and A. Bongini)

And just then he saw a pigeon flying overhead, a talking
magical pigeon. He asked about his father Geppetto. He
said he left him three days ago on the seashore, where he
was building a little boat to search for his Pinocchio. How
far? asked Pinocchio. The pigeon then agreed to fly him
the six hundred miles to meet with his Papa. At the
seashore he saw the little boat on the horizon, his Papa
tried to wave to him, but then he disappeared after a big
wave. Immediately Pinocchio dived into the sea to swim
to his Papa, which was an easy task for a wooden puppet.

Illustration, 1902 edition, by Carlo Chiostri, and A. Bongini) Illustration, 1892 edition, by Enrico Mazzanti

Pinocchio Swims To a Distant Shore

Pinocchio landed exhausted on a beach on the opposite
seashore. He asks the magical talking fish for directions, and
heads to the Village of Industrious Bees. The road was alive with
people running here and there attending to their business,
everyone was busy at work, this village had no idlers. Of course,
none of these busy bees will feed our starving puppet unless he
helps them carry some heavy load, and our puppet does not
want to do that.
And the business and hard work and industriousness of this
mythical village of hard workers remind us of the maxims by
Hesiod, Works and Days.

After encountering several gruff old men who
expect him to work for his supper, he meets a nice
woman with blue hair who is carrying two cans of
water. She allows him to drink as much as he likes,
but when he asks for bread, she asks him to help
carry her two heavy cans of water. When he
hesitates, she says, “besides the bread you can
have a nice dish of cauliflower dressed with oil and
vinegar.” After he looks at the can she adds, “I will
also give you a beautiful bonbon full of syrup.”
This coaxed him to accept the task, and after his
famished appetite abates, “he looks at her and
he’s astonished, ‘It’s like you remind me, Oh! The
same eyes, the same blue hair, Oh the little fairy!
Tell me it's really you!”
Illustration, 1892 English edition

The blue fairy asked, “Little rogue, how
did you ever discover who I was?”
“It was my great affection for you.”
“You left me as a child and now you have
found me again, Now I am a woman
almost old enough to be your Mama.”
Pinocchio, awed at how she matured so
quickly, asks why he can’t grow.
“You cannot grow,” replied the fairy,
“because puppets never grow. They are
born puppets; they live and die puppets.”

“Oh, I am sick of being a puppet,”
cried Pinocchio. “It is time I become
a man.”
“You will become one when you
deserve it. Good boys are obedient,
good boys like to learn and work, and
good boys always tell the truth.” Of
course, our puppet immediately
promises to do all these things.

For once, Pinocchio does go to school. But Pinocchio’s mistake is
he has not given up his vagabond friends, especially Candlewick.
They skip school, search for the huge dogfish, he gets into fights,
gets thrown in jail, and swims out to sea to escape some
misadventure, and climbs out into a large cave, where he almost
gets eaten by a large green fisherman, much like our hero
Odysseus and his men are almost eaten by the one-eyed Cyclops.
Which means that, once again, he hasn’t returned home for
months, and he is wondering how upset the fairy with the blue
hair will be.

Illustration, 1902 edition, by Carlo Chiostri, and A. Bongini
The dog Alidoro saves Pinocchio from the Green Fisherman, and the snake blocks the path

As he approaches their house he
worries, “How shall I ever present
myself to my good little fairy? What
will she say when she sees me? Will
she forgive me this second escapade? I
bet she will not forgive me. Oh, I’m
sure that she will not forgive me, and
this serves me right, for I’m a rascal,
I’m always promising to correct myself,
and I never keep my word.”

“Pinocchio is hesitant,” but finally
“gives a little knock. He waited and
waited and after half an hour the
window on the fourth floor opened.
Pinocchio saw a big snail with a
lighted candle on her head looking
out.” She told Pinocchio that the fairy
is at home asleep and cannot be
woken but promised to come down
and open the door. “After two hours
passed, Pinocchio knocked again, and
the snail opened a window of a lower
floor, telling his she is coming, but
that snails are never in a hurry.”

“After another few hours passed by, he gets
so angry he starts knocking on the door. He
kicks it with his wooden foot, which gets
stuck in the door.” When the snail arrives, she
remarks that she cannot dislodge the
impatient puppet, as she is not a carpenter.
Pinocchio then asks the snail if she could at
least give him something to eat. The snail
returned “carrying a silver tray with a loaf of
bread, a roast chicken, and four ripe apricots.
But when Pinocchio began to eat them, he
discovered that the bread was plaster, the
chicken was cardboard, and the four apricots
were painted alabaster.” He then fainted.

“When he awoke, he was lying on a sofa, and
the fairy was beside him. She says, “I will pardon
you once more, but woe to you if you behave
badly a third time!”
“Pinocchio promised and swore that he would
study and would always conduct himself well.
He kept his word for the remainder of the year.
Indeed, at the examinations before the holiday,
he had the honor of being the first in the school,
and his behavior, in general, was so satisfactory
and praiseworthy that the fairy is very much
pleased, and she promised him, ‘Tomorrow you
shall cease to be a wooden puppet, and you
should become a real boy.’”
Blue fairy in Disney Parade

Pinocchio is Transformed Into a Donkey
Pinocchio and Candlewick are transformed into donkeys, 1902 illustration by Carlo Chiostri and A Bongini

As you know, Pinocchio has not yet
experienced the most memorable scenes in the
Disney movie, and the vagabond Candlewick,
the worst kid in his class, is still his best friend.
Candlewick tells him that he can come with
him to visit the most delightful country in the
world, the Land of Boobies.

Using choice words,
Candlewick tempts
Pinocchio, “Believe me, if
you do not come, you will
repent it. Where could you
find a better country for
boys? There are no schools,
there are no masters, there
are no books. In that
delightful land nobody ever
studies.” Every day is a
holiday with no school!
Every day is spent in play,
there are amusements from
morning till night.” Illustration, 1904 edition, by Charles Copeland

“The coachman was a little man
broader than he was long, flabby
and greasy like a lump of butter, with
a small round face like an orange, a
little mouth that was always
laughing, and a soft caressing voice
like a cat when he's trying to
insinuate herself into the good
graces of the mistress of the house.”
At last, the coach to carry them to the Land of Boobies arrived, “drawn by twelve
pairs of donkeys, all the same size but of different colors. Some were gray, some
white,” “others had large stripes of blue and yellow,” but “instead of being shod
like other beasts of burden, they had on their feet men’s boots.”

“The coach is full of boys
between eight and twelve
years-old, heaped upon one
another like herrings in a
barrel.” “Nobody grumbled
knowing that in a few hours
they would reach a country
where there were no books, no
schools, and no masters. That
made them so happy that they
felt neither fatigue nor
inconvenienced by neither
hunger nor thirst, nor did they
want to sleep.”

“When they arrived, they found that
this was a country unlike any other
country in the world,” where there
were only boys. “There was such
merriment, “there were troops of
boys everywhere! Some were playing
with nuts, some with balls, some rode
wooden horses. A party was playing
hide and seek, some were chasing
each other, some were reciting, some
were singing, some were leaping,
some were walking on their hands.
Others were strutting about dressed
as generals, wearing leaf helmets,
commanding a squadron of
cardboard soldiers.” To sum it up, this
was great pandemonium.

“This delightful life had gone on for five months.
The days had been spent entirely in playing
amusement without a thought of books or
school, but one morning Pinocchio awoke to most
disagreeable surprise.” Our puppet had always
had small ears, so you can imagine his surprise
“that during the night his ears had become so
long they seemed like two brooms,” they were
actually “a magnificent pair of donkey’s ears. You
can imagine our poor Pinocchio’s sorrow, shame
and despair! He began to cry and roar, and he
beat his head against the wall, but the more he
cried, the longer his ears grew.”

Then he goes to Candlewick’s
room, and “while they were
talking, they both doubled up
and began to run around the
room on their hands and feet.
As they ran, their hands
became hoofs, their faces
lengthened into muzzles, and
their backs became covered
with light gray hair coat
sprinkled with black.” “The
worst and most humiliating
moment was when their tails
grew.”
Pinocchio and Candlewick
are transformed into
donkeys, 1902 illustration
by Carlo Chiostri and A
Bongini

“The coachman who had brought them to this
land had knocked on the door and broke it
down. He said, ‘Well done, boys! you brayed
well, I recognize you by your voices. That’s why
I’m here!’ First the little man stroked and
caressed them and then curry combed well.”
“He put a halter around their necks and led him
to the marketplace in hope of selling them.”
“Indeed, buyers were not wanting. Candlewick
was bought by a peasant whose donkey had
died the previous day, and Pinocchio was sold”
to a circus owner so he “might teach him how
to leap and dance with the other animals
belonging to the company.”

Like Pinocchio, Lucius in the Golden Ass also
performs in a type of circus. Unlike the land of the
Golden Ass, in this land not only did the donkeys
talk, but all animals talk, and the people understand
what they say very readily.

Pinocchio, being reconciled to his fate, says,
“I must have patience! May my example
serve at least as a warning to all disobedient
boys you do not want to study.”
His master responds, “Patience indeed! Do
you think, my little donkey, that I bought you
only to give you food and drink? I bought
you to make to make you work, so that you
might earn money for me. Up at once, you
must come with me into the circus, and
there I will teach you to jump through
hoops,” “to dance waltzes and polkas, and
to stand upright on your hind little legs.”

“In the first show, who does
Pinocchio see in the crowd?”
“A beautiful lady with blue
hair who wore around her
neck a thick gold chain from
which hung a medallion on
which was painted the
portrait of the puppet, but
she leaves with the rest of
the crowd.”
Gina Lollobrigada as The Blue Fairy

“Soon after, when he was trying to leap through
a hoop, one of his legs got caught in the hoop,
he falls to the ground, becoming lame,” barely
able to limp back to his stable. We all know
what happens to lame little donkeys, he is sold
to a gentleman who only pays twenty pence for
the lame donkey, he is buying him for his skin
so he can make a drum. He leads him to the
seashore, “he puts a stone around his neck and
tied a rope around his leg, and holding on to
the end of the rope, he gave Pinocchio a
sudden push and threw him in the water.
Pinocchio, weighted down by the stone, sunk at
once to the bottom. His owner sat quietly,”
waiting for his little donkey to drown.
The Circus, by Georges Seurat, 1891

After an hour, after he pulled up what he
thought was his dead donkey, he was
surprised to see instead a wooden
puppet who seemed very much alive!
Pinocchio explained that his good fairy,
“as she saw that I was in danger of
drowning, sent immediately an immense
shoal of fish” who began to earnestly
nibble my coat and skin and floppy ears
and tail, until “they naturally reached the
bone, or rather hard wood,” which they
found was not edible. “So that is how
when you pulled up the rope you found a
live puppet instead of a dead donkey.”

Pinocchio is Swallowed by the Dogfish
His owner then says he will sell him for firewood
for twenty pence, but at that Pinocchio plunged
into the water, swimming gaily far away from
the shore. He “saw in the midst of the sea a rock
which seemed to be made of white marble, and
on the summit, there stood a beautiful little
goat with blue hair who bleated lovingly and
made signs for him to approach.” But then “he
saw rising out of the water and coming to meet
him the horrible head of a sea monster with a
wide-open cavernous mouth with three rows of
enormous teeth,” the infamous dogfish.
Illustration, 1902 edition,
by Carlo Chiostri, and A. Bongini)

Pinocchio began to grope his way
through the dark body of the
dogfish in the “direction of the
light that he saw shining dimly at
a great distance.” What did he
find? “He found a little table
spread with a lighted candle stuck
into a green glass bottle. Seated
at the table was a little old man
eating some live fish.”
Monstro, the whale,
at Disneyland,
California.

“At this sight, Pinocchio was
filled with such unexpected
joy that he almost became
delirious!” He immediately
“threw his arms around the
little old man’s neck and
began to shout: ‘My dear
Papa! I found you at last! I
shall never leave you!
Never, never, never!’”

“The little old man, rubbing
his eyes, said, ‘You really are
my dear Pinocchio!’”
Geppetto had been
swallowed by the dogfish
two years ago when
Pinocchio had landed on the
seashore. During these two
years he had gone to school,
had his misadventures, and
was turned into a donkey
and back.

The dogfish had also swallowed a boat full of food
and supplies, which were nearly exhausted by
Geppetto when Pinocchio was swallowed by the
dogfish.

Monstro, the whale, at Disneyland, California.

Little Pinocchio said, “Papa,
there’s no time to lose! We must
think of escape.” So, they went
forward towards the mouth of
this old sea monster, whose
asthmas was so bad that he had
to sleep with his mouth open.
Geppetto was not a great
swimmer, so Pinocchio had to
both hold him up and swim. A
rather large talking fish gave
them a ride to shore.

Pinocchio is Transformed Into a Real Boy
Illustrations, 1902 edition, by Carlo Chiostri, and A. Bongini)

A hundred yards from shore, in the
middle of the field, they spied a little
straw hut. They knocked on the door and
heard a voice telling them to turn the key
in the door. At first, they could not see
anyone, but then they looked up as saw
our talking cricket!

Pinocchio said, “Oh my dear little cricket!” The cricket
reminded him how he was flattened by that hammer
thrown at him.
Pinocchio responded, “You are right!” “Throw the
handle of the hammer at me but have pity on my poor
Papa!”
The cricket responded, “I shall have pity on both father
and son, but I wish to remind you of the ill treatment I
received from you, to teach you that in this world, when
it is possible, we should show courtesy to everyone, if
you want it to be extended to us in our hour of need!”
When questioned, the little cricket said that the goat
with the blue coat had given him the hut, the goat who
was grieved, saying, “Poor Pinocchio! I will never see
him, by this time the dog fish must have devoured him!”

Pinocchio asks where he can find a tumbler of milk for his
poor elderly Papa, who had fallen ill from his recent
exhausting tribulation. He was told that a farmer named
Giangio three fields down could help him. This time our
puppet does not object when he is informed that to earn
the money for this milk, that he needs to turn the pole
that turns his pump, for his little donkey was on his
deathbed. He readily agrees and has a Charles Dickens
moment when he asks to see the dying donkey,
discovering that he is his best friend Candlewick!

For the next five months our Pinocchio is quite
industrious, every day he pumps hundreds of buckets
of water for our farmer, and he also weaves hampers
and baskets from rushes to sell in the market to take
care of his infirm Papa, for whom he constructs a
wheelchair so he can wheel him out to enjoy the
fresh air. He is so industrious that he saves forty
pence to buy a coat!

But as he is going to buy his coat, he meets his friend the talking
snail, who informs him, “My dear Pinocchio! The poor fairy is
lying in bed at the hospital!” “Overcome by a thousand
misfortunes, she has fallen seriously ill, and she has not even
enough to buy herself a mouthful of bread!”
Illustration, 1892 English edition
"Sweet Brown Snail" by Jason Rhoades & Paul McCarthy, Deutsche Museum

Immediately our puppet gives our snail the money
that was to buy his new coat to carry them to the
good fairy in the hospital, promising to work even
harder, to earn more money to give to his beloved
good fairy. Now we all know that fairies never need
to be in the hospital, but we also know how gullible
our kind puppet is. “And the snail, contrary to her
usually slow habits, began to run like a lizard in hot
August sun.”

That night Pinocchio wove sixteen baskets
instead of his usual eight. That night, “while
he slept, he saw the Fairy smiling and
beautiful, who, after kissing him, said, “Well
done, Pinocchio! To reward you for your good
heart, I will forgive you for all that is past. Boys
who minister tenderly to their parents and
assist them in their misery and infirmities are
deserving of great praise and affection, even if
they cannot be cited as examples of
obedience and good behavior. Try to do better
in the future and you'll be happy.”

Surprisingly, the good fairy proclaims that being a good little boy is not
the most important trait, that character matters more. Pinocchio
showed character in rescuing Geppetto, and in taking care of him after
his rescue. We see this also in the stories of King David and King Saul.
King David was favored by God while King Saul was not, which is odd
because the Bible credits sins both more numerous and more serious to
David, including his sin with Bathsheba, which broke nearly all of the ten
commandments, including adultery, murder, theft, envy, slander and
more. But he was heartfelt and eager in his repentance, and David had
character, he stood up for virtue in critical crisis moments. We examine
David and Bathsheba in detail in our video on coveting.

Bathsheba at
her Bath,
by Sebastiano
Ricci, painted
1720’s
King David is
peering from
his palace roof.

When “his dream ended, Pinocchio opened his
eyes, and was astonished to discover that he was
no longer a wooden puppet but that he had
become a real boy!” “The straw walls of the hut
had disappeared; he was now in a pretty little
room furnished and arranged with a simplicity
that was almost elegance. Jumping out of bed,
he found a new suit of clothes, a new cap, and a
pair of new leather boots that fitted him
beautifully! He went downstairs to see Papa,
who was “quite well and in good humor,
resuming his trade of wood carving. He was
designing a rich and beautiful frame of leaves
and flowers and heads of animals.”

When Pinocchio asked, how
could this be? Geppetto
answered, “When boys who
behave badly turn over a
new leaf and become good,
they have the power of
bringing contentment and
happiness to their families.”

Likely Carlo Collodi, original author of Pinocchio, was inspired by the
story of Lucius in the ancient Latin Novel, Metamorphosis, or the
Golden Ass, where the protagonist Lucius used a magical ointment
to transform into a soaring bird, but used the wrong jar and instead
was transformed into a donkey. There are a few passages of regret,
this is not a deeply penitential book like Pinocchio, but mostly our
donkey Lucius enjoys witnessing and overhearing many ribald and
risqué stories of cheating wives. In the end, he is saved when, with
the help of the goddess Isis, he is transformed back into his human
form when he munches on roses in a religious festival. But the
goddess Isis does not insist on him living a godly life.

Pinocchio’s Struggles, Like the Monastic Life?
St Catherine’s monastery is located in the mountains of the Sinai desert.

Why do the struggles of Pinocchio remind us of the
every day monastic self-discipline needed to form
good habits so we can live a godly life?
For example, in the Ladder of Divine Ascent by St
John Climacus, in the chapter for Rung Four of the
Divine Ladder on Obedience,

We have the fantastic story of Brother Isidore,
whom the abbot found was “full of mischief, very
cruel, sly, fierce and arrogant.” The abbot told him
before he joined the monastery, he needed to learn
the discipline of obedience. The abbot instructed
Isidore:
Step 4.23 “Stand at the gate of the monastery and
make a prostration to everyone coming in or going
out, and say, ‘Pray for me father, for I am an
epileptic.’”
After humbling himself for seven years, the abbot
relented, offering to admit him to the brotherhood.
But he declined, sensing that his end was near, and
in ten days died on his deathbed.

In the chapter for the Rung Five on Repentance, in a
monastery visited by St John Climacus there was a
separate abode for those monks who especially needed
repentance, an abode called the Prison, which was a
spiritual rather than a physical prison, for those who
entered this prison entered willingly. Many monks
repented here for months, sometimes years, but as this
was a different time, today we should read it as an allegory
of the prison we voluntarily inhabit when we neglect
repentance and forgiveness. What did he witness?

https://youtu.be/NiuWNsy4x4Q
https://youtu.be/_bjQcNvzb-c
https://youtu.be/qDtrgYmaAQU
https://youtu.be/Fco0W3bt5GA

St John Climacus remembers:
Step 5.5 “I saw some of those guilty yet
guiltless men standing in the open air all night
till morning, and never moving their feet; by
force of nature pitifully dazed by sleep, yet they
allowed themselves no rest, but reproached
themselves, and drove away sleep with
dishonors and insults.”
Step 5.6 “Others lifted up their eyes to
Heaven, and with wailings and outcries,
implored help from there.”
The Return of the Prodigal Son (1773) by Pompeo Batoni

St John Climacus continues:
Step 5.7. “Others stood in prayer with their hands tied
behind their backs like criminals; their faces,
darkened by sorrows, bent to the earth.”
“Overwhelmed by the embarrassment of their
thoughts and conscience, they could not find anything
to say or pray about to God, how or with what to
begin their prayers. But filled with a darkness and a
blank despair, they offered to God nothing but a
speechless soul and a voiceless mind.”
Step 5.8. “Others sat on the ground in sackcloth and
ashes, hiding their faces between their knees, and
they struck the earth with their foreheads.”
The Return of the Prodigal Son,
by James Tissot, circa 1894

This sense of deep daily repentance, and spiritual struggle
over many months and years to develop good habits,
guarding our thoughts, guiding our words, so in our
actions we can truly live a godly life, this sense is lost in the
trivialized Disney movie. You need to read the original
Pinocchio story by Carlo Collodi that spans years of this
puppet’s misadventures, spiritual struggles, and ultimate
redemption, to sense this is, indeed, an allegory of the
spiritual life.

DISCUSSING THE SOURCES
I picked up my beautifully illustrated Pinocchio book at a used bookstore,
published the Unicorn Publishing Company of New Jersey in 1986,
illustrations by Greg Hildebrandt. He has a Wikipedia page, he and his
brother published many famous movie posters and illustrations, including
Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. (In the YouTube video we show some of
these illustrations)
In addition to the famous Disney movie, Pinocchio has had several other
movie adaptations. Guillermo del Toros released a new Pinocchio movie
in 2022, if anyone has watched, please note that in the comments.
Gina Lollobrigada played the Blue Fairy in an Italian TV miniseries in 1972.

To find the source of any direct
quotes in this blog, please type in
the phrase to the search box in
my blog to see the referenced
footnote.
YouTube Description has links for:
• Script PDF file
• Blog
• Amazon Bookstore
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