The Adventures of Pinocchio

Content Warning: The source material uses outdated and offensive language about individuals with physical and intellectual disabilities.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.

Collodi’s belief that parents should be gentle, patient, and loving is illustrated throughout the story as the author paints the picture of ideal parenthood in Geppetto’s character. In the opening chapters, Geppetto’s violent temper is emphasized, such as during his physical fight with Mastro Cherry, initiated when Geppetto hears his derisive nickname, Polendina, “and growing angrier each moment, they [go] from words to blows, and finally beg[i]n to scratch and bite and slap each other” (3). This fight, sparked by a single word, illustrates Geppetto’s tendency to quickly resort to physical violence to solve his problems. Initially, he treats Pinocchio with this same anger and impatience: “‘Stop laughing!’ said Geppetto angrily; but he might as well have spoken to the wall. ‘Stop laughing, I say!’ he roared in a voice of thunder” (5). His metaphorical voice of thunder illustrates the extent of his anger toward Pinocchio, merely for laughing. The ineffectiveness of this manner of parenting is illustrated by Collodi through Pinocchio’s decision to run away from Geppetto. This scene is starkly contrasted with later scenes in which Geppetto selflessly cares for Pinocchio and is clearly behaving in a paternal manner. While the lesson most often revolves around Pinocchio’s disobedience, this moral centers around Geppetto’s behavior as a father figure.

Collodi’s condemnation of cruelty toward children is further demonstrated through the voices of the townspeople; when Geppetto finally catches up with Pinocchio, he grabs him harshly: “All he could do was to seize Pinocchio by the back of the neck and take him home. As he was doing so, he shook him two or three times and said to him angrily: ‘We’re going home now. When we get home, then we’ll settle this matter!’” (6). Based on this, the townspeople reflect, “Geppetto, no doubt, will beat him unmercifully, he is so mean and cruel!” and “If we leave that poor puppet in his hands he may tear him to pieces!” (6). The decision is made to instead arrest Geppetto to keep Pinocchio safe.

When Geppetto returns home the next morning, it marks a turning point in their relationship and in Geppetto’s manner of parenting. His tenderness and selflessness are demonstrated when he sacrifices his own breakfast to feed the puppet, even carefully peeling the pears for the fussy Pinocchio. His sympathy for Pinocchio’s distress is evident and illustrates Geppetto’s growing compassion: “Geppetto, though trying to look very stern, felt his eyes fill with tears and his heart soften when he saw Pinocchio so unhappy” (15).

Through the reformed Geppetto, Collodi praises the selflessness of parents; Geppetto sells his coat to buy Pinocchio’s schoolbook, despite the cold day: “In his hands he had the A-B-C book for his son, but the old coat was gone. The poor fellow was in his shirt sleeves and the day was cold” (16). Later, when Pinocchio is imprisoned in the City of Simple Simons, Geppetto travels the entirety of Europe looking for his lost son and then boards a boat to America to find him: “[F]or the last four months, that poor man has been wandering around Europe, looking for you. Not having found you yet, he has made up his mind to look for you in the New World, far across the ocean” (49). Geppetto’s devotion is evident in the extreme lengths he goes to find Pinocchio, which leads him to set off to America on a rough ocean and to thereby capsize and be eaten by the shark. Tellingly, Geppetto is overjoyed to be reunited with his son after two years in the shark’s stomach: “Are you really my own dear Pinocchio?” (89). This illustrates the unconditional nature of Geppetto’s love for his son.

Similarly, the fairy retains her faith in Pinocchio’s goodness in spite of his constant disobedience and comes to his aid when the man wanting a drum skin tries to drown Pinocchio: “She is my mother, and, like all other mothers who love their children, she never loses sight of me, even though I do not deserve it. And today this good Fairy of mine, as soon as she saw me in danger of drowning, sent a thousand fishes to the spot where I lay” (86). Pinocchio betrays his mother’s trust in leaving her for the Land of Toys, but the fairy continues to help Pinocchio, illustrating the selfless nature of her love.

Later, the fairy generously and lovingly rewards Pinocchio’s efforts to care for her and for Geppetto in spite of his earlier constant misdeeds, telling him in his dream that “boys who love and take good care of their parents when they are old and sick, deserve praise even though they may not be held up as models of obedience and good behavior” (97). The fairy’s patience and love are exemplified in her faith in her son, Pinocchio, that he will eventually work hard and demonstrate selflessness, despite constant evidence to the contrary.