Pinocchio



Pinocchio is the main protagonist the italian novel titled The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi.

Before becoming a puppet
He starts out as a sentient log of wood that for some reason appears among Maestro Cherry's logs. Maestro Cherry, whose real name is Antonio, wants to use this log to create a leg for his table, but when he is about to axe the log, it asks him not to be that tough. He doubts whether the log is actually talking and tries to plane it down and cut it, but after the log laughs he ends up so scared that he faints. After he recovers consciousness, he is visited by his friend Geppetto, who comes to ask for a log of wood so he can create a puppet. The log calls Geppetto "Polentina", since calling Geppetto so makes him angry; Geppetto covers his baldness with a yellow wig that resembles "Polenta", cornmeal mush. Geppetto wrongly believes Cherry called him Polentina and fights him until they have their opponent's wigs. They reconcile, but Pinocchio lances over Geppetto's body. Then Geppetto and Maestro Cherry fight again, but reconcile again.

Geppetto goes with the log to his poor house. Geppetto had told his friend that he wanted to travel to the world with him to earn some bread and some wine, but among his intentions was to create "a son" for him. He carves the log into a puppet and calls it Pinocchio. As the puppet is being made, it annoys Geppetto and eventually kicks him.

Becoming Pinocchio
When Geppetto finishes Pinocchio, he goes to teach his puppet to walk, but the puppet escapes when he learns enough. He is stopped by some Carabinieri, but when Geppetto arrives and intends to reprimand Pinocchio and grab him by ears that don't exist, everyone in the street thinks Geppetto is abusing Pinocchio and Geppetto gets detained. Pinocchio takes advantage of this to play outside freely and returns Geppetto's house. The Talking Cricket, who claims to have lived more than 100 years scolds Pinocchio for his hedonistic mentality and for getting Geppetto arrested. Pinocchio dislikes the reprimands and tries to banish the Cricket. When the Cricket says Pinocchio has a wooden head, Pinocchio drops a hammer and accidentally hits the Cricket with a mallet. When the night comes, Pinocchio gets hungry and tries to bake an egg, but a chick breaks free of said egg and flies. This makes Pinocchio acknowledge that the Cricket was right. There is no more food, so despite the thunders and the wind Pinocchio tries to ask to a neighbor for food, but said neighbor spills a bucket of water on him. Weakened, Pinocchio sits in a chair near the stove and puts his feet there, falling asleep and being unaware that his feet are getting burned.

Geppetto returns the next day and knocks the door. Awakened, Pinocchio tries to go for the door, but cannot help because he lost his feet. Pinocchio tries to explain Geppetto that he lost his feet and wrongly attributes Geppetto's cat to have eaten them. Geppetto doesn't believe him and decides to go to his house through a window. When he sees Pinocchio, he feels compassion for his puppet. Pinocchio tries to tell him his experience, but Geppetto only learns that Pinocchio is hungry, so he releases three pears and gives them to Pinocchio. The puppet asks his father to peel them and remove their core and the latter does so reluctantly, but Pinocchio ends up eating all. Geppetto decides not to repair Pinocchio's feet as a punishment, but after Pinocchio's promises to go to school finally accepts to repair them, giving Pinocchio better feet. Geppetto does clothing of flowery paper, shoes from tree crust and a cap made of dough. Seeing that the schoolbook was missing, Geppetto goes and sells his coat to get the schoolbook; it was a sacrifice considering that there was winter then. Pinocchio feels grateful for such sacrifice.

However, when Pinocchio is on the way to school, he gets disttracted by the Grand Marionette Theater and decides to go there instead by reasoning that he could join school later. After learning that he had to pay to enter to the event, he sells the schoolbook to a ragpicker to be able to buy the entry. When he enters, the (sentient) puppets are acting, but get distracted when they spot Pinocchio and all start to be so euphoric about his fellow puppet that the show gets ruined and Mangiafuoco, the puppeteer, becomes angry. Mangiafuoco decides to use Pinocchio as a fuel to cook some sheep meat. Pinocchio asks his father's help, which makes Mangiafuoco sneeze, which means Pinocchio has earned Mangiafuoco's mercy. Mangiafuoco decides to use another puppet, but Pinocchio decides to beg mercy and asks to take their place, so Mangiafuoco decides not to cook much the sheep meat. Pinocchio and Mangiafuoco talk about Geppetto, whose poverty and his sacrificial nature get Mangiafuoco's compassion. He gives Pinocchio five gold coins as a gift.

Pinocchio is then stopped by the Fox and the Cat, who feign to be disabled to beg and look harmless. Since they want to steal his money, they lie about a place supposedly called "Field of Miracles", where he can get rich. Although a chicken attempted to warn him about them and the Fox killed the chicken, Pinocchio still trusts them. They lead him to the Red Lobster Inn to have some food and after that Pinocchio sleeps until midnight, because he is awakened by the landlord, who tells Pinocchio that the Fox and the Cat left and had him meet in the forest. Pinocchio sacrifices part of his money to pay for both the stay and the food taken by the Fox and the Cat.

A ghost of the Talking Cricket appears in the forest and attempts to dissuade Pinocchio from going with the Fox and the Cat. However, Pinocchio ignores it. The Fox and the Cat try to assault Pinocchio and make him surrender the money, but Pinocchio refuses and runs away. He finds a house with a fairy that refuses to open because she is dead. Pinocchio is ultimately caught by the Fox and the Cat. He holds the coins in his mouth and he refuses to open it, so they decide to hang him.

Trivia

 * Despite having a mean personality and a tendency to take the wrong choices, he has goodness inside him and can even show selflessness.