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Story for children essay

Collodi wrote the story to be a lively adventure for children and a very adult social critique, attacking poverty and emphasising the importance of education (Liukkonen, 2008). Walt Disney adapted the story in 1940, lightened it up some and proceeded to make a film depicting the story as well. There are many versions of Pinocchio, but this book by The Walt Disney Company was written in third-person omniscient point of view. The narrator tells the story knowing everything about all the characters (DiYanni R. , 2008).

He takes the reader inside a character’s consciousness, entering their mind to reveal what they think and feel (DiYanni R. 2008). This narrative style encourages the reader to empathize with a character in an emotional scene, and reveals character through flashes of insight (DiYanni R. , 2008). I related mostly to Geppetto. I felt his loneliness, his frustration with parenting, his worry when Pinocchio was lost, his compassion and forgiveness for his son, his sorrow for the loss of his son, and his unconditional love.

This short story is written for children, so the sentence structure is not complex. Each sentence contains a limited number of words to hold the attention of the appropriate audience (DiYanni R. , 2008). The vocabulary is simple.

Children will lose interest if the story is confusing. There is simple and direct dialogue between the characters on every page. This creates an opportunity for the reader, most likely the parent, to make up different voices while telling the story (DiYanni R. , 2008). For example, “ Pinocchio, why didn’t you go to school today? asked the Blue Fairy (The Walt Disney Company, 1992).

“ I—I was kidnapped by a green monster! ” Pinocchio lied (The Walt Disney Company, 1992). Another important component to the vocabulary of this story for children is that each sentence in the story contains only one thought.

Here are some examples: Pleasure Island was a wonderous place (The Walt Disney Company, 1992). Fountains spouted lemonade (The Walt Disney Company, 1992).

Big candy canes and lollipops grew like trees (The Walt Disney Company, 1992). A boy could do whatever he wanted because there were no grown-ups to stop him (The Walt Disney Company, 1992). I especially like this last example because the narrator is trying to convince the child reader that Pleasure Island is a wonderous place and what better way to do so than to populate it with candy trees and depopulate it with grown-ups. The main character in this children’s story is Pinocchio.

He is a live puppet made of wood, but looks lovable and cute and he is curious and naive. He has a thirst for adventure, but a shaky sense of what is right and wrong.

He is an easy mark for the con-men of the world and has to beat temptation and learn to become brave, truthful, and unselfish. Only when he proves himself deserving of his father’s love, and of the Blue Fairy’s trust will he become a real boy. Geppetto is a gentle, eccentric, lonely bachelor who sadly wishes he could have a son. He is a woodcarver who works on a puppet he calls Pinocchio and wishes on a star one night for the puppet to come to life.

He is thrilled when Pinocchio comes to life, but soon discovers that taking care of the little wooden boy is more trouble than he ever imagined. Geppetto obviously struggles with the responsibilities of parenthood, and seems to become disillusioned with the idea of fatherhood.

However, Geppetto cannot hide the unconditional love in his heart for his new son and continues to be patient and gentle with Pinocchio, teaching him right from wrong. The Blue Fairy and Jiminy Cricket are important characters, but have small parts. They personify conscience and discipline, which Pinocchio lacks at first.

The Blue Fairy is illuminated in the pictures representing her magical and mystical qualities. Jiminy Cricket is the annoying voice of discipline always warning Pinocchio to heed his advice. The tale takes place in an Italian village, initially in Geppetto’s workshop which is full of wooden gadgets and chiming clocks, yet he does not know what time it is.

The gentle woodcarver is wishing upon a star for the puppet to come to life and to be his son. The Blue Fairy brings the toy to life out of compassion for Geppetto who is a good man, but is lonely and wanting someone to love. The puppet named, Pinocchio, is not yet a human boy.

He must earn the right to be real by proving that he is brave, truthful, and unselfish (The Walt Disney Company, 1992). It is not an easy world for the puppet.

He must learn what it means to be a good person, including: going to school, working hard, making friends and putting others’ needs before his own. In the end, after learning some important life lessons, Pinocchio is transformed from the wooden puppet into the real boy Geppetto has always wanted (The Walt Disney Company, 1992). One important event in the story is when Pinocchio is confronted by the Blue Fairy about skipping school to be in a puppet show.

She asks him why he never went to school and he lies to her and says that he was kidnapped by a green monster (The Walt Disney Company, 1992). Pinocchio is choosing to do what is wrong, by telling her a lie, instead of choosing to do what is right, by telling her the truth.

This is the first time that his nose grows as a consequence of his disobiedience. He continues to lie and his nose continues to grow. The fairy explains that she can return his nose to normal and give him another chance, but that he must learn to do what is good and right (The Walt Disney Company, 1992).

Pinocchio promises to try hard to be good and with a wave of the fairy’s wand, he has his old nose back (The Walt Disney Company, 1992). This event is significant to the story because Pinocchio realizes that there are consequences to his actions.

He learns that if he lies, people will know by the abnormal, immediate growth of his nose. This is a crucial part of his moral education. It is a lot easier for a person to not tell the truth when they think no one will find out, but when the lie will be publically and immediately known as soon as you tell it, things get more complicated.

This is quite paradoxal to me. The thought is that Pinocchio’s nose should never grow because that will prove that he is good. However, without the experience of humiliation and punishment for doing bad, he cannot learn that being bad is wrong.

Therefore, he needs to be bad and punished, so he can be forgiven and rewarded after he chooses to be good. No growth of nose, equals no growth of integrity, or soul, and the point of the story is for Pinocchio to learn how to earn a soul and become human. The final adventure of the story has the most importance.

Pinocchio receives a message from the Blue Fairy that Geppetto and his pets, Figaro and Cleo, have gone searching for him, but end up in the belly of Monstro the whale instead.

All three are still alive, inside Monstro’s belly, but starving to death. Against Jiminy Cricket’s warnings, Pinocchio resolves to find and rescue Geppetto. He finds Monstro in the ocean and there is a chase whereby Pinocchio is nevertheless consumed by the great beast. Inside the whale’s belly, Pinocchio reunites with his father and proposes that they escape by starting a fire to make Monstro sneeze them out of his mouth.

Although the plan works and they are all expelled with a violent sneeze, the whale wildly chases them through the ocean, smashes their raft with his tail, causes great turbulence and violence and corners them against some cliffs. Geppetto’s body gives out long before the chase is over, so Pinocchio fights his own weakness to keep his father afloat and alive. Pinocchio saves his father by paddling madly through the hole in the cliffs just in time to avoid Monstro’s leap towards them to consume and kill them. Monstro smashes into the cliffs and dies. Geppetto, Figaro and Cleo all wash ashore alive.

Pinocchio is found dead.

He was too exhausted to save himself. However, his brave act of selflessness earns him the right to become a real boy (The Walt Disney Company, 1992). The structure of the story, which is the pattern that the story possesses, is the showing of bravery, from Pinocchio, in the face of repeated dangers, and the coming of good from evil.

Also, that Pinocchio repeats the same mistakes: he does not go to school, he gets into trouble, he lies about his circumstances, and he needs another chance. Pinocchio proves over and over that he is an egotistical child guided by the pleasure principle, until the end when he is selfless and rewarded.

There is an enormous amount of irony and symbolism in this story. An example of symbolism is the way personification is used throughout the story. The writer makes an idea into a character trait of a person to influence his young audience. The Blue Fairy is Pinocchio’s conscience, Jiminy Cricket is discipline, the evil coachman and Stromboli are ogre-like humans.

Geppetto was like our loving father in heaven. The episodes in the story seem to criticize professional malpractice and the shortcomings of society.

The idea repeats itself that if children skip school and are without an education, then they become part of the child labor force. The irony is situational. For example, Pinocchio has to learn to be good and truthful to become human, yet every human he meets other than Geppetto is bad and manipulative. The two characters that help Pinocchio the most to become human, the Blue Fairy and the cricket, are not human themselves.

Pleasure Island seems like a wonderous place, but it is a place for wicked children who are mercilessly transformed into beasts and sold into slavery.

And the most important example is that Pinocchio has to die in order to really live. There are many morals to this story as well. For example: do not skip school, obey your father, do not talk to strangers, be brave, selfless and work hard. Another example, help someone who is in need at the cost of your own happiness and you will be rewarded. Also, that good can come from evil.

Also, that kids grow from egotistical children guided by the pleasure principle, into adults who understand the feelings of other people. Also, that there is rebirth through metamorphosis.

I personally think the writer wanted kids to value an education and wanted to convince kids that it was not worth it to skip school. Heck, with townspeople like that, who would skip school?

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