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Content Warning: The source material uses outdated and offensive language about individuals with physical and intellectual disabilities.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

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).