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Copywork
About This Passage
Collodi quietly contrasts two crowds in this passage. On stage stand the wooden marionettes — a community willing to stop their entire show for the sake of one wooden brother they have just recognized. Off stage sits the paying audience — a community willing to grow impatient at love’s interruption because they paid four pennies for a comedy. Notice the small but devastating phrase ‘wooden-headed sayings of true and sincere brotherhood’: Collodi will not let us mistake the marionettes’ dignity for cleverness. Their love is real precisely because their words are simple. The chapter is teaching us that true brotherhood is recognized by the sacrifice it makes — the marionettes lose the play; the audience would not.
It is impossible to imagine the kisses, the embraces, the words of endearment, the wooden-headed sayings of true and sincere brotherhood that Pinocchio received in the midst of the actors and actresse...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell Chapter 10 in your own words. Be sure to include: how the comedy was interrupted by Harlequin’s recognition of Pinocchio, what the marionettes did to welcome him, what the manager looked like when he came out of the kitchen, and what he ordered Harlequin and Pulcinello to do.
Discussion Questions
- Harlequin stops the play in mid-speech to point at Pinocchio and cry, ‘Deities of the universe! do I dream or am I awake?’ What does this kind of welcome tell us about how the marionettes feel toward another wooden creature — and what does the chapter want us to feel about brotherhood between people who recognize one another at first sight?
- Collodi piles up frightening details about the manager: a beard that trips him, a mouth like a furnace, eyes like red lanterns, a whip of serpents. Why does Collodi describe him so strongly all at once, instead of slowly? How does the author’s rhythm of description change the reader’s heart?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
A loving word or expression used to show affection, like ‘dear’ or ‘sweetheart.’
Item 2
The deep loyal love that exists between brothers — by blood or by spirit.
Item 3
Big, expressive, and full of feeling, like an actor performing onstage.
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Critical Thinking
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