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Copywork
About This Passage
This passage is the structural turning point of the rescue. Collodi pulls the camera back to address the reader directly with 'my little readers,' explains the physiological reason the monster's mouth is open (asthma, palpitation), and then puts the starry heavens in Pinocchio's line of sight through the throat — the first real sky in the chapter. The whispered plan that follows is Pinocchio assuming command. Copying this passage trains attention to how an author uses an aside, a medical detail, and a whisper to compress an action sequence into a single intelligible sentence.
Now, my little readers, you must know that the Dogfish, being very old and suffering from asthma and palpitation of the heart, was obliged to sleep with his mouth open. Pinocchio, therefore, looking u...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell chapter 35 from the moment Pinocchio leaves the Tunny to the moment he begins to swim with Geppetto on his back. Be sure to include the puddle that smells of Lent, the candlelit table, the long confession, the two-year imprisonment, the failed first escape with the sneeze, and the smooth moonlit sea.
Discussion Questions
- Pinocchio's first speech to Geppetto is a long catalog of every adventure in the book — the marionettes, the Fox and Cat, the assassins, the buried gold, the dog-collar, the Serpent, the Dove. What does this catalog accomplish that a shorter apology could not? Why is the form of the speech — a complete recounting, in order — significant?
- Geppetto has lived for two years inside the Dogfish on 'preserved meat, figs, biscuits, wine, raisins, coffee, sugar, candles, and matches.' What does the inventory tell you about Geppetto's character that his dialogue alone could not? How is the candlelit table a kind of moral statement?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
a chronic respiratory condition that causes difficulty breathing; the old Dogfish suffers from asthma and palpitation of the heart and is therefore obliged to sleep with his mouth open.
Item 2
having a sharp, piercing smell or taste; the puddle of greasy water inside the Dogfish has a pungent odor of fried fish so strong that Pinocchio thinks it must be Lent.
Item 3
required by some compulsion or duty; the old Dogfish is obliged to sleep with his mouth open because of asthma and palpitation of the heart.
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Critical Thinking
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