The Adventures of Pinocchio — Chapter 5

Narration Prompt

Before discussion, summarize Chapter 5 as four beats: (1) Pinocchio’s appetite climbs from gnawing to wolfish hunger; (2) he finds the fireplace is a painting and his nose grows nearly four fingers longer in disappointment; (3) he discovers an egg, kisses it, and watches a polite chick fly out the window; (4) he weeps twice that the Talking Cricket was right and decides to seek a ‘charitable person’ in the neighboring town rather than return to Geppetto.

Discussion Questions

1. Pinocchio’s nose grows when he looks into Geppetto’s painted pot, before any lie has been spoken. Discuss what this non-verbal, non-mendacious growth tells us about Collodi’s most famous device. Is the nose a lie-detector, or is it better read as a register of Pinocchio’s divergence from truth — of which lying is only one species?
2. Collodi waits until Pinocchio is hungry to show us Geppetto’s painted kitchen, so that the father’s poverty is transmitted through the son’s body rather than through exposition. Discuss this somatic pedagogy of sympathy: what does Collodi believe the reader must feel before the reader can understand, and what does that commit a Trail Guide reading the novel aloud to a child to attend to?

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