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In Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination , Vigen Guroian confirms with theological insight what generations of parents have intuitively known: that the classics of children's literature not only delight and divert and reassure children but also provide deep and abiding moral instruction. Guroian's fresh readings of beloved stories such as Charlotte's Web, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Wind in the Willows, and the Chronicles of Narnia will stir memories among many readers and prompt them to take these classics down from the shelf, while others will be introduced to these inexhaustible riches for the first time. What follows is an excerpt from Guroian's chapter on Pinocchio.

In the 1943 Disney animated film version of Carlo Collodi's 1883 classic, The Adventures of Pinocchio, the woodcarver Geppetto wishes upon a star that the marionette he has made might become a real boy. In the end, Geppetto's wish is granted by the Blue Fairy because the woodcarver has "given such happiness to others" and because Pinocchio has proven himself to be "brave, truthful, and unselfish." The contemporary children's writer Maurice Sendak judges that Disney's Pinocchio "is good; his 'badness' is only a matter of inexperience."1 Sendak likes it this way, as he also dislikes Collodi's Pinocchio because the puppet "is born bad" into a world that is itself "a ruthless, joyless place, filled with hypocrites, liars, and cheats." According to Sendak, Collodi created a character who is "innately evil, [a] doomed-calamity child of sin" who "doesn't stand a chance; … a happy-go-lucky ragazzo, but damned nevertheless."

I strongly disagree with Sendak's reading of Collodi. Yet his remarks raise profound questions about the meaning of childhood and about the nature of moral perfection. These matters pertain to Collodi's story and, as I will show, contrary to Sendak's opinion, make it one of the great works of literature for children.

In the essay by Sendak that I have cited, he goes on to explain that he likes Disney's version of Pinocchio because Disney establishes the puppet's desire to grow up as the central concern of the story, rather than emphasizing the imperative to be good. "Pinocchio's wish to be a real boy remains the film's underlying theme, but 'becoming a real boy' now signifies the wish to grow up, not [as in Collodi] the wish to be good." I agree with Sendak that "growing up" is a primary concern in the film, as it is in the book. But his contrast between this desire to grow up and the imperative to be good is troublesome. Surely, Sendak would agree that normally when we say to a child, "It's time you grow up," we mean that in order to become a mature human being a person must also be morally responsible.

What kind of a story would Pinocchio be, after all, if all that was entailed in the fulfillment of Pinocchio's (or Geppetto's) wish is that his wooden frame be magically transformed into human flesh without the accompaniment of an increase in his moral stature? Actually, neither the Disney film nor the Collodi story portrays Pinocchio's transformation into a flesh-and-blood child this way. In both stories Pinocchio wants to be more; he wants to be a real boy, a good boy, a genuine human son.

All children, excepting Peter Pan, want to grow up. And, in fact, all healthy children will grow to be adult individuals whether they want to or not. Pinocchio certainly has a special problem that Collodi casts as an allegory about moral growth. Pinocchio is a wooden puppet, and as the blue-haired fairy says to him, puppets never grow: "They are born puppets, they live puppets and die puppets." The deeper meaning belongs to the metaphor of "woodenness."

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