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Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination
by Vigen Gurolan
Oxford Univ. Press
176 pp.; $22

This woodenness of his mind and will, and not the matter of being physically made of wood, is Pinocchio's greatest obstacle to "growing up." Sendak has this part right at least: Collodi's Pinocchio is no mere innocent, and the wrongs he commits are, more often than not, not merely the mistakes of ignorance but the consequences of a hard head, undisciplined passions, and a misdirected will that resists good advice.

In the Disney version, real boyhood is bestowed on Pinocchio as a reward for being good by the Blue Fairy with a touch of her magic wand; or, as the Blue Fairy herself says, because Pinocchio has proven himself "brave, truthful, and unselfish." In Disney's imagination this is magic. In theological terms this is works righteousness.

By moral description, the Disney story presents the virtues as the completion and very essence of Pinocchio's humanity—once he has proven himself "brave, truthful, and unselfish" he is transformed into a real boy.

Collodi views things differently. In his story, Pinocchio becomes a real flesh-and-blood human child after he awakens from a dream in which the blue-haired fairy forgives him for his former waywardness and present shortcomings, while she also praises him for the good path he has taken by showing a son's love for his father. For Collodi, real boyhood is not so much a reward as it is the visible sign of a moral task that has been conscientiously pursued, a task that even at that moment when Pinocchio is transformed from wood into flesh and blood is not yet wholly completed. Pinocchio's filial love, obedience, truthfulness, and self-expenditure for the sake of others ultimately triumph over his primal propensity to be selfish and self-centered. His good heart with its innate capacity to love finally dominates over his wooden head.

The flesh he acquires represents a significant stage in the perfection of his humanity—that is, childhood—when filial love and obedience toward parents are appropriate. These and the other virtues are the preconditions for becoming a real human being, but they do not constitute our humanity as such. Collodi is clear that Pinocchio's good heart is the source and substance of his humanity and that responsible relationships with others are humanity's path to perfection. Grace assists but does not compel the moral maturation of the puppet, since the puppet, despite Sendak's opinion, is essentially good, and since grace is not the same as Disney's magic.

In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis asks this hypothetical question:

Did you ever think, when you were a child, what fun it would be if your toys could come to life? Well suppose you could really have brought them to life. Imagine turning a tin soldier into a real little man. It would involve turning the tin into flesh. And suppose the tin soldier did not like it. He is not interested in flesh; all he sees is that the tin is being spoilt. He thinks you are killing him. He will do everything he can to prevent you. He will not be made into a man if he can help it.

In the Disney film, Geppetto wishes that the wooden puppet would become a real boy. In the Collodi fairy tale, Pinocchio makes the wish and not Geppetto; and what Pinocchio actually wishes for is that he become a fully grown man. The blue-haired fairy then explains to Pinocchio that he has to "begin by being a good boy" and that this involves obedience, truthfulness, and education, and consoling one's parents.

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