Pinocchio: The Tale of a Foolish Puppet

Pinocchio, the wooden puppet carved by the kindly Geppetto, has run away from home and ignored every bit of good advice he has been given, but the blue sprite has promised that if he changes his selfish ways - by going to school, working hard, and being good - he will become a real boy. His father, meanwhile, has gone searching for him and been swallowed by a terrible sea monster.

On his way to his very first day of school, Pinocchio meets a lanky boy named Candlewick, who is waiting for a midnight coach to the Land of Leisure, a country with no schools, no teachers, and no one to tell anybody what to do. There, Candlewick promises, toys grow on trees and "every day's a weekend." Instead of going to class, Pinocchio spends the whole day listening to his new friend's tempting talk, and by midnight he can no longer resist. A jovial coachman arrives with a coach pulled by twelve pairs of donkeys and packed with excited boys, and though Pinocchio hesitates, he climbs aboard. Oddly, one of the donkeys seems to call out a warning, but the coachman tells him to ignore it.

At first the Land of Leisure is everything Candlewick promised: games, food, and fun from morning till night. Pinocchio still hears faint reminders from his conscience, the cricket, and the blue sprite, and his father, but he finds it easier and easier to ignore them. Then one morning he looks in the mirror and discovers an enormous pair of donkey ears on his head. Candlewick has sprouted a matching pair, and soon both boys are braying. The coachman cheerfully explains that they have caught donkey fever, that every boy there eventually does, and that there is no cure. Having had their fun, they are now beasts of burden, and he intends to sell them for a profit. Within hours the transformation is complete, and the two donkeys are led to the marketplace, where Candlewick, blaming Pinocchio for everything, is bought by a peasant.

Pinocchio is sold to the grandly named ringmaster of a traveling circus, who spends three grueling months teaching him to dance, play dead with dramatic flair, and jump through fiery hoops. On the night of his first performance, the crowd loves him, but as Pinocchio looks out at the real boys and girls in the audience, a sadness comes over him: he might have been a real boy by now if he had behaved. Then he spots the blue sprite sitting in the third row. When she suddenly rises and leaves, Pinocchio bolts out of the ring, ignoring the ringmaster's cries that the show must go on, and chases her all the way to a cliff above the sea. Hovering over the water, she calls him to jump in. When the donkey protests that he cannot swim, she answers, "Yes, you might drown, but what's even worse, you might not." Pinocchio takes the plunge, sinks to the bottom, and rises to the surface to find the donkey gone - he is a puppet again. But before he can celebrate, the sea monster's horrible head rises from the waves and swallows him whole.

Inside the monster's belly, Pinocchio meets a chatty, movie-quoting fish called Captain Tuna Fish, then follows a flickering light deeper in, where he finds a little old man at a candlelit table: his father. Geppetto explains that his boat capsized while he was searching for his son, and that he has survived on food from a ship the monster also swallowed, though he is now down to his last crumbs and a single candle. Pinocchio hatches an escape plan, and when the sleeping monster gives one enormous cough, father and son are flung far out into the open sea. Since Geppetto cannot swim, Pinocchio, who is made of wood and floats, carries him on his back, swimming until his strength gives out with the shore still far away. Just in time, Captain Tuna Fish appears and tows them both to dry land.

As they walk, Pinocchio confesses everything and tells his father he is sorry for it all, and Geppetto says he is proud of him. They find shelter in a cozy straw hut that turns out to belong to the cricket, the very conscience Pinocchio once smashed, who is somehow alive and well. Pinocchio promises to work in exchange for food and a place to stay, and he keeps his word, laboring from dawn to dusk for weeks and studying in his spare time so he can care for his father in the years to come. One night the blue sprite visits him in a dream. When he asks if she can ever forgive all he has done wrong, she tells him, "Forgiveness is always ready for a repentant heart," and declares that he has truly changed.

Pinocchio wakes in a beautiful room with a brand-new suit of clothes waiting for him, and when he checks the mirror, a strange boy stares back. Spinning around, he realizes there is no stranger: he is the boy in the mirror, a real flesh-and-blood boy at last, complete with skin and, as a pinch proves, pain. Geppetto tells him the blue sprite kept her promise because his heart was no longer hard as wood: "When the heart is truly changed, the rest of the body follows." Looking at his old puppet body slumped against a chair, Pinocchio admits he looked foolish and says he does not deserve this gift. His father gently agrees that none of us deserves the gifts we are given - we may work hard and do right with the life we receive, but such a gift can never be earned. And so the foolish puppet becomes a wise boy, though, as the storyteller admits, it certainly didn't happen overnight.