ENG 280 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Fire Eating, Skill, Morality
14 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Maria Konovalyuk 02.19
Pinocchio (1881 & 1883)
- Created by two men, no women involved: immediately raises problem of “unnatural”
birth and the productions of a male-dominated society
- Crafted out of interior wood, a “common log” (pinocchio meaning “eye of pine” or “pine
knot”)
- Function: to be the “leg of a little table”: to support (literal and figurative)
- Gepetto’s house and the painted (not real) fireplace: both father and son “unreal” at the
start of the text/journey
- “Don’t strike me so hard”: expectation of violence, but a petition for a little less, ignored
- Like Water-Babies: emphasis on things unseen, life within; need for journey to growl
encounter with death (chapter 15 original conclusion to the text)
- Emphasis on red: “crimson” face/nose, fire, rage, anger, perdition, battling, “fever of
curiosity,” ovens, fire-eater
- How does the prevalence of red compare with the Blue of the fairy, sister, etc.?
- Explores the world of the poor, impoverished
- suggests that a different skill-set is necessary to survive in this economic stratum
- Emphasis on hunger and dissatisfaction (in a world of corruption)
- Avoids the sentimental childhood methods we will encounter going forward
- that is no lament for the “lost paradise” of childhood
- No emphasis on vision or imagination
- to the contrary indulging in fantasy has disastrous results (the false promises of
the Cat and the Fox)
- Pinocchio must develop an ethical system of his own, as he lives in a corrupt world
- Like the Water-Babies with regard to filial duty and hard work as necessary for becoming
real
- Each boy stripped of his body as he journeys to become man and member of society
(1883)
- Tale of conversion (moral and religious) and development of conscience
- False friendships: The Cat and the Fox
- Language as a tool of Deception: manipulation and lying, presenting a false or fictional
reality
- Perverted or Conditional Morality
- Pinocchio rationalises based on his own desires versus traditional, largely
Biblical, morality of Fairy, Cricket, Gepetto
- Depiction of the World:
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Document Summary
Created by two men, no women involved: immediately raises problem of unnatural birth and the productions of a male-dominated society. Crafted out of interior wood, a common log (pinocchio meaning eye of pine or pine knot ) Function: to be the leg of a little table : to support (literal and figurative) Gepetto"s house and the painted (not real) fireplace: both father and son unreal at the start of the text/journey. Don"t strike me so hard : expectation of violence, but a petition for a little less, ignored. Like water-babies: emphasis on things unseen, life within; need for journey to growl encounter with death (chapter 15 original conclusion to the text) Emphasis on red: crimson face/nose, fire, rage, anger, perdition, battling, fever of curiosity, ovens, fire-eater. How does the prevalence of red compare with the blue of the fairy, sister, etc.
