I was recently discussing old Disney movies with a few friends when “Pinocchio” came up. We all probably know the classic story; Pinocchio is a puppet that must prove that he is truthful and unselfish in order to become a real boy. Throughout the movie, we see him drawn into other character’s lies, and more famously, we watch his nose grow when he lies. Thinking about this movie compared to our class is very interesting; we see that sometimes the truth is clear and absolute, but most of the time, truth is hidden, waiting to be discovered.
On Pinocchio’s journey to prove that he is truthful and unselfish, others dupe him multiple times along the way. “Honest John” first convinces him that a life of fame and wealth is the only way to be happy, and then convinces him to go to Pleasure Island. Pinocchio, oblivious to the purposefully ironic name, happily believes him each time he is lied to. Watching this now, we might think, “well of course he’s being lied to, why does he keep falling for it?” But don’t we do the same thing when we read The Things They Carried? O’Brien repeatedly tells us that his stories aren’t true, yet each time we are caught believing his following stories.
Pinocchio’s journey is similar in many ways to our journey as readers. Often we begin by blindly believing everything we are told. As we continue through the story however, we learn from our mistakes, that the truth is not what it seems, and that soon we have to form our own opinions on the story. These opinions can be shaped by outside forces (as Jiminy Cricket assists Pinocchio): by the author himself, or through discussions we have about the text. At the end of the story, we seem to reach what we think is a final truth; Pinocchio’s good deeds allowed him to become a real boy, or in The Things They Carried, that the story isn’t about war, but rather about emotion and remembering. However, this truth can never feel quite complete; a sense of mystery still remains. Pinocchio has an element of magic to it that seems to reflect the magic of the written story. Even after finishing our reading and discussion of The Things They Carried, we aren’t quite sure what the truth is, and it sometimes seems like O’Brien used a bit of unseen magic in convincing us of the truth. It would be nice if there were an indicator (such as a growing nose) to tell us if a story were true, but then where would the magic of our journey through stories go?
At first glance I would say that Pinocchio and The Things They Carried are in complete opposition. In Pinocchio it is always clear to the audience when a character, especially Pinocchio, is lying while in The Things They Carried it is ambiguous. The moral of Pinocchio is that good boys do not lie, while O’Brien tells us that lying is necessary to communicate his points.
ReplyDeleteHowever you find a way that the two stories complement each other. It makes sense how you compare us as readers trying to find the truth in The Things They Carried to Pinocchio searching for the truth in his story. Good post!