more dense) as symbolized by Pinocchio when he’s being dishonest and his nose grows.īy the end of the story Pinocchio has control of his material self’s natural tendencies and he starts to express the noble qualities of his real self as he is courageous and strong when he saves his father and himself from the belly of the shark and he is compassionate, diligent, patient, selfless, determined, purposeful and productive when he works as a farmhand and provides for his father. When we do this it’s as if we’re becoming more material (i.e. Similarly we often succumb and robotically react to the downward pull of the natural tendencies of our material self to be lazy, annoyed, depressed, impatient, gluttonous, indifferent and ungrateful. He is always shown the error of his ways and promises to change but he most often repeats the same mistakes. Through the majority of the story Pinocchio is belligerent, lazy, dishonest and indifferent. Pinocchio redeems himself by the end of the story by first controlling his natural tendencies then expressing the divine qualities of his real self. In fact we need to know that we are not material selves who have a soul but rather we are souls who have a material self through which we act in this world. We are designed to realize that this is our true identity. It is the soul or spirit which was created in God’s image. This real self is the most noble, compassionate and wise part of us. Just so we have a real self that seeks to express itself through a disciplined material self. Pinocchio transforms into a real boy after going through many trials and eventually learning to control himself and express his more virtuous traits.

This is the material self that you’ve come to know and love complete with all its sensations, habits, likes, dislikes, thoughts, habits and attitudes.

Our material selves aren’t made of wood (although I love the English phrase of describing someone who’s not too intelligent as being “thick as two planks”) but we are made of physical, emotional and mental material that combine to create our body. Of course Pinocchio’s material self is as a wooden puppet. Pinocchio perfectly symbolizes our dual nature our material self and our real self. The Adventures of Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi’s 19th century tale about the trials and tribulations of a wooden puppet (the original story not the Disney version), provides a neat explanation of the meaning of life specifically addressing who we are and why we’re here.

Pinocchio story by