Pinocchio's Resistance to Authority

Another major theme throughout the Collodi’s original text is Pinocchio’s resistance to authority, which conveys a political message of the times up through the late 1930s

In his article, “The Tribulations of Pinocchio: How Social Change Can Wreck a Good Story”, Richard Wunderlich addresses this issue:

“To begin with, any explicit references to the state (e.g. the police, judge, prince, or jail keeper) are negative, satirical, and cautionary. Pinocchio does, in fact, challenge authority; his adventures seem especially constructed to show that state officials are stupid at best, unjust at worst” (p. 216).

In the second picture, Pinocchio’s mockery towards authority can be seen in the way that he escapes the carabinieri, members of the Italian police force, by “retrieving his cap” when he really intends to flee. It is also interesting to note that the authority figures send the mastiff, a huge dog, after the small puppet as opposed to catching him with their own hands. Today, especially if Pinocchio was depicted as a small child, this behavior would be unwarranted and challenged as cruel by many. Because Collodi’s audience was not necessarily intended to be children, what today quite possibly be thought of as abhorrent behavior could have been then more acceptable for adults.