"In his use of folklore, Collodi consciously played with the tradition of 'Jack tales' which generally deal with a naive well-intentioned lad, who, despite the fact that he is not too bright, manages to lead a charmed life and survives all sorts of dangerous encounters (Zipes, 1999, p. With the success of the Bildungsroman in The Adventures of Pinocchio, came many other children's classics with similar formats such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Catcher and the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Outsiders to name a few. Although The Adventures of Pinocchio is not the first story to be Bildungsroman in nature, it is one the more identifiable coming-of-age stories in the children's literature cannon. When Pinocchio proves himself worthy of adulthood, he transforms from a puppet into a real boy, and in doing so, demonstrates a physical representation of the Bildungsroman nature of the the story. "Read as a type of Bildungsroman, or fairy-tale novel of development, Pinocchio can be interpreted positively as a representation of how peasant boys, when given the chance, can assume responsibility for themselves and their families" (Zipes, 1999, p.
Taking into consideration Pinocchio's constant struggles to overcome childish woes of hedonism, selfishness, and irreverence, it's no surprise that The Adventures of Pinocchio identifies as a Bildungsroman novella. Translated, Bildungsroman is defined as a psychological formation or coming-of-age novel. The term is a fusion of the German word for education "bildung" and the "roman" novel. The concept of Bildungsroman was first used in the late nineteenth-century/early twentieth century by philologist Karl Morgenstern.
Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio set a precedent for many fairy tales, short stories, novels, and novellas to follow and continues to maintain it's position as a children's classic. Noteworthy literary devices have transcended the multifarious adaptations of Collodi's original novella and have even reappeared in the pages of some of our most prized contemporary children's literature. Still, "Translated into more than ninety languages, 'Pinocchio' has never been out of print" (Scholastic, n.d.). From a dark, often times vulgar rendering in Collodi's original novella, to a sweet, sappy, watered-down, Americanized version, The Adventures of Pinocchio has been influenced by cultural and societal shifts throughout the past century. Because the book has been translated into more than ninety different languages and has been adapted for the stage and film, it has undergone a significant evolution to say the least. Apart from Machiavelli's The Prince and Dante's The Divine Comedy, no other piece of Italian literature rivals it. It has proven itself a timeless novella with universal moral lessons that children and adults from many different countries continue to share. Written by Carlo Lorenzini under the pen name of Carlo Collodi in 1882, The Adventures of Pinocchio has been, and continues to be a staple in the magnificent world of children's literature.