“Dobbiamo ritentare la fuga”. L’inizio e i finali delle Avventure di Pinocchio

Abstract

In Le Avventure di Pinocchio, three episodes deserve special attention, for they open and close the puppet’s story: the flight from his father at the beginning of the book (chapter III), the flight from the murderers, which ends the part published in 1881 in the “Giornale per i bambini” (chapters
XIV-XV) and, finally, the flight from the Shark, which marks the end of the final version of the work, published in 1883 by Paggi (chapters XXXV-XXXVI). The analysis has enabled to point out how the relationship reason-instinct marks an evolution in Pinocchio’s modes of flight, leaving unaltered, however, the fundamental structure. The mechanism of both endings is organized according to a closed form, that, having death as a starting point and as an outcome, poses itself as an alternative to the character growing up.