What Do I Read Next?
The Path to the Nest of the Spiders (1947), by Italo Calvino, is an early collection of his short stories, based on his experiences as a Resistance fighter against fascism in Italy during World War II. Italian Folk Tales (1956), consisting of transcriptions of Italian folk tales from the oral tradition collected and retold by Italo Calvino, has become a definitive text, equivalent to Grimm's collections of German folktales. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (1981), Calvino's well-known novel, experiments with narrative techniques and the art of storytelling. Six Memos for the Next Millenium (1988), by Italo Calvino, includes five of the six lectures that the author had been preparing at the time of his death. These essays include the topics of lightness, quickness, visibility, and multiplicity.
Why Read the Classics? (1999) by Italo Calvino, published posthumously, provides history and criticism of classic international literature. Understanding Italo Calvino (1993) by Beno Weiss provides a basic introduction to the complex, experimental narrative techniques developed by Calvino in many of his novels. Calvino: The Writer as Fablemaker (1979) by Stella Maria Adler, with a preface by Dante Delia Terza, provides criticism and interpretation of Calvino's stories, focusing on the role of the narrator in the written folk tale. the following essay, the ways in which the hero of the story embodies these values, which result in the stamping out of evil forces and the rewarding of good deeds, will be discussed. An allegorical interpretation of the story makes it relevant to the modern reader as a lesson in important values. As in most fairy tales, this story ends with the triumph of good over evil. The ogre is punished in the end, when he is stuck on the ferry boat. Likewise, the Devil is driven out of the monastery. The virtues of the hero, and the heroine, are abundantly rewarded.
When the man and the girl reach the innkeeper, he is so grateful for the return of his daughter that he immediately gives her hand in marriage to the man. The man is then doubly rewarded for bringing the king the feather that cures him of his illness. With the ogre safely stuck on the ferry, unable to do further harm in the world, and the hero assured both marriage to a ' 'beautiful girl'' and abundant monetary wealth, this story closes with the proverbial ' 'happily ever after'' that characterizes the fairy tale ending. Thus, the values and morals of "The Feathered Ogre'' meet the standard expectations a reader (or listener) has of a fairy tale. Yet, to the modern reader, the moral of the story may at first seem outdated and overly simplistic.
Unfortunately, evil in the world takes more complex forms than that of an ogre, and monetary wealth is not so easy to come by, nor does it necessarily bring happiness, whereas love and marriage prove greater challenges in real life than is implied by such a story. However, fairy tales, which serve the cultural role of teaching basic values to children, retain their significance in a complex, modern society when interpreted in allegorical terms. An allegory is a tale that is meant to be understood, not literally but in terms of its symbolic significance. For instance, the predicament of the two noblemen is that their fountain, which used to spout gold and silver, is stopped up by a snake sleeping curled around a ball.
The snake, based on the story of the Garden of Eden in the Old Testament, is a classic symbol of evil, the Devil in disguise. Therefore, the allegorical implications are that a force of evil (the snake) is the cause of the problem of the noblemen. In order to get their fountain flowing again, they must crush the head of the snake with the ball, an allegory for crushing the forces of evil that have obstructed their lives.
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