Take Home Quiz Chapter Summary

Take Home Quiz: Father Gaetano’s Puppet Catechism
1) There are many instances throughout this novella where concepts of freewill are exploited. In the beginning the reader learns that some of the children of San Domenico, Sicily had been left orphaned by the war (page 1). So the kids did not have a choice in where they may stay since they had no one else to look after them. Sister Veronica later mentions how she feels like she has an obligation to cultivate the minds that the Lord has put in her care (page 17). The children have no control of what they are taught to believe, and if they do act out against the nuns or priest they are punished. An example of this is when Sebastiano is caught with his puppet at the dinner table by Sister
However, when Luciano showed him Paglaccio, he could speak again miraculously (page 49). The puppet must have had a sensational charisma about him in order to create a sensation like this for a young boy in a terrible emotional state, such as that Sebastiano was in. After Luciano left the convent, Pagliaccio had appeared on Sebastiano’s pillow and told the boy that they were meant to be friends (page 51). This means the only puppet that wasn’t locked up when the caretaker left was Pagliaccio. All of the others were locked in the basement, sleeping, until someone else would try and recover them. When Pagliaccio calls out some of the other puppets for demonstrating their story incorrectly, the other puppets get frazzled and say that Pagliaccio just believes he is better everyone because he was never put away in the basement. The clown just explains that the rules do not apply to him because he was never meant to be part of the story, therefore he never had to be put away (page 83). A part of me wonders if this is because Pagliaccio was actually created for Sebastiano, perhaps as an advisory like Lucifer was to God. In many cases it seems like Pagliaccio is the leader of the puppets. In one instance, he uses a “soft voice”, to get the attention of many loudly speaking puppets at once (page 83). He is also the one to frighten the priest in his sleep, when it could have been any of the other puppets but it was him (page 90-91). Moreover it is intriguing that Pagliaccio awoke Sebastiano before the priest was attacked by Lucifer. This brings me back to the concept that Pagliaccio is Sebastiano’s advisory because it seems as if Pagliaccio is trying to get permission to follow through with the defeat of Father