The Pearl Summer Reading Project

Simrohn Iftekhar
Mr. Demmers 9A
Summer Reading Assignment (The Pearl by John Steinbeck)

I. Examine Steinbeck’s use of imagery. Writers carefully choose their words in order to convey vivid images to the reader. Re-read the first three paragraphs of the novel
(pp.1-2)* and answer the following questions:

1. What visual image does Steinbeck create?
He creates an image of very early morning when the stars are out and the sky is still dark. He paints the setting of a small and quaint house on the beach.
2. What can be heard?
Roosters crowing, birds chittering, waves splashing, and music in Kino’s mind.
3. What effect do you think the author is trying to create as the story opens?
Steinbeck is trying to create a simple, naturally beautiful, and tranquil environment. A quaint little paradise.
4. What kind of information is provided about Kino and the society in which he lives?
Kino lives in a small and simple environment, very close to nature. He lives with his tiny family in a tiny brush house.

II. Determine how figures of speech create effect and convey meaning. Figures of speech such as metaphors, similes, and personification are often used by authors to form images.

1. What is the significance of Kino’s comparing the pearl to his soul?
Because it is all he has left. Kino feels like he has to prove himself and will fight until there is nothing left. He equates it to his soul because of how important it has become to him at this point, and he’ll fight till there is nothing left for it.
2. Why is the town compared to an animal with a nervous system, limbs, and emotions? (p.21)
To show how closely knit the town is. How they all are part of one system that depends on each other.
3. What musical metaphors does Steinbeck use (for example, The Song of the Family), and how are they significant?
They represent his emotions and views on what is happening at that moment. For example, The Song of Family represents a calm and comforting sense. The Song of Evil is to show Kino’s fears for Coyotito, for example the fear of the scorpion getting closer to Coyotito and biting him. The Song of the Pearl is the pearl calling for Kino and at first is a hopeful melody for Kino. It inspires his dreams for the future of wealth and an education for his son. Later in the story, song song mutates into a “distorted and insane” version, showing how his views on the pearl have evolved.
4. How do these figures of speech enhance meaning?
It enhances the reader’s understanding of the events in the book. They emphasize the emotions and the auras of the story. It puts the reader more in tune with Kino and his feelings throughout.

III. Tone refers to the author’s attitude toward a subject or a character. Determine how the author’s choice of words conveys his attitude toward his characters. Reread the paragraph about the doctor which begins “in his chamber the doctor sat up in his high bed” (pp.10-12).

1. What feeling toward the doctor does Steinbeck communicate?
The doctor is a representation of the colonials and their attitudes towards Kino’s people. The doctor embodies greed and arrogance and condescension toward he natives.
2. What will the doctor’s attitude be toward treating a poor Indian’s baby?
The doctor should be duty-bound as a physician to try and save human life, but instead is greedy. He values money and wealth and power over the moral obligations of helping a patient.
3. Find words and/or phases that show clearly that Steinbeck view this character with contempt.
"His eyes rested in puffy little hammocks of flesh and his mouth drooped with discontent. He was growing very stout, and his voice was hoarse with the fat that pressed on his throat."
“A wonderful thing, a memorable thing, to want the doctor. To get him would be a remarkable thing. The doctor never came to the cluster of brush houses. Why should he, when he had more than he could do to take care of the rich people who lived in the stone and plaster houses of the town.”
“And they knew the doctor. They knew his ignorance, his cruelty, his avarice, his appetite, his sins. They knew his clumsy abortions and the little brown pennies he gave sparingly for alms. They had seen his corpses go into the church.”
4. Find another passage in the novel in which Steinbeck shows his contempt for those who have oppressed Kino and his people.
"This doctor was not of his people. This doctor was of a race which for nearly four hundred years had beaten and starved and robbed and despised Kino's race, and frightened it too, so that the indigene came humbly to the door. And as always when he came near to one of this race, Kino felt weak and afraid and angry at the same time. Rage and terror went together. He could kill the doctor more easily than he could talk to him, for all of the doctor's race spoke to all of Kino's race as though they were simple animals."
5. Find a passage in the novel that reveals Steinbeck’s sympathetic tone towards Kino’s people. Write down the passages or note the page number.
"Kino felt the rage and hatred melting toward fear. And he could not take the chance of pitting his certain ignorance against this man's possible knowledge. he was trapped as his people were always trapped, and would be until, as he had said, they could be sure that the things in the books were really in the books."
Found at the beginning of the second to last paragraph on page 30.

IV. Examine the author’s use of symbolism. Throughout the novel Steinbeck uses symbols to suggest his themes. Consider the following symbols.

1. The central symbol of the novel is the pearl. What might a pearl (any pearl) symbolize?
They could represent wealth and money.
2. What does Kino’s pearl symbolize?
In the beginning, the pearl represents a stroke of divine providence, such as the prophesized “Pearl That Might Be”. It represents hope for the future and the possibility of a life free of the shackles of colonial oppression. As the word spreads, however, this quickly changes. As Kino tries to sell the pearl and holds onto the belief that it is more valuable than the dealers offer, the pearl’s meaning changes to human plans and desires. Kino insists that it will change their lives for the better and it is a blessing, but Juana and Juan Tomas start to believe that it is more of a threat than a blessing. As Kino changes and puts all of his energy into caring for the pearl, the pearl embodies Kino’s greed more and more, and so comes to symbolize the destructiveness of materialism.
3. How does the meaning of Kino’s pearl change over the course of the novel?
The pearl comes to reflect Kino’s changes throughout the book as it progresses. It goes from being just a simple, beautiful object to destructive and dangerous once t becomes associated with notions of material value. The pearl is simply a natural and innocent object that draws out the evil within man.
4. Of what might each of the following be a symbol: the doctor, the pearl buyers, the trackers, the scorpion, and Kino.
The doctor represents the colonial attitudes that oppress Kino’s people.
The pearl buyers are symbols of corruption and manipulation in business.
The trackers represent greed and jealousy.
The scorpion represents evil. It represents the destruction of innocence. The scorpion represents evil touching the innocence, represented by Coyoito.
Kino represents a simple man who was tempted by desire and lead astray by greed, much like Adam and Eve being forced to leave their paradise because they tried to reach for the forbidden fruit.

V. Determining the themes in The Pearl. Find evidence from the novel for each of the following themes.

1. Man has no individual identity and cannot exist as a single human person apart from society.
Steinbeck shows this by describing the town as a “colonial animal” with a “nervous system and a head and shoulders and feet.” This shows how the village works like a unit and is extremely closely knit. Another example is when they Kino’s family leaves the village. They were not able to survive outside of the society they are so accustomed to.
2. Even though everything a man possesses may be lost or destroyed, he need not be defeated.
By the end of the story Kino has lost everything he ever owned. His canoe was damaged, his house and his possessions inside it were destroyed, and his son was shot dead. Then he even throws away his last possession, which he had held so precious, that he even punched and kicked his wife for it. After losing everything, he is left with his wife and the rest of his life ahead of him.
3. When man becomes a threat to society, that society sets out to destroy him.
Kino found the pearl and became a threat unintentionally. His potential power threatened the village and some set out to destroy that potential and take it for themselves. He was attacked for the pearl a few times. Someone even went to his house to steal the pearl form him and since they could not find the pearl, they burned his house down.
4. Evil forces often conspire to defeat the good.
Kino was tricked and taken advantage of, or people conspired to take advantage of him at least, many times. For example the pearl dealers tried to lowball him when he tried to sell his pearl. He did not fall for their trick and decided to go to the capital. The doctor also tried to trick Kino. When he decided to finally treat Coyotito, he found that he was already healed. Still greedy for the money Kino would soon possess, he poisoned Coyotito, and then gave him the antidote, expecting payment. Someone really badly wants the pearl and sets trackers out on their tail. All of these are examples of
5. Justice is often withheld from economically deprived racial minorities.
First the doctor lies to him about his son’s condition for money. Then he is unsure if the pearl dealers are giving him an unfair price or the pearl really isn’t worth as much as he hoped because he doesn’t have the knowledge needed to know this for sure. Thirdly, when Kino kills only in self defense, it doesn’t matter his reason, but because he is a native he’ll be automatically blamed.