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The Pearl (novel)

 
The Pearl (novel)

 
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The Pearl (novel)
 
 
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The Pearl is a novella
Novella

A novella is a writing, fictional, prose narrative longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. While there is disagreement as to what length defines a novella, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000....
 by American author John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck III was an American literature. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939 and the novella Of Mice and Men, published in 1937....
. Like his father, and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor pearl diver, gathering pearl
Pearl

A pearl is a hard, roundish object produced within the soft tissue of a living animal shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of mollusks, a pearl is made up of of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers....
s from the Gulf
Gulf of California

The Gulf of California is a body of water that separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexico mainland. It is bordered by the States of Mexico of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, and Sinaloa....
 beds that once brought great wealth to Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
 and now provided Kino, Juana, and their infant son Coyotito, with meager subsistence. Then, on one day like any other, Coyotito gets stung by a scorpion. Kino can't pay for a doctor to heal Coyotito, so he searches for a pearl.






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The Pearl is a novella
Novella

A novella is a writing, fictional, prose narrative longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. While there is disagreement as to what length defines a novella, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000....
 by American author John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck III was an American literature. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939 and the novella Of Mice and Men, published in 1937....
. Like his father, and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor pearl diver, gathering pearl
Pearl

A pearl is a hard, roundish object produced within the soft tissue of a living animal shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of mollusks, a pearl is made up of of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers....
s from the Gulf
Gulf of California

The Gulf of California is a body of water that separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexico mainland. It is bordered by the States of Mexico of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, and Sinaloa....
 beds that once brought great wealth to Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
 and now provided Kino, Juana, and their infant son Coyotito, with meager subsistence. Then, on one day like any other, Coyotito gets stung by a scorpion. Kino can't pay for a doctor to heal Coyotito, so he searches for a pearl. Kino then emerges from the sea with a pearl as large as a seagull's egg, as "perfect as the moon." With the pearl comes hope, the promise of comfort and of security at the cost of defying the system. A story about a Mexican folk tale, The Pearl explores the secrets of man's nature, the darkest depths of evil, and the disastrous effects of stepping out of the established system. Due to the novella's negative portrayal of opportunity and ambition, some suspect that, like much of his work, it advocates socialism. In fact, its criticism of the ruling elites and their dominance in Mexican society along with their clearly negative attitude toward the poor are much stronger arguments for the "socialism" that Steinbeck purportedly advocates. The Pearl has a strong moral that one should be content with one's life and with greed comes misfortune, although it presents this view through the character of the Priest, who participates in this way in continuing the oppression of the indigenous people (Kino's race). In the end, Kino looks at the pearl and sees it as something evil. He sees the man that he had killed reflected on the surface of the pearl, as well as a vision of his baby Coyotito with his head shot off. In his rage, Kino flings the pearl back into the sea, where it settles into the sand and disappears. The book also conveys messages of oppression and racism in a way that suggests they are negative elements in life.

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