The Pearl

John Steinbeck

First published by William Heinemann Ltd

First published 1948

“Perfect as the moon, the great pearl turned Kino the fisherman into every man’s enemy”, is the first line at the back cover of the book. When Kinos son Coyotito get stung by a scorpion, Kino and his wife Juana go to see the doctor. The doctor doesn’t want to treat Coyotito because Kino and Juana can’t pay for the treatment. Kino and Juana start looking for a pearl that they can pay with and they finds a great pearl.

“It is the Pearl of the World”, the neighborhoods says when they get to see the great pearl. Many of them get jealous, and Kino gets unwelcome visitors in the middle of the night.

Language

The words are quite difficult, because it’s an old book, and Steinbeck use words like thee or thou instead of you or your and other complicated words that we don’t use in English today.

Steinbeck use imperfect as the tempus, like many authors do. Imperfect is the simplest way to write, it’s very difficult to write in present tense and to write in future tense is even more difficult. The first line in the book is “Kino awakened in the near dark”.

The sentences are medium length. Some are long and some are short, but most of them are medium length.

The sentences are very detailed and descriptive. “The roosters had been crowing for some time, and the early pigs were already beginning their ceaseless turning of twigs and bits of wood to see whether anything to eat had been overlooked.”

Mood

The mood is difficult to describe. It’s very serious all the time. I didn’t laugh once. 

The narrator

The narrator knows everything, even some of the characters thoughts. The narrator isn’t in the story as a character, because a character can’t know what other characters’ thinking. You could think that the author, Steinbeck, is the narrator, because the author, who invited the characters´, knows what everybody’s thinking. So either it could be one invisible person that isn’t really a part of the story, or it could be the author, whatever, it’s the same way to write.

Maybe, Steinbeck wants to tell us that the civilized human is evil to the nature and to each other, and don’t take care of the nature. The pearl could represent the kind, helpful and innocent nature while Kino and the other humans want to take it, for their own good and could kill for it.

The story is built of  a series of chronological events. It’s about 3-5 days, maximum a week and we get to know almost everything that happens, except when they visit the toilet, and they’re in chronological order.

I think that the book was really boring. I don’t know why for sure, but I think the language was too difficult for me, I mean, it’s written in the year 1948 and the language is old. It could be because I’ve heard the story so many times before. Not this story, but many stories about pearls from the sea that everyone want and that brings misfortune, and I find that story begins to be a little boring.

I think that Steinbeck describes very good and real. I was really upset and uncomfortable. I was touched.

“He struck her in the face with his clenched fist, and she fell among the boulders, and he kicked her in the side”, it stands, and I just wanted to hit somebody when I first read it. I was also very surprised, because Kino was so kind and good before he found the pearl.

I think that the book was written for adults, because of the difficult language and some of the scary events.

I would recommend this book to adults, because my dad likes it, and I think that many adults will. Many adults like classic books, like this one, but many children don’t. I wouldn’t recommend this book to teenagers or children because the language is very difficult, maybe not for teenagers that usually read English books, but for they who don’t… well this book is nothing for them. I don’t think that children should read this, because some of the events are scary, and I dreamed a nightmare about it. 

Den här är på engelska eftersom jag gjordev den till en engelskauppgift i skolan. Hoppas det går bra ändå.

Jag rekomenderar boken för den var bra. Jag förstod inte allt för den var ju på engelska och dessutom är den gammal, men jag tror att många skulle tycka om den. Jag ger den        av 5 och tycker att alla ska testa den. Dessutom är det ju en klassiker som det pratas mycker om. Läs den!

Kram Aggie