The Pearl

“It was a morning like other mornings and yet perfect among mornings.”

This novella opens with the simple contentment of a young Mexican pearlfisher: at peace with his life, wife, and baby, living in a tightknit community, and accompanied by the “Song of the Family” that plays in his mind.

Pearls, by contrast, are a consequence of imperfection - possibly of pain or discomfort. But from the irritation caused by stray sand, rare transfixing beauty can occur. Unlike gold and diamonds, a pearl needs no finishing, and yet its allure arises from its imperfections: the shifting elusiveness of the watery light it exudes, the unexpectedly grainy surface, the not-quite spherical shape, and the glowing warmth it imparts to eye and skin.

Be show more Careful What You Wish For

Quiet contentment would not make much of a story. But wherein lies the greater danger: a scorpion, poised to pounce on a resting babe, or a huge pearl that could pay for school, and thus enable little Coyotito to “break out of the pot that holds us in”?

There is mystical hope when “the need was great and the desire was great”, but beware, “It is not good to want a thing too much.”

Oyster being opened, source here.

Fortune shines. “In the surface of the great pearl he could see dreams forming.”

Fortune is fickle. “The pearl has become my soul”. Wealth brings power, and power tends to corrupt. What once offered warm lucent promise turns “gray and ulcerous”. The possession possesses him.

Ultimately, this is a story of sacrifice - specifically, of choosing what and when to surrender. Make the wrong choice, and you risk losing everything.

Story in Song

The people of the Gulf of California had songs for everything, though maybe only Kino hears them now. The story is encapsulated in the evolving sequence of songs (minor spoilers implied):

* “Clear and soft… The Song of the Family.”
* “The Song of Evil… a savage, secret, dangerous melody, and underneath, the Song of the Family cried plaintively.”
* “A secret little inner song… sweet and secret and clinging, almost hiding in the counter-melody, and this was the Song of the Pearl That Might Be.”
* “The music of the pearl had merged with the music of the family so that one beautified the other.”
* “The music of evil, of the enemy sounded, but it was faint and weak.”
* “The music of the pearl was triumphant… and the quiet melody of the family underlay it.”
* “The music of the pearl had become sinister… and it was interwoven with the music of evil.”
* “The Song of the Family had become as fierce and sharp and feline as the snarl of a female puma.“
* “The Song of the Family was as fierce as a cry… a battle cry.”
* “The music of the pearl, distorted and insane.”
* “The music of the pearl drifted to a whisper and disappeared.”

Faith… in What?

Kino and Juana blend belief systems: ancient magic invocations, Hail Marys and prayers, and a resentful faith in the knowledge and consequent power of white settlers. A traditional remedy might be as effective as one from the doctor, but “lacked his authority because it was simple and didn't cost anything.”

For those raised on Bible stories, it’s impossible to read this without thinking of the pearl of great price, the desire for which Jesus likened to the Kingdom of Heaven:
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:45 - 46 (KJV)

But it’s an oft-misquoted proverb that comes more sadly and strongly to mind:
“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” 1 Timothy 6:10 (KJV)
For the mere prospect of great wealth changes priorities, changes people - for ever. Transfiguration is not always for the better.

And the Moral Is...

Unlike a traditional parable or morality tale, there is no explicit teaching point, not even a clear ending. Just a new, stark, and very uncertain beginning.

“Oyster Pearl,” Hawaii, by Anna. Licensed under CC By 2.0.

Steinbeck’s Philosophy

Steinbeck distanced himself from Christianity over the years, and atheists sometimes claim him as their own. The Bible was certainly part of his heritage, but broader, non-sectarian social justice permeates his works.

Of particular relevance to this novella:
* Steinbeck grew up in California, and was always interested in Mexican culture around him.
* His concern for the poor and marginalised is reflected in his writings.
* He was shocked by race riots in his easygoing state, and wrote this two years later.
* He was also reeling from the success and infamy of Grapes of Wrath.
* This was written with the intention of its being filmed for and by Mexicans. And it was.
* Steinbeck studied marine biology at university (but didn’t complete the course).

Quotes

* “The uncertain air that magnified some things and blotted out others… so that all sights were unreal and vision could not be trusted.”
* “There is no almsgiver in the world like a poor man who is suddenly lucky.”
* “So lovely it was, so soft, and its own music came from it - its music of promise and delight, its guarantee of the future, of comfort, of security. Its warm lucence promised a poultice against illness and a wall against insult. It closed a door on hunger.”
* “The sky was brushed clean by the wind and the stars were cold in a black sky.”
* “The land was waterless, furred by the cacti.”
* In the desert, “pools were places of life because of the water, and places of killing because of the water, too.”

* “He had lost one world and had not gained another.”

Neil Gaiman's take on Pearls

In American Gods, Gaiman says we insulate ourselves from the tragedies of others: “we build a shell around it like an oyster dealing with a painful particle of grit... This is how we walk and talk and function... immune to others' pain and loss.” See my review HERE. show less

John Steinbeck as an author is didactic, moralistic and depressingly bleak, and when he pulls this off – as with my three previous Steinbeck experiences: Of Mice and Men, The Moon is Down and The Grapes of Wrath – the results are extremely impressive. But when he doesn't necessarily pull it off, as with The Pearl, the results are mild at best.

The problem with this little novella is that it is a parable, but one in which the central moral lesson is not very substantial. It is not, as some reviewers suggest, a warning against greed and the dangers of sudden wealth, although there are one or two passages which hint at this. For you see, whilst greed does arise among Kino's community after the discovery of the pearl, it does not really show more affect him personally. If the reader is to be instructed by the story, it is by what happens to Kino, and all he wants is to sell the pearl and provide for his family – an education for his infant son, for example. He is not greedy; he is just using his good fortune to improve his life. That would be a nice moral, wouldn't it? If he banished all the temptations of sudden wealth and used the pearl to try and provide a future for his family?

This is what Kino does try to do. Unfortunately, the general progress of the plot, and a rather explicit outline of Steinbeck's moral on pages 61-2, suggests that Kino is wrong to aspire to better; the world beats him down, steals from him and cheats him. He should know his damn place. Moral: don't try to rise above your station. Wealth is not meant for the likes of you. Kino behaves decently throughout; it is the world that screws him over.

Now, as I said before, Steinbeck's writing is always depressing (just read The Grapes of Wrath) and, to be honest, Kino's story would probably have played out the same in real life as it did here. If a desperately poor, illiterate fisherman did find a valuable pearl, people would try to screw him over, and given the state of the world and the malign pressures it can bring upon the innocent, and the perverse desire it seems to take in abusing the kind-hearted, they would probably succeed in doing so. Steinbeck recognises this, but where he errs is in thinking he had found a moral there. Steinbeck seems to be saying: OK, the world will screw you over if you step out of line. So… keep your head down? Know your place? Don't fight against injustice? This doesn't sound like the same Steinbeck who railed so venomously against social injustices in The Grapes of Wrath, and warned that the poor won't stand for being kicked around much longer. Never before have I been so confused by such a simple story as I have by The Pearl. Maybe Steinbeck was having a crisis of confidence over whether his socialist worldview would bear fruit, and in response wrote an angry little story in which a poor man is relentlessly beat into the ground and loses everything, with no hope of recourse or remedy. I don't know. All I know is the story is a parable, and when the central message fails, it becomes hard to see much else of value in it. I've read a fair bit of Steinbeck and will continue to do so, but this seems like a mis-step. show less

The Pearl by John Steinbeck is a parable about how sudden wealth can change people's lives. Protagonist Kino lives in a village near La Paz, Mexico, and the name of the village seems to describe the setting of the novella perfectly at the beginning. The atmosphere is quiet and peaceful, the villagers go about their daily work, none of them are rich and they dream about finding a big pearl in an oyster that will change their lot in life forever. The peace and quiet is first interrupted when a scorpion stings Kino's son Coyotito and Kino and his wife Juana set out to see the doctor in town so that their son will not have to die. The doctor, however, does not want to see such poor people and deems it beneath him. Juana then applies a show more seaweed poultice to the sting which will actually heal it eventually. However, the desperate parents do not know that at this point in the story. Kino sets out to dive for pearls in order to be able to pay for a doctor and save his son's life and he actually comes across the biggest pearl he has ever seen. Word of the lucky find spreads quickly. When the doctor learns about the pearl, he visits Kino and Juana to treat their child, claiming that he had not been in in the morning they came looking for him, but came immediately after he heard that their son was stung by a scorpion. The doctor sees that Coyotito will survive because of the poultice but treats him anyway so that he can portray himself as the savior. As soon as Kino finds the pearl it starts changing his life. It is not just the doctor who is after the riches but also fellow villagers who try to steal Kino's pearl. When Kino tries to sell the pearl in town, the pearl dealers have already heard about the size of the pearl and agreed on what they would offer Kino, which is obviously not enough. Offended by the offers of the pearl dealers, Kino keeps the pearl and wants to try to sell it in a bigger city. On the way there he and his family are followed and attacked again. Eventually, they return to their village their lives completely changed. I will leave out the specifics here so as not to spoil your reading.

Steinbeck's story was inspired by a folktale he had heard about the pearl divers of Mexico. It covers the timeless themes of poor vs. rich and good vs. evil and explores the impact of sudden wealth on a person and the people around them. I loved the novella for its writing style and the incidents Steinbeck chose to tell this story. 5 stars. show less

This is one of Steinbeck’s shorter works (my paperback copy runs to just ninety pages) and its simple plot is his 1947 reworking of a Mexican folk tale.
   Mexico is where we are here, up in the northwest corner of the map on the inner coastline of that long narrow tectonic peninsula which forms the Sea of Cortés. In the poorest part of the town of La Paz live Kino, his wife Juana and their first baby, little Coyotito. They own virtually nothing and live in a house made from brushwood—part of a whole community scratching a living as pearl-divers, collecting oysters from twenty feet down on the floor of the gulf. Some oysters, a few, contain pearls, which the divers take uptown through the more prosperous stone-and-plaster streets show more where they are routinely fleeced by the buyers, the pearl dealers.
   It’s about as simple as a life could be. One fateful day, though, Kino dives and finds a gnarled old oyster containing a monster of a pearl: the Pearl of the World, the pearl of his dreams. The story itself then describes how Kino’s dream descends, step by inevitable step, into nightmare.
   To someone sitting reading while it’s bucketing down outside (again), the setting is striking: eel grass swaying in the warm gulf waters, banks of coral, little seahorses; among the houses above, the noon sunlight so harsh even tiny stones cast sharp shadows. The more distant landscape is all heat-haze and mirages, in places as clear as if looked at through a telescope, but in others shifting so in and out of focus it’s hard to know what’s real and what isn’t—and compared to an outer world like that, Kino’s own inner feelings seem the more reliable, certain, the more real. Steinbeck describes this inner life as music: there’s the Song of the Family…and of course, increasingly, the Song of Evil.
   And the moral of this parable? It’s about the loss of innocence. And it’s about naïvety versus cunning, versus that depressingly familiar combination you find everywhere you go on this Earth of lies, contempt and greed. And it’s also about not coveting worldly things, about not messing up a simple life with ambition; materially poor before the Pearl, Kino is rich in other ways: he has a wife (and quite a wife too; one feature of the story is what a strong, loyal, calm and clear-headed woman Juana is); he has a healthy baby son, the respect of his friends, and a home. But the intrusion of the Pearl of the World shatters the peace of La Paz, and most of the things Kino imagines he will buy or do with the money are, to him at least, modern things: for Juana, marriage in a church; for Coyotito, books and a school education; and for himself, a Winchester rifle.
   Not everyone has praised The Pearl—some consider it racist, perpetuating a stereotypical view of the indigenous people of the region. But it’s the message itself I’m more dubious about: it’s getting four stars because it is a wonderful read, but is Steinbeck really telling us, “Don’t have hopes and dreams, don’t want a better life for your kids, don’t imagine”? show less

The Pearl by John Steinbeck surprised me. Why? Because even though I haven’t yet read a lot of Steinbeck, his style in this novella was completely different to the last book of his I read. I was impressed and looking forward to see how his style changes with his longer fiction and non-fiction.

The Pearl is a parable retelling of a Mexican folktale. Kino and his wife Juana are poor but happy in their relationship and delighted with baby Coyotito. They live in relative poverty, but have each other and their families. One day when Kino is diving, he finds an oyster that contains a huge pearl. Convinced that this will be the solution to all his problems, Kino is ecstatic. He and Juana can get married, Coyotito can go to school and they show more will have the money to pay the doctor when they are ill. The whole community is overjoyed, but the pearl doesn’t bring the happiness Kino expected. People attempt to harm them and the pearl buyers try to swindle them. Forced out of their home, the family leaves their town in search for a better price for the pearl and a better life. Juana wants Kino to throw the pearl away, but he refuses until tragedy strikes.

For a slim read, The Pearl packs a lot of punch. It gets right to the heart of the main issues – money and greed. As poor people, Juana and Kino have few rights and are looked down upon by the rich – the doctor, the pearl dealers and the priest. Once they come into money, all these people immediately think about how to swindle them out of their fortune. Looking at this through a modern lens, it’s shocking, as is the violence the couple experience. Kino’s treatment of Juana is also shocking to a modern eye – hitting her when she wants to get rid of the pearl. But she is right, no good comes of the family while they are in possession of the pearl. At the end, they are left with less than what they started with. Is this suggesting that the poor cannot rise in status without being thwarted at every turn? Is Kino wrong for trying to better his status and want more for his child? Is he just as greedy as those who want to cheat him out of his pearl?

Overall, The Pearl raises a lot of questions about class, money and luck as well as the phrase ‘be careful what you wish for’. It’s written very visually and is fast paced, but the pace never detracts from the emotions experienced by Kino.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com show less

The Pearl is a novella by the American author John Steinbeck. First published in 1947, The Pearl follows a pearl diver, Kino, and explores man's nature as well as greed, defiance of societal norms, and evil. I have read this novella every couple of years since I first read it in English class in high school. The message put forth by the book -- that man invites evil by trying to better his situation -- invites a lot of questions and always causes me to reflect on how I'm living my life. And The Pearl is one of Steinbeck's most accomplished novellas. It is beautiful, lyrical, concise, and has the perfect conclusion.

The pearl is a retelling of a Mexican folk tale. Kino and his wife Juana are poor but happy in their relationship and show more delighted with baby Coyotito. They live in relative poverty, but have each other and their families. One day when Kino is diving, he finds an oyster that contains a huge pearl. Convinced that this will be the solution to all his problems, Kino is ecstatic. He and Juana can get married, Coyotito can go to school and they will have the money to pay the doctor when they are ill. The whole community is overjoyed, but the pearl doesn’t bring the happiness Kino expected. People attempt to harm them and the pearl buyers try to swindle them. Forced out of their home, the family leaves their town in search for a better price for the pearl and a better life. Juana wants Kino to throw the pearl away, but he refuses until tragedy strikes.

The Pearl is slim but never fails to pack a punch. It's a simple story but one that is very powerful and universal.

Do you hear the music of the pearl? If so, be leery. show less

This short novel is another sad one from Steinbeck. We get a fable here, set on the Baja California coast where a poor Indian man and his young family live a hardscrabble existence. I've read this one before, though not recently, and it is a story not easy to forget. The descriptions the author gives us of the land and the peoples are the best part of the story for me. The story itself is so bleak, with what seems the entire world of the young man allied against him and his family, when he finds a great pearl, "The Pearl of the World," that is his one chance to break away from his desperately poor existence is crushed. That's my problem with this book - a very well written story, but is the message really as bleak as it seems, that one show more has no hope, no chance for a better lot in life? One should not dream for a better life for one's child for to merely think some things about the future is a siren call to evil to come for you and what you hold dear.

Sometimes Steinbeck gives Thomas Hardy a real run for his money. Kino, Juana and the young baby never had a chance. show less