#The pearl john steinbeck audio full#

There's bits of good Steinbeck prose here and there, like his description of a watering hole where cats take their prey and lap water 'through their bloody teeth' and the last image of the pearl itself, which captures a sense of otherworldly menace quite unexpected from this otherwise realist story. As a classroom exercise, I guess it can provide some lively discussions if the teacher isn't too much of a tool. You are left in the end not really knowing. 'The Pearl' is not supposed to be just a story, it's so unsatisfying in that department its clear the Bard of Salinas had other fish to fry.

#The pearl john steinbeck audio full#

Collectivist comradeship may be the hallmark of socialist society, but the village Kino lives in is full of thieves and cheats.ДЄs the novel moves slowly on to a finale obvious from the midpoint of the book, one wonders what Steinbeck is trying to say. Yet Kino and his family are clearly living below any decent standard. Published in 1947, when socialism was fashionable and Steinbeck a recognized purveyor of the worker ideal, 'The Pearl' might pass as a message about the folly of wealth and the value of living within one's means. They aren't people with personalities, but constructs designed to trot out points Steinbeck wants to make.

Steinbeck does nothing to make you care about Kino, his soul, or his wife and child, other than relate their poverty. 'The pearl has become my soul', Kino tells his wife, who begs him to get rid of it before someone gets hurt. Kino sees a brighter future for himself and his family, but the jealous villagers and the plutocratic pearl buyers conspire to keep him in his place. One day, desperate for a miracle as his infant son squirms from a scorpion bite, he finds the largest pearl anyone has ever seen, large as a gull's egg and jet black. Kino is a poor Mexican Indian who lives off the meager pearls he finds swimming for oysters in the Gulf. It made me think, too: However bad middle school was, it could have been worse. It was certainly short, and Steinbeck is a classic writer, so it seemed a good idea.ДЄ terse morality play about the pitfalls of materialism and the depravity of man, 'The Pearl' is clearly a think piece rather than a conventional novel focused on characters and storyline. Feeling nostalgic, I decide to take the book on after years of wondering. This was back in the 1970s, and I was obviously confused.ДЇlash forward to the present. Judging from the cover it was some kind of sea adventure, probably involving sharks and Jacqueline Bisset. Walking through middle school corridors, I'd spy kids in the grade above mine carrying John Steinbeck's 'The Pearl' and think them lucky. For example, how did the trackers blow the head off of Kino's baby when it was dark, the baby was on a mountain, and the tracker thought he was shooting at a coyote? It is not that hard to see why some readers can't buy into the story. In some ways, the story is hard to visualize. Perhaps the fact that the story is rather cliche that makes it so unpopular.

After the family could run no longer, the pearl became a potential source of wealth that never came to fruition. With his home burned, after nearly had the pearl stolen, and after being assaulted, the family to flees the vilage with the pearl. Unfortunately, the pearl only creates havoc in the life of Kino's family. A large pearl promises to bring wealth and security to Kino and his family. The general theme of the story is greed/wealth.

The nature story itself is the main detractor. The familiar vivid characters, thorough details, and moral lesson are compressed into just over 100 pages. In many ways, it is a typical Steinbeck book. It surprises me to see so many negative reviews for The Pearl.