2. John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr.
John Steinbeck was born
on February 27, 1902, in
Salinas, California.
John graduated from
Salinas High School in
1919, then went to Stanford
University in Palo Alto.
John went to New York to
get his book published, but
he did get the book
published, so he went back
home to California.
3. Plot Summary
Kino, Juana, and their infant
son, Coyotito, live in a modest
brush house by the sea. One
morning, calamity strikes when
a scorpion stings Coyotito.
Hoping to protect their son,
Kino and Juana rush him to the
doctor in town. When they
arrive at the doctor’s gate, they
are turned away because they
are poor natives who cannot pay
enough.
4. Setting and Period
The Pearl is not clear in what time period the book
took place. It is possible that that it took place in the
late nineteenth or maybe possible twentieth century.
The setting of The Pearl is in a Mexican coastal village
named La Paz, possibly in Baja Peninsula.
5. Characters
Kino -Kino is a dignified, hardworking, impoverished
native who works as a pearl diver.
Juana-Kino’s young wife.
Coyotito- Kino and Juana’s only son, who is stung by a
scorpion while resting in a hammock one morning.
Juan Tomas- Kino’s older brother.
Apolonia- Juan Tomás’s wife and the mother of four
children.
6. Characters (Continue)
The Doctor- A small-time colonial who dreams of
returning to a bourgeois European lifestyle.
The Priest-The local village priest.
The Dealers- The extremely well-organized and
corrupt pearl dealers
The Trackers- The group of violent and corrupt men
that follows Kino and Juana when they leave the
village, hoping to waylay Kino and steal his pearl.
7. Morals
Greed can destroy someone. “Greed as a Destructive
Force”
“The Roles of fate and agency in shaping human life”
“Colonial Society’s Oppression of Native Cultures”
8. Human Interest Related to The
Pearl
Pearl Diving
Then: Before the
beginning of the 20th
century, the only means
of obtaining pearls was
by manually gathering
very large numbers of
pearl oysters .
Now: Today, pearl diving
has largely been
supplanted by cultured
pearl farms.
