The Pearl (Summer Reading)

The Pearl, by John Steinbeck is yes a short book, but also an amazing story. It is the book I annotated and I am glad that I picked this one because most of the character especially the main, is a completely round character and you see so many sides of him. I just finished it and by the end I was hooked to Steinbeck . It’s about this town, somewhere in California, set around early 20th century.  I thought it was interesting how Steinbeck sometimes repeats the same word in one sentence like on page 92 when Kino, the main character is fighting the trackers,” In the moonlight he could see the frantic frightened eyes, and Kino aimed and fired between the eyes.” I am pretty sure that Steinbeck is doing this to be poetic or add emphases to bring the sentence home. I loved how this book showed that money does not bring happiness and in this case the pearl brings them sorrow. If you compare the end of the book to the begining and if you read the last page and the first page you will be astonished at how the beginning and end are polar opacities. If I was to tell you that in the beginning, everything is great and this family is just living a quit simple life and then I was to tell you that they found a priceless pearl, you would think that there life would get better, but it just goes down hill and ends in a catastrophe. I actually read Of Mice and Men after I read this book which is another Steinbeck classic, and in comparing them I saw the seams in the pearl, while I thought that everything about Of Mice and Men was amazing. I now really do love Steinbeck and I am about to start reading The Red Pony. I really loved The pearl and even though compared to  other Steinbecks its not the best, it is still a really great story and I recommend it. I haven’t read that much of Steinbeck but just from The Pearl and Of Mice and Men I have observed that he ends his stories in the most unique way. He sets the whole book up to think nothing of a certain character or even dislike the character slightly but then something  happens to that character. Something awful and sad and in one way or another he or she is gone. Even though the character was not your favorite when they leave you are really sad. It was like I had met that character and I had interacted with them before. I really have never felt so sad about a character dying and that is really why I loved The Pearl. Everything happens in the last few pages but what you don’t realize is the whole book is a very subtly a build up to the big finish.