READERS GUIDE
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PEARLWhen John Steinbeck accepted his Nobel Prize in 1962, he described the writer’s obligation as “dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement”; The Pearl makes an excellent example of such a goal. In this short book illuminated by a deep understanding and love of humanity, Steinbeck retells an old Mexican folk tale: the story of the great pearl, how it was found, and how it was lost. For the diver Kino, finding a magnificent pearl means the promise of a better life for his impoverished family. His dream blinds him to the greed and suspicions the pearl arouses in his neighbors, and even his loving wife cannot temper his obsession or stem the events that lead to tragedy. For Steinbeck, Kino and his wife illustrate the fall from innocence of people who believe that wealth erases all problems.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Why can neither Kino nor Juana protect their baby from the scorpion?
2. Why could Kino kill the doctor more easily than talk to him?
3. Why does Kino think the killing of a man is not as evil as the killing of a boat?
4. What does the narrator mean when he says, “A town is a thing like a colonial animal”?
5. Why does the music of the pearl change?
6. Why does Kino come to feel that he will lose his soul if he gives up the pearl?
7. Why does Tomas help Kino?
8. Why does Juana feel the events following the finding of the pearl may all have been an
illusion?
9. What is the significance of Juana and Kino’s walking side by side when they return to the town?
10. Why is it important to Juana that Kino be the one to throw the pearl back into the sea?
11. Did Kino do the right thing in demanding a fair price for the pearl, even if it meant leaving his community?
12. What examples from your own life or today’s headlines best illustrate the lessons of The Pearl?
