Customer Reviews

John Steinbeck's the Pearl (Barron's Book Notes)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Pearl devours anybook ever written. With its shine of human greed and human discipline it is uncomparable to any book ever written. With its wild twists and roller coaster climaxes, it is hard to put down. John Steinbeck goes where know writer has gone before, into the mind of a greedy man. Kino, an Indian man, (main character) finds a pearl one day. This is no ordinary pearl, but the Pearl of the world. From there, you see an ordianary man, who loves his family and friends, give it all up to make him self richer. Through the selling of the peal he dreams of how happy he will become. His son will become educated, he will buy material things for his wife and himself. However, this is no ordinary pearl that can be sold so easily. Watch as Kino gives up his life, dignity, and character to purchase happiness. A result that will shock and amaze the reader is instore if you pick up this book.

"The Pearl" is about the differences between rich and poor, envy and to believe that the things you haven't got is better than what you allready have got. The story is good, it makes you think, specially about fighting for something you got the right to even if others make it hard for you. It also made us think of that we not always get what we except.Things that seem good can be bad because of peoples stupidity. Wealth is not the same as happiness. The feelings the story gives you are very good, but while you read, it is quite boring because the language is so easy. Somebody may like may John Steinbeck way of writing, but we don't. The book was not a challenge to read and it didn't actually give us much excitement and feelings, but the story made us think.

my name is Wayne Edwards and I am 16 years of age and I run a website at http://www.geocities.com/soho/lofts/4401 as I was browsing Amazon I decided to write a reveiw for this book since Mr. Steinbecks name was mentioned in alot of my classes. it inspired me to try and read all of his books. I have to do book reports for English and it was required to read Of Mice and Men another great book. Even though that is my favorite book compared to the Stranger by Alber Camus, I liked the Pearl because it was an intresting book. the fact that one mans fortune could cause his ruin. The story of a fisherman named Kino, his wife her name I cant remember and son Coyotito. the man finds a pearl, the pearl of the world it was called ended the world for kino as it brought destruction to his life, and death. but you will have to read it yourself if you want the lowdown on this book. for a 16 year old that does'nt like reading all that much I highly recomend this book. as i do many other steinbeck titles, like Grapes of Wrath, which Steinbeck won a Nobel prize for, and of Mice and Me

John Steinbecks book was a really easy book to understand and held the morals parents want their kids to learn about. I liked the fact that the moral was deeply ingrained if not nessessarily spelled out. The end of the book showed how the evil of the pearl and the greed of people can kill what you set out to save in the beginnig. I belive that Coyotito's death brought great realization to the situation. Sorry not every that may seem to be true isn't and most likely will not be true in the end.

This book tells about how one human can react to the need for money and wealth. Once the person finds the valuable incandescent pearl he immediately thinks of what he can possibly get with the money he receives from selling the pearl. To sum this all up, money and other things in ones interests can make any person turn from a nice person to a greedy avaricious person.

We think that what John Steinbeck wants us to understand is that you do not need money to become happy. We think he want us not to underestimate the poor or the blacks. The moral of this story is what money can do to you and your family. People often get affected by for example a Pearl`s value and that they can gets a lot of money for it. We belive that John Steinbeck think of it as a relationship with a lot of joy and happiness and that we all should be friends.

If you have read many books before, do not read this book. This book is a book for beginners!! The author, John Steinbeck, described and compared the Indians and the "rich" people in an emotional way. But this is not enough. The story is very simple, but on the other hand this makes the book easy to read and understand. The simplified verson of "The Pearl" we have read, is most suitable for people who are to learn the english tounge.

We recommend this book for "english-learning" students all over the world.

From the first page in this story, you know what the following pages is about. But anyway it was something which kept us reading on. There are some climaxes in the story - week climaxes. You do not get into the caracters minds enough to really know them. The moral in this story, is something which all people can relate to - even if you are poor or rich. The theme is important,and the book could be very interesting if the authour had written the story more exciting. To conclude the review: The Pearl is a book for people who want a simple story, with not much excitement.

Kino and Juana are a young indian couple. They live in poverty somewhere in Latin-America. One day, the pearl-diver Kino finds the greatest pearl in the world. The whole indian village thinks this is going to bring them all a longed wealth. But it does not go as they planned......... The morale in the book was all right, and something everyone should learn from; you'll not automatically get happy just because you become rich. But we felt we not were able to get to know the characters well enough, though they were very few to be in a novel. We do also think the enviroment were badly described. A lot of questions rose to us after we had read the whole book; was Koni good or evil? Did the pearl make the whole village greedy? and so on

This book is about poor people, greed, rich man taking advantages of the indians, happiness of rich people, mayby racism. This story takes place in Mexico, and the main characteres are two indians; one man and his wife. They find a big, beautiful pearl and they'll try to get rich by selling it, and they face trouble on their way.

The good sides: The book I very easy to read, it shows how greed can change a person, and it has a good moral...

The bad sides: It is soooo predictable, soooo boring, and there are no real action.

If you have a very boooring summer-holliday, you can read it. We don't recomend it at all. Don't read it.