Steinbeck's The Pearl: A Novella of Greed and Human Destruction, Study notes of Spanish

Download Steinbeck's The Pearl: A Novella of Greed and Human Destruction and more Study notes Spanish in PDF only on Docsity! By. John Steinbeck John Steinbeck •Born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, CA. •Attended Stanford University for 5 years but never graduated. •Became an author who wrote about people and places he knew through his own experiences. •Died of heart disease on December 20, 1968 in New York. •In 1930, Steinbeck and his best friend, Ed Ricketts, traveled to the Sea of Cortez in Baja CA to collect sea life specimens for Ricketts’ marine laboratory in Monterey, CA, where both men lived. •Since Steinbeck loved traveling, and when in Mexico, he befriended the Mexican people, who travelled with him into parts of the back country. •Steinbeck hinted that The Pearl is both symbolic and literal. In other words, the story can be about the struggles of the poor or how sudden wealth can change everything for any family. It is can also be seen as simply the story about one family. •The story is more than just a plot (this happened and this and then this). •The reader needs to understand that there is meaning below the surface of the story. •Steinbeck wrote that The Pearl is based on his personal convictions, and based the story on the biblical parable of a pearl of great price. •In this story, a jewel for which the merchant trades everything he owns becomes the metaphor for Heaven. Everything in the merchant's earthly existence, however, becomes worthless when compared to the joys of living with God in Heaven. •The Pearl is a novella, which is a shorter novel that tells a story with several characters and may have more than one plot, with complex levels or situations, and it presents a picture of real life. •A novella includes, besides a plot and characters, setting, theme, point of view, style (forms of expression, length of sentences, choice of words by author), and tone (author’s attitude toward story). •The facts: The Pearl, 1945 •Type of work: Novella •Genre: Parable, allegory o parable: a story that teaches a lesson o allegory: a story whose characters represent abstract ideas in order to teach a lesson •Narrator: anonymous narrator tells a story as if he knows it well, but tells the story as a storyteller from the time period •Point of view: third person omniscient, who provides commentary on the story from three different perspectives of Kino, Juana, and the doctor. •Historical Context (2mins): In the 16th century, the Spanish landed in Mexico and overthrew the Aztecs. •The Spaniards enslaved the native people of the area. •Today, these people are not slaves, but they make up the underclass of Mexican society. •The descendants of the Spanish conquerors are still richer and more powerful than the rest of the population. They make up the ruling class of Mexico. •Watch: The Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlan and the Coming of the Spanish •The doctor, the priest, and the pearl buyers are all of Spanish descent (upper class). •Kino and his family practice the Catholic religion, but still hold onto their belief in the pagan gods. •The upper class looks down on the poor native people because of their beliefs, their race, and their poverty. Franciso Clapera, Set of Sixteen Casta Paintings, c. 1775 •“Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver, gathering pearls from the Gulf beds that once brought great wealth to the Kings of Spain and now provide Kino, Juana, and their infant son with meager subsistence. Then, one day like any other, Kino emerges from the sea with a pearl as large as a sea gull’s eggs, as “perfect as the moon”. With the pearl come hope, the promise of comfort, and of security…” •Coyotito is Kino’s only infant son who is stung by a scorpion. •He is helpless to improve his situation. •The efforts of greed do more harm than good. •Kino is a poor pearl-diver, barely supporting his wife Juana and his baby Coyotito. Early one morning, a scorpion bites Coyotito. When Kino and Juana go to see the doctor in La Paz, he turns them away because they have no money. Kino and Juana leave his house angry and embarrassed. The Scorpion (2mins) 1.This symbolizes evil that must come from the gods. 2. The scorpion usually is the destruction of innocence, as Kino shows in the destruction of his innocence of his culture and native traditional ways by his ambition and greed. •But Kino is uneasy, and hides the pearl. That night, someone comes to the house and tries to steal the pearl. Kino is hurt in the ensuing struggle, and Juana begs him to throw the pearl back before it destroys them. But Kino is intent on improving Coyotito’s future. •The Doctor: a small time colonial who wants to be wealthy. He represents greed, arrogance, and condescension at the heart of the colonial society (European). •He represents the society that oppresses Kino and his people. •In the morning, Kino and Juana go to the pearl buyers in Laz Paz. They are accompanied by everyone in their neighborhood. However, the buyers offer only a meager sum for the pearl. Knowing that he is being cheated, Kino storms out of the office, claiming that he will go to the capital to sell his pearl. That night, Kino is attacked again, and Juana again asks him to destroy the pearl. Again, Kino refuses. •As Kino is sleeping, Juana takes the pearl and goes down to the water to throw it back. However, Kino wakes and catches her. He grabs the pearl from her, knocks her to the ground, and walks back toward the house. As Juana heads back, she notices the gleam of the pearl behind a rock. She picks it up, and only then does she notice Kino and another body lying in the path. •There had been another struggle. Kino is still alive, but he has killed the other man. Deciding to leave immediately, Juana goes to the house to get Coyotito, and Kino goes to get his canoe. Kino finds that the canoe has been wrecked, and then he sees that his house is going up in flames. Juana and Coyotito just barely escape, and the family hides in the house of Kino’s brother Juan Tomas. They stay through the next day, and then escape to the north under cover of darkness. • Kino and Juana walk by night and hide by day. Wile in hiding, though, Kino sees trackers and a rifleman that have been sent out after them. They leave the road for the mountains, but the trackers follow them. Finally, Kino and Juana stop for the night by a small waterfall. The family hides in a shadow cave above the falls. Fate and Human Agency: •Fate (things of circumstance) such as the scorpion bite and finding the great pearl, shape what is to become of Kino and Juana •Human agency (forms of greed, arrogance, ambition, and violence) facilitate outcomes and lead to conflicts. Oppression: •Society’s oppression of native cultures causes destruction. •The doctor, who helps the oppression when he refuses to treat the baby, represents society’s oppression, as the European colonizers force the native Indian pearl divers and their people to submit to the new culture and ways. Nature Imagery: 1. Kino is connected to nature - Brush house/Pearl dive/Night noises/morning 2. Sea struggles/Kino struggles 3. Ants and God/Kino and God