The Pearl:
Building a Background
John Steinbeck
Getting to Know: JohnSteinbeck
 American Novelist
 Wrote Of Mice and Men
 Born in Salinas, California on February 27, 1902
 Was fascinated with marine life and spent a great
deal of time at Monterey Bay, California
 Loved vacationing at the beach in Mexico
 Wrote mostly about common people down on their
luck
The Baja Peninsula: Key Facts
 Located in Northwestern Mexico
 Peninsula-a piece of land that juts out into the water
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and is surrounded by water on three sides
Separates the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of
California (Sea of Cortez)
Climate: The north is tropical and the south is hot
and dry
The primary language spoken is Spanish
English is commonly spoken as well
Indigenous Culture
 “Indigenous” is defined at m-w.com as “produced,
growing, living, or occurring naturally in a particular
region or environment.
 Therefore, to be part of an indigenous culture means
to be native to a land or region, especially before
intrusion of foreign culture.
Scorpions
 Have eight legs
 Two grasping claws
 Curved tail w/ venomous stinger at the end
 Found on every
continent but
Antarctica
More Scorpion Facts
 Scorpions live mostly in warm habitats
 Nocturnal
 Predatory creatures
 Ambush prey (insects, spiders, mice, snakes, etc.)
with claws and immobilize them with their
poisonous tail if needed
 Fast-acting venom used to hunt and defend
Effects of Scorpion Sting
Swelling and pain at
puncture wound
Sweating, Vomiting, Shock,
Death
Treatment=antiserum from
doctor
How are Pearls Formed?
 A grain of sand slips into the oyster
 This foreign object irritates the flesh of the oyster
 In its defense, the oyster releases a cement-like
substance that covers this foreign object
 Result? A Pearl
OYSTER
Diagram of Oyster
Oyster with Pearl
OYSTERs ready to eat
Pearl Diving in Mexico
 Two types of oysters that form pearls are indigenous
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to Mexico
Mexico was once the leading country in pearl diving
Free-divers dove to depths over 100 feet on a single
breath
Pearls were initially found by bringing up tons of
oysters in the hopes of finding a handful of pearls
Very dangerous job: drowning and dangerous
animals
Pearl Diver
Pearls formed in the
wild are extremely
RARE and therefore
EXPENSIVE. Many
fisherman on the Baja
Peninsula made a living
fishing and diving for
pearls.
Natural Pearls
Pre-Revolution Post-Revolution
Mexico
Mexico
 Ancient Mexico=Peace
 Despite previous
and Harmony
 Simple, tranquil way of
life
 However, the Aztec
Indians were treated as
inferiors and were poor
 Wealth lived in hands of
few Spaniards
oppression of the
indigenous culture, a
great civilization has
been built and will
continue to grow.
 Mexican people can fuse
these two cultures,
Indian and Spanish,
together.