Summer Reading Assignment
Mr. Demmers 9A
Your assignment this summer will involve a close reading and literary analysis of John
Steinbeck’s The Pearl. You will be examining the ways Steinbeck uses literary elements
and stylistic techniques to convey meaning and theme. Although it is a short novel (or
novella) The Pearl is full of imagery and symbolism. It is suggested that you read the
novel the first time to familiarize yourself with the plot and characters. A second reading
will be necessary as you examine closely such elements as symbolism, imagery, figures of
speech, irony, tone, and theme. If you own the copy of The Pearl, it is suggested that you
annotate the text as you read. In other words, highlight or underline important passages
(key passages), note passages that you may have a question about, and make notes to
yourself in the margins. This assignment is due when you return to school in September.
After reading The Pearl complete the following:
I. Examine Steinbeck’s use of imagery. Writers carefully choose their words in order to
convey vivid images to the reader. Re-read the first three paragraphs of the novel
(pp.1-2)* and answer the following questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
What visual image does Steinbeck create?
What can be heard?
What effect do you think the author is trying to create as the story opens?
What kind of information is provided about Kino and the society in which he lives?
II. Determine how figures of speech create effect and convey meaning. Figures of
speech such as metaphors, similes, and personification are often used by authors to form
images.
1. What is the significance of Kino’s comparing the pearl to his soul?
2. Why is the town compared to an animal with a nervous system, limbs, and
emotions? (p.21)
3. What musical metaphors does Steinbeck use (for example, The Song of the
Family), and how are they significant?
4. How do these figures of speech enhance meaning?
*Note: page numbers supplied in this assignment refer to the Penguin Books edition, 1992.
III. Tone refers to the author’s attitude toward a subject or a character. Determine
how the author’s choice of words conveys his attitude toward his characters. Reread
the paragraph about the doctor which begins “in his chamber the doctor sat up in his high
bed” (pp.10-12).
1. What feeling toward the doctor does Steinbeck communicate?
2. What will the doctor’s attitude be toward treating a poor Indian’s baby?
3. Find words and/or phases that show clearly that Steinbeck view this character with
contempt.
4. Find another passage in the novel in which Steinbeck shows his contempt for those
who have oppressed Kino and his people.
5. Find a passage in the novel that reveals Steinbeck’s sympathetic tone towards
Kino’s people. Write down the passages or note the page number.
IV. Examine the author’s use of symbolism. Throughout the novel Steinbeck uses
symbols to suggest his themes. Consider the following symbols.
1. The central symbol of the novel is the pearl. What might a pearl (any pearl)
symbolize?
2. What does Kino’s pearl symbolize?
3. How does the meaning of Kino’s pearl change over the course of the novel?
4. Of what might each of the following be a symbol: the doctor, the pearl buyers, the
trackers, the scorpion, and Kino.
V. Determining the themes in The Pearl. Find evidence from the novel for each of the
following themes.
1. Man has no individual identity and cannot exist as a single human person apart
from society.
2. Even though everything a man possesses may be lost or destroyed, he need not be
defeated.
3. When man becomes a threat to society, that society sets out to destroy him.
4. Evil forces often conspire to defeat the good.
5. Justice is often withheld from economically deprived racial minorities.