Essay For The Pearl

Dear John Steinbeck,
I am a student at Asa Clark Middle School in Pewaukee, Wisconsin and my language arts class read your book, The Pearl. How did you get the idea of writing a book like The Pearl? It really taught me a lesson about how to put your family first and everything else second. While some parts in The Pearl I found most fascinating, other parts I did not like.

I really enjoyed reading this book because it had so many things I liked in it. Someone I really liked in the book was Juana. In the beginning of the book you wrote that she was" a strong man"(7). Although you wrote that in the beginning in the book Juana really showed that throughout the story. When Kino practically beat her up, she wasn't mad nor frightened. Juana knew that he was going to turn in to a man, which she thought was half insane and half god. Juana really shows what a strong woman is like.

Another thing I was entertained by was the adventure they had finding the pearl and then going over the mountains to find a better buyer. Kino was determined to find a pearl buyer that would not cheat him and give him the money it was worth. I loved how they threw the pearl out in the end so it wouldn’t bring them anymore evil. Besides, Kino should have listened to Juana in the first place or all those bad things wouldn’t have happened.

Even though The Pearl had a lot of interesting parts in it, there are certain parts I disliked. I really didn't like the ending. Why did the baby have to die? I don't think the Coyotitio really deserved to die but, it did teach Kino a huge lesson. The other thing that I didn’t like was how Kino changed throughout the book. I understand it does teach you a lesson though. Kino shouldn't have killed people just because of a pearl. His personality changed completely upside down from the beginning of the book to the end.
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Different parts of The Pearl were not the best parts in the book but some were very interesting. If you ever write any other books, some ideas to make it more exciting are to have more adventure, maybe more bad things happen or possibly something get stolen. Those are the kinds of things students like is your kind of books. Overall, The Pearl was a pretty good book. I really enjoyed how you wrote the book.

Sincerely,
Kennedi Bates