57 pages • 1 hour read
John SteinbeckA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
“And, as with all retold tales that are in people’s hearts, there are only good and bad things and black and white things and good and evil things and no in-between anywhere.”
In the prologue, the narrator indicates that the story of the pearl features stark differences between good and evil rather than ambiguous moral distinctions. This is due in part to the story’s presentation of itself as folklore, which often entails exaggeration for dramatic effect. By showing good and evil as a clear dichotomy, the narrative makes its thematic points in a clearer fashion.
“If this story is a parable, perhaps everyone takes his own meaning from it and reads his own life into it.”
The narrator invites readers to view the tale of the pearl as a parable, which is a story that carries a symbolic message or meaning. As this passage suggests, interpretations may vary from reader to reader. However, the implication is that regardless of the story’s specific historical setting, it carries themes universal to human experience.
By John Steinbeck