1. S = Symbol Examine the title and text for symbolism.
S.I.F.T
S = Symbol
Examine the title and text for symbolism.

2. The Pearl by John Steinbeck
Allegorical fiction = a story in which the characters and events are symbols that stand for ideas about human life or for a political or historical situation.

3. I = Images Identify images and sensory details.
S.I.F.T.
I = Images
Identify images and sensory details.

4. F = Figures of Speech Analyze figurative language and other devices.
S.I.F.T.
F = Figures of Speech
Analyze figurative language and other devices.

5. T = Tone AND T = Theme Discuss how all devices reveal tone and theme.
S.I.F.T.
T = Tone AND
T = Theme
Discuss how all devices reveal tone and theme.

6. Symbolism in The Pearl
Does the title reveal something about the theme? Since it is in the title, might we infer that the pearl is the central symbol of the story?
Does the meaning behind the symbol change for Kino throughout the story?

7. Symbolism in The Pearl Scorpion? Doctor? Pearl traders or dealers?
Trackers?
Kino?
Canoe?

8. Imagery in The Pearl What are our five senses
Imagery in The Pearl What are our five senses? How does the author appeal to them?

9. Imagery in The Pearl
Look for words/phrases that help you see, hear, taste, smell, or feel? What effect is the author trying to convey with these images?

10. Excerpt from The Pearl
Kino awakened in the near dark. The stars still shone and the day had drawn only a pale wash of light in the lower sky to the east. The roosters had been crowing for some time, and the early pigs were already beginning their ceaseless turning of twigs and bits of wood to see whether anything to eat had been overlooked. Outside the brush house in the tuna clump, a covey of little birds chattered and flurried with their wings.

11. (continued)
Kino’s eyes opened, and he looked first at the lightening square which was the door and then he looked at the hanging box where Coyotito slept. And last he turned his head to Juana, his wife, who lay beside him on the mat, her blue shawl over her nose and over her breasts and around the small of her back. Juana’s eyes were open too. Kino could never remember seeing them closed when he awakened. Her dark eyes made little reflected stars. She was looking at him as she was always looking at him when he awakened.

12. (continued)
Kino heard the little splash of morning waves on the beach. It was very good – Kino closed his eyes again to listen to his music. Perhaps he alone did this and perhaps all of his people did it. His people had once been great makers of songs so that everything they saw or thought or did or heard became a song. That was very long ago. The songs remained; Kino knew them, but no new songs were added. That does not mean that there were no personal songs. In Kino’s head there was a song now, clear and soft, and if he had been able to speak it, he would have called it the Song of the Family.

13. Figurative Language Figures of Speech
What is the significance of Kino’s comparing the pearl to his soul?
"This pearl has become my soul If I give it up, I shall lose my soul." Chapter 5, pg. 87
What is the effect of personification in this quote?
“The houses belched people.”

14. Tone in The Pearl
As you are sifting through the text, closely examine word choice, imagery, and details. Ask how these reveal the speaker’s (not the author’s) attitude (or TONE).
Sometimes Kino’s songs were happy, but many (if not most) reflected evil, danger, grief, social injustice.
Does Kino’s attitude evoke a sense of sympathy in the reader – sympathy for the oppressed? Do you (the reader) get angry with the oppressors?

15. THEME = The MEaning THEME = The MEssage
To determine the meaning or message (the theme), try the following:
Summarize the story (using a Character/Wants to/But/So chart)
List the subject or subjects (thematic ideas) that emerge from this summary.
Write a universally true thematic statement about each thematic idea.
Ask yourself what the dynamic character learned? That lesson is probably what the author wanted you to learn as well.

16. Thematic ideas in The Pearl
Greed
Injustice
Evil
Individual and society
Ambition
Social classes
Poverty
Racism
Inhumanity

17. Universally True Thematic Statements arising from those thematic ideas.
Man has no individual identity and cannot exist as a single human person apart from society.
The defeat of an individual is inevitable when society sets out to destroy him.
Even though everything a man possesses may be lost or destroyed, he need not be defeated.

18. Universally True Thematic Statements arising from those thematic ideas.
When a poor man has an ambition to rise above his station in life, he faces fierce opposition.
Evil forces are always conspiring to defeat the good.
Justice is often withheld from economically deprived racial minorities.