At a Glance
Kino, a Mexican-Indian pearl diver, finds an enormous pearl he believes will free his family from poverty. Instead, it draws greed, violence, and corruption — from the town doctor, the pearl buyers, and unknown assassins. Kino kills men protecting the pearl. His infant son Coyotito is shot dead by a soldier pursuing them. Kino and his wife Juana return to their village and throw the pearl back into the sea.
Read full summary →Why This Book Matters
One of the most widely read novellas in American high school education — its brevity (96 pages) and clarity make it an accessible entry point for literary analysis, while its depth rewards more sophisticated reading. Published first as a short story in Woman's Home Companion in 1945, expanded into a novella for book publication in 1947. Steinbeck explicitly modeled it on the parable form, which gives it unusual durability: unlike realistic novels that date, parables are structurally immune to obsolescence.
Diction Profile
Low to mid — biblical simplicity, short declarative sentences, minimal subordinate clauses. Accessible to middle schoolers; profound at the college level.
Moderate but highly concentrated. Steinbeck's figures are almost always elemental