THE PEARL
By John Steinbeck
96 pp. Penguin Books. $10.00. (Ages 18 and up)
ISBN
9780140177374
Rating: ? Stars
I found this book when rummaging through the old books of my grandfather's house. Even though it was quite a good book and I managed to understand the main point of the story, it was still quite hard for me to understand it because I am only nine and it was a book written for adults.
Readers of all ages should read this book but younger readers should have an adult at hand to explain it. When you read the book you should not just flip through the pages for the story but you should really think about what your reading and most of all what it means to you.
As usual I am going to tell you the story of this book which is… Once upon a time there lived a poor man, his wife and their little baby. One day a scorpion crawled down their wall and stung the baby. Because they were poor they could not pay for treatment for their baby so the mother prayed that they should find a giant pearl that they could use to pay for the baby's treatment. They did find this pearl but it did not necessarily do them any good for riches come with jealousy, war and death. It has quite a sad ending but I will leave that for you to find out.
This book probably has about one hundred morals in it, as it does have a good story but almost every page has at least one moral in it. Even though this book does have loads of morals they are all joined up to create one big moral, and this is the moral I shall tell you. Riches stand for death, sadness, jealousy and war. Riches do not stand for happiness.
