Vera Kemzane
Group 4B
The text analysis “The Pearl” by John Steinbeck.

The present extract is from the novel “The Pearl” written by American author John Steinbeck. The novel is about Kino, who is a pearl diver and main theme is man`s nature, both evil and good, greed and honest. The extract refers to the part of the novel, when Kino discovers an enormous pearl or “the Pearl of the World”.
The register of the text is fictional narrative, and type of narration is heterodiegetic, because the narrator situated outside the level of action. The text is with omniscient point of view, or zero focalization – the narrator knows more than characters. The authorial narrative allows the narrator to have an insight into the thoughts and feelings of the characters, and to see the story from outsider`s position: And he wondered whether he had baptized Kino`s baby, or married him for that matter. And the doctor’s eyes rolled up a little fat hammocks and he thought of Paris. He remembered the room he had lived in there … In addition, it is a third-person narrative extract, because all character of the story referred as “they” “it” “he”: their mother knew it; his eyes; he wondered; they waited etc. Finally, it is overt narrator; he makes his opinion known and gives extra information and explanations: The news came to the doctor where he sat with a woman whose illness was age, thought neither she nor the doctor would admit it (this is also an example of irony). The narrator uses evaluative phrases and emotive expressions, e.g. And a town has a whole emotion; panting little boys; curious dark residue, etc.
To create the tone or melody of the narrative, the narrator use conjunction “and” number of sentences in the extract begins with this conjunction: And a town has a whole emotion. And he wondered whether he had baptized Kino`s baby, or married him for that matter. And each thought how with some capital he could get a new start. The vocabulary layer is rather neutral. The voice of the narrator is heard towards his attitude to the characters and events for example: a woman whose illness was age (irony); as a beautiful kind girl, although she had been none of these three(irony). Towards buyers, the narrator has a kind of sarcastic attitude: fingertips burned a little (metaphor). Towards Kino and Juana, he has kind of sympathy. Almost all extract is devoted to the perception of other characters towards the pearl, their thoughts about luxury future, their great business plans etc. Already in the end, the narrator states that Kino and Juana did not know these things. They naively believed that everyone would share their joy and happiness, they didn’t even thought that somebody could thought about receiving money from their beloved pearl.
The discourse time and time of the story are not the same; the first takes approximately two minutes to read and in the second paragraph covers many hours to happen. This pattern is called speed-up or acceleration. In the first paragraph, the narrator is not sure about the events there is some uncertainty: “The news seems to move faster than small boys can scramble and dart to tell it, faster than women can call it over the fences.” Repetition and parallelism appears at the level of the paragraph structure: Kino had found the Pearl of the World; The news came.. Two main ideas are repeated frequently, to emphasize that Kino had found it, and that news spread out so quickly that everyone already knows about it. The narrator also use different verbs connected with news: news travel; news swept; it washed (news); news came (several times); news stirred. Mostly, the narrator use verbs of motion to emphasize on how quick and fast the news are, and how they spread over the town and how they reached the citizens.
The word “pearl” obviously is a key word in the extract, it is repeated several time, but it is interesting the way the narrator uses capitalization and small letter for this word. When the narrator speaks about Kino and the pearl, he use the capital letter: Kino had found the Pearl of the World. With capitalization, he wants to emphasize the importance of this pearl to Kino, because he treats it like something alive and extremely beautiful, but already in the end there is sentence: Kino held the great pearl in his hand, and it was warm and alive in his hand. No capitalization used in this sentence, may be because exactly in this sentence, the narrator reveals, that according to Kino the pearl is great, warm and alive, so no other emphasize needed. Small letter used for the word “pearl” when speaking about the other characters, like priest: He wondered what the pearl would be worth. Two men, buyers: In the town, in little offices, sat the men who bought pearls from the fishers. And all other men: Every man suddenly became related to Kino`s pearl. Evidently, for all of them the pearl is just a product for sale, investment, so there is no use to emphasize on its beauty. To show the reader how different Kino and citizens treats the pearl, the narrator uses different semantic fields. The narrator builds two semantic fields when describing the pearl as perceived by the other characters. First one, the semantic filed of business and wealth: worth, bought, capital, to sell, residue, the dreams, the speculation, the schemes, the plans, the futures, the wishes, the needs, the lust, the hungers of everyone. In addition, semantic field of evilness: black, evil, scorpion, loneliness, poison. In this case, the pearl is just a business plan for everyone, a wealthy thing, and as everyone is greedy and selfish, and each want to get more, the “business plan” connected with the second semantic field of evilness, it is evil and poisonous in some way. Semantic field of happiness: happy, excited, joy, great, warm, alive, beautified. This semantic field reveals Kino`s attitude towards his finding, obviously he is happy and excited about this, he felt that pearl is alive and warm, and can bring only happiness.
The text is rich in stylistic devices, the first paragraph of the extract is devoted to the image of the town, and it has a very vivid description. The narrator creates the image of town as a living creature, for example, he uses two personifications: A town has a nervous system and a head and shoulder and feet. And a town has a whole emotion. It is important to mention that extract begins with another stylistic device, with an epithet: A town is a thing like a colonial animal. Already in the second paragraph, the narrator reveals that town made from stone and plaster, using metaphor: …and it washed in a foaming wave into the town of stone and plaster. In the end, another personification: The poison sacs of the town began to manufacture venom, and the town swelled and puffed with the pressure of it. There are some examples of polysyndeton: For there were not many buyers really – there was only one and he kept these agents in separate office to give a semblance of competition. The news came to these men, and their eyes squinted and their fingertips burned a little and each one thought how the patron could not leave forever and someone had to take his place. There are some examples of asyndeton and also enumeration: Every man suddenly became related to Kino`s pearl and Kino`s pearl went in to the dreams, the speculation, the schemes, the plans, the futures, the wishes, the needs, the lusts, the hungers of everyone, and only one person stood in the way and that was Kino, so that he became curiously every man`s enemy. The narrator uses the listing of words, with omitting the conjunctions, to give the additional description to the Kino`s pearl, the repetition of the article gives a special rhythm to the sentence, and enumeration also slow down the narrative. The examples of coupling may be found in the extract: scramble and dart; pulsing and vibrating; swelled and puffed. There is a parallel structure with the repetition, with town. The repetition emphasize the town and the reader has an impression that town in a living being: A town is a thing like colonial animal. A town has a nervous system and a head and shoulder and feet. A town is a thing separate from all other towns, so that there are no two towns alike. And a town has a whole emotion. In addition, the narrator uses two personifications: A town has a nervous system and a head and shoulder and feet. And a town has a whole emotion. There are some examples of parenthesis: Before Kino and Juana and the other fishers had come to Kino`s brush house, the nerves of the town were pulsing and vibrating with – Kino had found the Pearl of the World; All manner of people grew interested in Kino – people with things to sell and people with favors to ask. Moreover, the metaphors are present in the text: And the music of the pearl had merged with the music of the family so that one beautified the other. Examples of simile would be: the black distillate was like the scorpion, or like hunger in the smell of food, or like loneliness when love is withheld. Some more examples of personification: They waited in their chair until pearls came in..; How news travel through a town is a mystery not easily to be solved.