The Pearl

On a whim I picked this book up for my son at the library sales rack . I did not know anything about the book or the author only that my son needed some new books to be read to him. So once I started reading, I was brought back a few years. The book was written in West Germany, published in 1984, at the height of Reagan's cold war military build up. I remembered the war rhetoric, the Pershing II being brought into West Germany and the Netherlands, (reaching targets in the Soviet Union in four to six minutes of launch - the Soviet Union's "Cuban Missile Crisis" ), Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative speech given in 1983 (I still remember it after all of these years), fireside broadcasts where Reagan had graphs of Soviet numerical superiority in tanks, attack helicopters, etc., massive arms build up by the United States; annihilation by nuclear war seemed real and imminent. This was the time in which this book was written and published and boy does this book have that angst in there, in spades. What is this pearl and how does cause people to turn against each other? How valuable is it? Is it valuable enough to destroy the forest and Bilba (our protagonist) and every living thing over it? Do the mussels represent anything? What does the destruction of the dam and then the escalation of the fighting represent? What can it mean when Bilba renounces the mussel by throwing it back into the lake, unopened, to play with his friends? Thanks be to God that the world in which this book was written in has long vanished. Can this book be of any consolation in our current mess? "If I could find a souvenir Just to prove the world was here And here is a red balloon I think of you and let it go"

I use this picture book in my classroom once we have finished reading Steinbeck's The Pearl. There are many parallels between the two stories. Asking students to compare and contrast the two allows me to assess understanding of Steinbeck's work. It's a fun exercise which also allows me to delve into thematic concerns.

MY BOOK REPORT The pearl This book is writed about happiness and unhappines. There is a family they are very poor. Main charactor is Kino. Though they are poor and rich persons always look down on them, they were living peacefully.But one day they found a pearl. It is very big pearl. As soon as the neighbor have heard that news. They changed ther attitude to them. The familly knew they all envey. Every night they cant sleep, and they became that theycan not believe their neighbors. After all they threw it away to the sea. This book tought me that happiness is not a money. We cant buy a happiness by money.Sometimes too much wealth cause a trouble in human society. May be killed by your sweethoney.