The Pearl is John Steinbeck's flawless parable about wealth and the evil it can bring. When Kino, a Mexican pearl-diver finds 'the Pearl of the World' he believes that his impoverished life will be magically transformed. He will marry Juana in the church and their son, Coyotito, will go to school. Obsessed by his dream, Kino is blind to the greed, fear and even violence the pearl arouses in his neighbours - and in himself. Written with haunting and lyrical simplicity, The Pearl sets the values of the civilized world against those of the primitive and finds them tragically inadequate.