Vocabulary
This adjective describes someone who lacks confidence or courage.
What is timid?
The type of fiction tells an invented story with characters, events, and settings that could exist in real life.
What is realistic fiction?
This character is Kino and Juana's infant son, whose scorpion sting begins the central conflict.
Who is Coyotito?
This valuable object initially represents hope and opportunity but eventually comes to symbolize greed, corruption, and destruction.
What is the pearl?
This type of sentence expresses a complete thought and contains a subject and a verb.
What is a complete sentence?
This noun means greed or an excessive desire for wealth.
What is avarice?
This literary device uses descriptive language that appeals to the reader's five senses.
What is imagery?
This character is Kino's wife, who recognizes the pearl's danger and repeatedly tries to protect her family.
Who is Juana?
These two animals in the story help represent the relationship between predators and vulnerable victims.
What are the night hawks and mice?
For, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so are the seven words in this grammatical category.
What are coordinating conjunctions?
This verb means to decrease in intensity or severity, like a storm becoming weaker.
What is subside?
This literary device occurs when an object, character, or event represents a larger idea beyond its literal meaning.
What is symbolism?
At the beginning of the novella, Kino is a loving family man who values peace and tradition, but his discovery of the pearl causes him to become increasingly this.
What is greedy, suspicious, or violent?
The town of La Paz, where Kino and Juana live, is located in this country.
What is Mexico?
When two independent clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction, this punctuation mark usually appears before the conjunction.
What is a comma?
This noun describes a secret agreement between people to deceive others or act illegally.
What is collusion?
This literary technique involves a recurring image, idea, sound, or pattern that helps develop a story's larger meaning.
What is a motif?
Although Juana wants to get rid of the pearl and Kino insists on keeping it, their opposing decisions reveal this central conflict in their relationship.
What is the conflict between Juana's desire for safety and Kino's desire for wealth and opportunity?
Kino imagines the pearl will allow Coyotito to attend school, showing that the pearl initially symbolizes this possibility for his family.
What is a better future, opportunity, or freedom from poverty?
This reading skill involves examining how two characters understand or interpret the same event differently.
What is contrasting perspectives or points of view?
This adjective describes someone who makes sensible, fair, and carefully considered decisions.
What is judicious?
In The Pearl, the repeated songs, contrasts between light and darkness, and animal comparisons are examples of this literary device.
What is a motif?
Kino's decision to strike Juana when she tries to destroy the pearl demonstrates how his obsession changes this aspect of his character.
What is his morality or his treatment of the people he loves?
The destruction caused by Kino's pursuit of wealth develops this central message about greed and material possessions.
What is the theme that greed can destroy what people value most?
Unlike a topic, this is a complete statement about a message or lesson the author develops throughout a literary work.
What is a theme?