Name: ____________________________ Block: ____ Date: ______________
Checking for Understanding
The Pearl – Chapters 4 - 6
Please circle the correct answer to the following questions regarding selected excerpts from John Steinbeck’s
The Pearl.
1. All the pearl buyers work for the same person. This eliminates what from the process?
a. Time
b. Competition
c. Money
d. Convenience
2. How does the buyer try to prove to Kino that the pearl is not valuable?
a. He asks the other pearl buyers to look at it.
b. He compares it to his other pearls
c. He tells Kino how much everyone else will offer.
d. He lets Kino examine it himself.
3. Which of the following phrases is not an example of alliteration?
a. “unwinking as a hawks eye”
b. “made it spin and sparkle”
c. “the air vibrated and vision”
d. “A slight slitting of eyes”
4. What type of figurative language is found in this phrase, “The houses belched people; the doorways
spewed out children.”?
a. Simile
b. Metaphor
c. Personification
d. Alliteration
5. Which of the following descriptions indicate that the pearl did have value, even though the dealers
claimed it didn’t?
a. The coin winked into sight and as quickly slipped out of sight and the man did not watch his
own performance.
b. But there was no sign, no movement, the face did not change.
c. The coin stumbled over a knuckle and slipped silently into the dealer’s lap.
d. Thumb and forefinger picked it up and brought it near to the dealer’s eyes and twirled it in the
air.
The following passage describes Kino as he waits for the other dealers to enter the building.
But Kino had grown tight and hard. He felt the creeping of fate, the circling of wolves, the hover of vultures.
He felt the evil coagulating about him, and he was helpless to protect himself.
6. What can you infer about Kino from this passage?
a. He is being treated fairly by the dealers.
b. He is looking forward to what the dealers were going to say.
c. He was feeling cheated and vulnerable.
d. He was fearful of what the dealers would say.
Read the following excerpt and answer question 7 & 8.
But evil was all around, hidden behind the brush fence, crouched beside the house in the shadow,
hovering in the air.
7. What type of figurative language is used in this passage?
a. Metaphor
b. Simile
c. Personification
d. Alliteration
8. What type of figurative language is used twice in the following passage?
He hissed at her like a snake, and Juana stared at him with wide unfrightened eyes, like a sheep before
the butcher.
a. Metaphor
b. Simile
c. Personification
d. Alliteration
9. Juana remained on her knees while she considered whether to go back to the sea and finish her job.
This is example of what type of conflict?
a. Man vs. nature
b. Man vs. fate
c. Man vs. self
d. Man vs. man
10. What can you infer about Kino based on this statement – “.. and it did not occur to him to take one of
the canoes of his neighbors.”
a. He is a thief.
b. He doesn’t respect his neighbors.
c. He is still an honorable man.
d. He is didn’t see the other boats.
11. Using context clues, what does monstrosity mean in the following sentence? “I will make no offer at
all. I do not want it. This is not a pearl-it is a monstrosity.”
a. The giving off of light by an object
b. The state of being clear
c. Wrongly or abnormally formed or shaped
d. Pleasing to the eye
12. What can you infer about Juan Thomas when he says,” You must be careful to see they do not cheat
you”? He is
a. a risk taker.
b. cautious.
c. a push-over.
d. fooled easily.
13. What is described as “places of life and places of killing.”?
a. Pools
b. Mountains
c. Towns
d. Cliffs
14. “Kino,” she said huskily, “I am afraid. A man can be killed. Let us throw the pearl back in the sea.” This
passage is an example of
a. Flashback
b. Back shadowing
c. Foreshadowing
d. Flash forward
15. “Our son must go to school. He must break out of the pot that holds us in.” In this metaphor, what is
“the pot”?
a. Wealth
b. Poverty
c. Despair
d. Lack of knowledge
16. Read the passage below.
She looked full into his eyes for a moment. “No,” she said. “We will go with you.”
“I can go faster alone,” he said harshly. “You will put the little one in danger if you go with me.”
“No,” said Juana.
“You must. It is the wise thing and it is my wish,” he said.
“No,” said Juana.
What can you infer about Juana based on this interaction with Kino?
a. She is weak.
b. She strong and stubborn.
c. She is gives in quickly.
d. She can’t make up her mind.
17. Based on the passage below. What is most important to Kino at this point?
… the music of the enemy, low and pulsing, nearly asleep. But the song of family had become as fierce and
sharp and feline as the snarl of a female puma.
a. Protecting the pearl
b. Protecting his family
c. Getting rid of the trackers
d. Getting to the capital
18. When Kino walks away from the pearl buyers how do the townspeople react?
a. They think he is a brave, courageous man.
b. They think he is a fool for turning down the money.
c. They think he is an unfit father and husband.
d. Both A & B.
19. “The killing of a man was not so evil as the killing of a boat.” This passage shows that boats (canoes)
symbolize
a. Death
b. Hope
c. Future
d. Survival
20. The Pearl is an example of a
a. parable
b. memoir
c. folktale
d. myth
The Pearl – Short Answer
1. Read the passage below.
The wind screamed over the Gulf and turned the white water, and the mangroves plunged like
frightened cattle, and a fine sandy dust arose from the land and hung in a shifting cloud over the sea.
The wind drove off the clouds and skimmed the sky clean and drifted the sand of the country like snow.
Based on what we have discussed this quarter what literary elements has Steinbeck used in this short
passage. Highlight each in a different color and then list below by color. There are several!
2.
The two came from the rutted country road into the city, and they were not walking in single file, Kino
ahead and Juana behind, as usual, but side by side. Explain the significance of this passage.
3. In Chapter 2, the pearl was described as “perfect as the moon. It captured the light and refined it and
gave it back in silver incandescence.” In Chapter 6, the pear is described as “ugly; it was gray, like a
malignant growth.”
How did the symbolism of the pearl change from the beginning of the story to the end?
4. At what point of the story does Kino begin to see the evil in the pearl?