"The Pearl" by J.Steinbeck. Analysis

In addition, the rhythm of the text varies. When speaking about the effect left on the town people by Kino’s finding, the language is somewhat tenser, as if the narrator tried to draw a picture of ‘the black distillate’ of envy and restlessness which overwhelmed the town. This is achieved partly by vocabulary – venom, poison sacks, stirred up etc. Moreover, the author uses enumeration when describing people’s feelings: ‘the dreams, the speculations, the schemes, the plans, the futures, the wishes, the needs, the lusts, the hungers of everyone’. Such approach helps to keep up the suspense in the text. On the contrary, in the last part of the extract, where Kino’s family is described, the tempo of the text becomes milder; it acquires a flavour somewhat similar to fairy-tales. To achieve this, the author used polysyndeton – several sentences in a row start with ‘and’, which gives the text its specific flow. In addition, the metaphor connected with music (music of the family, music of the pearl) gives the passage a gentler mood. …