Steinbeck' s The Pearl was based on a story he had heard during his expedition with a friend to the Gulf of California about a poor Mexican fisherman who found a pearl which he though would guarantee his future happiness, but however it almost destroyed him before he threw it back into the ocean (Astro 62). "While Ricketts idea about the inherent virtues of the simple, natural life serve as a thematic substratum on which Steinbeck …showed first 75 words of 1681 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1681 total…strategies and methods with representation of symbols. He also brought out the fact of material things and how the man is never satisfied with what he gets and how man always wants more. Good and evil are represented also in the two novels. How something that seems so good and so rewarding could just turn around and turn into something very evil. Steinbeck uses the comparison of dark and light to symbolize good and evil.