Essay: Examples Of Irony In The Pearl By John Steinbeck

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Register to read the introduction… This example of irony comes from sacrilegious actions carried out in a setting where the lifestyle of the people revolves around a sacred, faith-based community. The irony of this also leads to the protagonist’s main conflict. However, to say that the conflict in this novel is limited to this community with a sacred lifestyle is a severe understatement. As the plot unfolds, the true conflict is seen as the protagonist’s struggle against supernatural forces rather than against another person. The fact that the conflict is focused around the supernatural presence and omens of the pearl is ironic, because it is expected that the people of the village to not believe in omens.
Steinbeck uses a great amount of foreshadowing in his novels. The first example of which is when he speaks directly to the reader at the beginning of Cannery Row and The Pearl on how he or she should interpret his work. In Cannery Row, He claims that the best way to read the novel is to “let the stories crawl in by themselves,” This is a reference to the work carried out by the people of Cannery Row and a foreshadowing of the writing style of the novel, which is a collection of stories from different people from different lives in the working class (Steinbeck 3). In The Pearl, Steinbeck also speaks to the reader
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Steinbeck often uses the concept of a dreams or hallucinations to get his symbols across to the reader. In Cannery Row, Doc has a hallucination of a dead body of a pale girl with dark hair floating in the water while he was looking for Octopi. The body symbolizes two things. First, it symbolizes natural beauty because Doc stands there and admires how beautiful she looked in the clear water. Second, it symbolizes a parallel image of what happens to the marine animals he takes into his lab once he catches them (Steinbeck

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