Perła: dobrze się czytało, super napisane, prosto ale z jakim napięciem, chwilami emocje jak thriller. Ogolnie przesłanie proste a może nawet za prost: chciwość jest zła chciwość wyzwala w ludziach co najgorsze plus ciesz się z tego co masz i nie chciej więcej.
Powtarzane: pies perły pieśń zła pięść rodziny itp
Bardzo biedna rodzina Indian znajduje największą perłę świata i od tamtej pory wsyztsko zaczyna być gorzej a jak wiadomo i Steinbecka nigdy nie jest tak źle żeby nie mogło być gorzej. Nagle wszyscy chcą ich oszukać okraść a najlepiej to zabić i zabrać perłę. Podpalają im dom itp więc muszą uciekać do innego miasta ukrywając się, żeby tam spróbować sprzeda perłę. Pododzaja za nimi tropiciele, oni ukrywają się w jaskini a tropiciele przypadkiem koło nich rozbijają obóz na noc. Bohater postanawia w nocy wyjść i ich zabić bo to ich jedyna szansa, i udaje mu się to ale kiedy na już na nich wybiegać w jaskini ich malutki syn krzyknął i oni myśleli że to kojot i strzelili w tamtą stronę. Bohater ich zabił ale jak się potem dowiadujemy oni zabili jego syna. Małżeństwo zrozpaczone wraca do wioski w żałobie i wyrzucają ostatecznie perłę spowrotem do morza.

Sad

Two very good stories, albeit hard to digest in typical Steinbeck fashion. The Red Pony was more a collection of 4 very short stories than a continuous story.

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“The people say that the two seemed to be removed from human experience; that they had gone through pain and had come out on the other side.”
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This tale was recommended to me by my 7th grade Portuguese teacher when I told her I read "The Old Man and the Sea" and it has been in the back of my mind ever since. After reading "The Winter of our Discontent" I was excited to read this but it fell short of my expectations.

I suppose I can't judge it too harshly, it was just a retelling of a Mexican folk tale, but it didn't leave much of an impression in me. It's a cautionary tale about how greed can ruin our lives and it serves it's purpose there; as a story it isn't all that.

This edition also includes "The Red Pony", who's review I'll eventually edit here.

This slender volume joins two short works by John Steinbeck. The Pearl tells a parable about the dangers of sudden fortune; a poor young couple, Kino and Juana, find a pearl of magnificent value which brings them only trouble and tragedy. The Red Pony spins a pastel yarn of life in the American west, where a young boy named Jody finds purpose and aspiration when he is gifted a vivacious pony only to learn a tough lesson about how ephemeral life can be.
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So in one way these stories mirror one another as both feature wonderful gifts and end in heartbreak, but the lessons are entirely different. In The Pearl, circumstances repeatedly warn Kino and Juana that their great find is a curse as greedy men try to rob or swindle them at every turn. They try to liquidate their asset and build a better life but are stymied at every turn; the pearl becomes more a prison than an opportunity. Juana attempts to throw the pearl back into the sea, but Kino, driven by pride and big dreams, violently blocks her. And this ensures the final, calamitous series of events.
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The Red Pony, on the other hand, isn't so much about averting disaster as dealing with what you can't control. When Gabilan, the title pony, catches an infection, no amount of love or care can save him. Jody's choice lies in how he will deal with the death of his beloved friend.
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So while these stories were likely packaged to form a volume solid enough to sit on a shelf, together they show both sides of that age-old human conundrum about changing what we can, accepting what we can't and being able to tell the difference.

Edited 8-13-2018

i love steinbeck. sometimes you just get a hankering for certain authors, you know? this satisfied.


"I tell those old stories, but they're not what I want to tell. I only know how I want people to feel when I tell them."

These are two of Steinbeck's shorter works combined in a Penguin edition. Perhaps a better description is "just right stories"--beautiful writing with no more words than necessary. The Pearl explores what happens to a pearl diver and his family when he finds "the pearl of the world." We see how the potential of riches transforms the diver's heart as well as his community and how he struggles with the tension between the 'song of the pearl' and the 'song of his family'.

The Red Pony is a rich story of a young boy growing up on a western ranch in the early twentieth century. We find wonder, hardship, growing into early manhood, facing the mysteries of life and death and the perplexities of family.

The Pearl is a story I had not read since my school days. It's funny, I remembered it as an "island story" but it's really set in Mexico. And man, is it a tragic tale. The end is just too darn sad. But it is superbly well written!

The Red Pony is great, and sad, too! Reading Steinbeck is like talking to a great friend! I read the first story in this collection in school and I'm really glad I re-read it and read the whole thing! The characters are so vivid - Jody, Billy Buck, Gabilan, and Gitano, to name a few - and the settings are alive with the author's vibrant description!

Steinbeck's writing makes my heart twist, turn, ache, and melt. Again, simplicity at its finest. So real, so American (at its core), and very much important.
"The Pearl" was heartbreaking. Yet, so visual. Although paradoxical, the few words "said" in this short story tell a lot, about a people, about a country, about humans. I'll never think of coyotes in the same way again, no pun intended - really, my eyes are watering writing this.
The thought of hugging a horse hadn't crossed my mind in a while and now I miss it. When they brush their heads against you, just like Nellie did to Billy Buck, it makes you feel really special. And in "The Red Pony", the reader can touch this tenderness, even if one has never hugged or brushed against a horse. The perk here is that when reading the book you'll not have to deal with all the flies. Beautiful.

John Steinbeck is a master at opening a story and setting a scene. These two novellas - the second being a quartet of short stories based around the lives of a late 19th century California farm family - are perfect partners for each other because they give great example of his method. In "The Pearl" he begins with the main character Kino waking and greeting the dawn. "The stars still shone and the day had drawn only a pale wash of light in the lower sky to the east." In "The Red Pony", chapter 4 (The Leader of the People) he starts out with "High in the air small clouds like puffs of cannon smoke were driven eastward by the March wind. The wind could be heard whishing in the brush on the ridge crests, but no breath of it penetrated down to ranch-cup." I found myself going back and rereading previous pages just to take in the beauty of his words.

In the beginning of the story, Jody is an innocent boy who has always begged his father for a pony. One day, his father finally decides to give him one, and Jody becomes all happy. His innocent character is displayed when he seems to not care about the life and death of the pony. Jody was living under the illusion that the pony will live forever. Jody is excited about showing off about it to his friends; he imagines how jealous his friends will get. However, he soon realizes that he must care for Gabilan(his pony), or else Gabilan might not survive. One day while he’s about to go to school, the ranch hand Billy Buck assures him that there will be no rain on that day, but Jody is still worried. In school, he realizes that a downpour has begun, and he rushes home to check on Gabilan, only to find out that he got a cold. Billy Buck assures that he will cure Gabilan’s cold, but fails to do so, leaving Gabilan to die. Jody isn’t able to accept the truth of this tragedy, but soon realizes that Gabilan’s death was random and natural, and it wasn’t old age that killed him—it was a downpour. 

From this first story of The Gift, a child’s joyful beginning of owning a pony he could show off to his friends about turns into a disaster where the pony dies—not of old age, but of a downpour. Jody grows up to learn that death is inevitable. It comes whenever it wants to, and it simply cannot be stopped—unless it wants to be stopped. This is what I learned from the book.

I think I read this book after reading "The Red Pony." I set the bar low since I hated "The Red Pony", but I ended up loving this book.