The Pearl is a piece of literature by the American author John Steinbeck. It was first published as a short story in 1945, and later published as an expanded novella two years later. The story follows a pearl diver, Kino, and explores man's purpose as well as greed, defiance of societal norms, and evil. Steinbeck's inspiration was a Mexican folk tale from La Paz, Baja California Sur, which he had heard in a visit to the formerly pearl-rich region in 1940. The Pearl is one of Steinbeck's most popular books and has been widely used in US middle and high school classes. The Pearl is sometimes considered a parable. The book was adapted as a Mexican film named La Perla and as a Kannada-language movie Ondu Muttina Kathe in India. (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0)