The Black Pearl
By Scott O'dell
Report by Parker Hay
Main Characters
Ramon Salazar- Ramon is a sixteen year old boy who lives with his family in La Paz, a town in Baja California, a part of Mexico. His part in the story is he dives for pearls and one day discovers the black pearl known as "the pearl of heaven."
Blas Salazar- Ramon's father. He is in charge of Salazar and Sons, a company that finds and sales pearls.
Gaspar Ruiz- He works for Blas Salazar as a diver that finds pearls.
Soto Luzon- He used to sale pearls to Blas Salazar, and later helped teach Ramon about pearling.
Blas Salazar- Ramon's father. He is in charge of Salazar and Sons, a company that finds and sales pearls.
Gaspar Ruiz- He works for Blas Salazar as a diver that finds pearls.
Soto Luzon- He used to sale pearls to Blas Salazar, and later helped teach Ramon about pearling.
Overview of Plot
This book is about Ramon, who, along with his father, searches for and sales pearls for their business. Ramon's father doesn't want Ramon to dive for pearls because he thinks it is to dangerous, but Lazon teaches him to dive and Ramon begins diving on his own. This is when Ramon comes across a cave filled with a multitude of giant oysters, even though they had been under the guard of a legendary monster, Manta Diablo. He brings one of the largest oysters ashore and discovers a huge black pearl inside of it. Although the black pearl is supposed to bring his family great fortune, instead it brings a great amount of greed and bad luck to Ramon and all those involved.
My Opinion
To me, this book was very adventurous and fun to read. Everyone who likes action and anything to do with the ocean would find this book interesting. The main character, Ramon, is very eager to follow in his father's footsteps. I enjoyed following his adventures and experiences. The setting for this book was a tropical paradise, that I would love to live in also. While the story has a lot of action, it tells a good lesson about how greed can consume the hearts and minds of anyone. I would be glad to recommend this book to anyone.