Today's first lesson on John Steinbeck's "The Pearl" addressed conflict and imagery as devices to illustrate theme. After providing biographical information on the author and explaining how the Depression of the 1920s informs Steinbeck's view of class and predestination, we reviewed the common forms of literary conflicts. Given Steinbeck's Naturalist literary inclination , Ben noted how the conflicts in the novella likely will arise between Man and Society. I then defined imagery. As we read the opening paragraphs, Ben identified examples of visual and auditory imagery as well as examples of metaphor. I discussed how imagery employed to describe Nature is an element of the Naturalist genre which suggests that external forces(like Nature) dictate inexorable outcomes.