Pearl (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Mary Gordon
- First Published: 2005
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Domestic realism, Novel
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Mothers, Parents and children, Suicide, Twentieth century, Religion, Christianity, Death or dying, Liberalism, Catholics or Catholic Church, Martyrs or martyrdom, 1990’s, Ireland or Irish people, Cambodia or Cambodians, Activism
- Locales: New York, Rome, Italy, Dublin, Ireland
Mary Gordon's novel Pearl begins with a phone call on Christmas night, 1998, from the American embassy in Dublin, Ireland, to Maria Meyers in New York. To her horror, Maria learns that her twenty-year-old daughter Pearl, who had gone to Ireland to study the Irish language, has chained herself to the embassy flagpole, evidently as a protest for peace. Pearl has not eaten for six weeks, and because she has now begun to refuse water as well as food, she is near death from dehydration. In desperation, the embassy has telephoned Maria, hoping that her appearance will convince Pearl...
[The entire page is 632 words long]
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- The Pearl (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
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See Also:
- - For teachers, the The Pearl Lesson Plan.
- - The Pearl summary and study guide in the eNotes.
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