Hey Sean, Nice job on the shape of the pear. @h3art is right, about the values, which is the cause of you not squinting at the reference. If you squint down to almost closed eyes, you will see that all the shadows combine, all the middle values combine and the pears local value stands out as the light. Then you add the highlight. I did a quick drawing to show you what I mean, I hope it helps :)

You're missing a value, that square which is the highlight is surrounded by the same value. When simplifying, try not to have too many lines with angles close to 180 degrees, instead join most of those lines.