The Pearl
The pearl is Steinbeck’s most important symbol because of its direct impact of Coyotito, Juana, and Kino. In the beginning of the story the pearl is a symbol of the hope that Kino wishes to find. Once Kino finds the pearl it then symbolizes a better life for his family. Lastly, the pearl symbolizes evil as Kino’s family endures thieves, cheaters, and death that crept into Kino’s family.
The main character, Kino, relates songs to every aspect of his life. Kino’s ancestors had a song that represented everything they did, heard, thought, and even saw. Kino knew all of these songs in addition to his own personal songs. When Kino’s son was bitten by the poisonous scorpion Kino could hear the song of the enemy as he killed the scorpion. However, he did not just kill the scorpion he smashed it in between his hands until it became a paste. Then, he beat it with his fist after he threw it to the ground. Kino himself is now symbolic of a wild animal killing its prey. With baby
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The pearl now represents all of the evil that has happened to the family. Kino murdered a man to save the pearl and his home had burned down. Kino knew he had no choice but to leave with the pearl and go to Loreto. Juana worked hard to keep the evil away by remembering the song of the family. Even though Juana wanted to get rid of the pearl she new she must do as her husband told her. As Kino, Juana, and the baby were on the run Kino behaved as an animal being tracked. Kino made sure to cover his tracks as much as possible or to walk in the tracks that were left from wheels. He knew that once another cart came down the road the wheels would cover the family’s tracks. In the end as Kino attacked his trackers he could not save the life of his baby hiding in the cave with Juana. And as Juana knew that the mountains would stand long after man was gone it was also true about her
One form of symbolism is when the pearl changed colors from the beginning to the end of the book. In the beginning, the pearl was described as “perfect as the moon. It captured the light and refined it and gave it back in silver incandescence.” (Steinbeck, 20) However, at near the end of the book, the pearl was described as “ugly; it was gray, like a malignant growth.” (Steinbeck, 86) This means that the pearl’s evil grew out of control and invaded Kino’s body like a disease. The author is telling the reader that at the end of the novel, the pearl has drained out all of it’s evil. Another form of symbolism is the songs Kino hears in his head. There were songs, such as the song of the family or the song of evil, that would show the reader what the character was thinking about and feeling dread or delight. Before the first evil that the pearl brought into Kino and Juana’s lives, he began to hear the songs again. In the book, it read, “darkness spread over the page, and with darkness came the music of evil again.” (Steinbeck, 36) From that point on, Kino would always hear that song when the pearl brought them
At first, the pearl symbolized aa amazing providence. With the discovery of the great pearl, Kino began to have hope for Coyotito’s future and thought of the different possibilities that lead before him. However, as the town found out about ‘“the Pearl of the World”’(Steinbeck, 1947, p. 23), it began to have an injurious effect into Kino’s simplistic life (SparkNotes Editors, 2002). Juana and Kino’s brother began to seek the pearl as a threat rather than a blessing as the pearl began to symbolize and associate more materialistic desires. With Kino’s desire to acquire wealth from the pearl, he altered from a happy and content father into a savage criminal. By Kino’s demonstration of the destruction of innocence from greed and desire, the pearl soon became a symbol of human destruction. Kino’s gluttony shortly leads him to violently mistreat his wife and also to the death of his only son, Coyotito (SparkNotes Editors, 2002). SparkNotes Editors (2002) believed that his greed ultimately isolated Kino from his cultural customs and society. Overall, according to Wheeler (2008), the parable’s moral lesson was that “money cannot buy
They live in harmony with the natural world and are unaffected by the hypocrisies and artificialities of the ‘civilized world.’ Kino's simple breakfast of “corn cakes” (p4) and “a little pulque” (p4) contrasts well with the sumptuous decadence of the doctor's breakfast of “chocolate” (p10) served in a delicate “cup of eggshell china.” (p10) Although Kino is on the low economic rung of the social structure, he still maintains a profound sense of human dignity. His unawareness about the townspeople’s despise towards his community reflect his aloofness and uncommunicative nature. Kino’s noble character is also evident from his relationship with his wife, his love for his son, and his respect for the traditions of the village. Kino is protective and concerned towards his wife, Juana. He is ready to sacrifice his life for her; yet when she defies him by attempting to throw away the pearl, Kino treats her
Juana wants to get rid of the pearl because she claims the pearl is evil. Kino disagrees and says that he will go sell the pearl the next day and there will be no more
Readers can tell from the statement that many of the people Kino encounters after finding the pearl become bitter “friends”. At this point, Kino and Juana begin to realize that the pearl is bringing bad luck upon them. They are taken advantage of by the doctor and he decides to visit them after knowing they have the pearl. “This pearl is like a sin”(56). Juana begins to realize the pearl is bringing them bad luck, but Kino still trusts that it’s a gift. Readers can also assume that people are trying to take the pearl when Kino is suddenly attacked during the night. “Blood oozed down from his scalp and there was a long…”(56). Readers can now confirm that the pearl has changed and now represents evil. The pearl also begins to destroy Kino and Juana’s relationship as they have different opinions on what to do with the pearl. After Kino wakes up and follows Juana when she wakes up and walks out, readers know he has started to lose full trust in her. “He rolled up to his feet and followed her silently as she had gone” (58). Through the symbolism of the pearl and what it brings upon Kino and Juana, the author emphasizes how the pearl is not what it first appears to be, which was
For example, when Juana argues with Kino about the pearl, she tells Kino, “The pearl is like a sin” (38). The pearl is compared to a sin using a simile and reveals how Juana truly feels about the pearl as it connotes evil, envy, and greed. This supports the fact that the pearl converts Kino and that it isn’t benevolent. In addition, when Juan Tomas tells Kino to leave the pearl, Kino tells Juan, “The pearl has become my soul” (67). Kino is shown to have an obsession with the pearl and that it controls him. His commitment to the pearl connotes obsession, delusion, and compulsion. The pearl and it’s hold on Kino is why he is dehumanized as the book progresses
While diving to find a pearl, Kino comes across “the Pearl of the World”, “It was as large as a sea-gull’s egg. It was the greatest pearl in the world.” (19) Kino dreams of the possibilities that have opened up to his family; his son would go to school, he and his wife would be properly married, they would have good clothes, and Kino would have a rifle. The next day when Kino goes to the pearl buyers to sell his pearl, the buyers try to cheat him. This angers Kino so much that he promises to travel to the “capital” to sell his pearl: “I am cheated. My pearl is not for sale here. I will go, perhaps even to the capital.” (51) The night before they are to leave, a mysterious person tries to steal the pearl from Kino. Out of desperation, Kino kills the man and hides him. Then a manhunt begins to find Kino, burning down his house in the process. Kino decides they must head north and escape to the capital that night. Half-way through their journey, Kino and Juana find that trackers are following them. “ They were as sensitive as hounds. Here, he and Juana might have stepped out of the wheel rut, and these people from the inland, these hunters, could follow, could read a broken straw or a little tumbled pile of dust.”
The theory of the world is that for there to be evil, like the pear, there needs to be good, like juana. In every story there’s always two sides. The good side and the side that needs to overcome. In The Pearl Kino Needs to overcome temptation. I think it’s interesting how even though there is a “good” side in this book they are more like side warnings. They don’t really help the main character overcome the evil. If you read the book Juana warns Kino and gets him thinking about the right thing to do, but in the end Kino overcomes evil by experiencing loss and realizes what the pearl is
The pearl symbolizes many different things. To Kino, at first it symbolized happiness and hope. On page 39 in chapter 3, it has stated, "So lovely it was, so soft, and its own music came from it- its music of promise and delight, its guarantee of the future, of comfort and security. Its warm lucence promised a poultice against illness and a wall against insult. It closed a door on hunger." Kino sought happiness and riches, and as he was desperate he was blind to the greed that was enveloping him. All he saw was impossible hopes and dreams in the pearl. In other words, to him, the pearl guaranteed money and the comfort of a tranquil life.
For example, in the story, it says “ He struck her face with his clenched fist and she fell among the boulders, and he kicked her in the side” (59). This quote shows that Kino put the pearl above Juana when he mistreated her for getting rid of the pearl. Nobody should mistreat family members just because they want something. Another example from the story is “Hush, said Kino. “Do not speak any more”(39). This quote shows that Kino treats Juana like she is not equal to the pearl and like she is not equal to Kino. He treats the pearl better than he treats Juana. He demands her to do stuff to protect the pearl and to make sure it is not harmed. Kino does not listen to Juana when she says it is evil because he only sees satisyfing things in the pearl and he only trusts what he sees in it not what his family tells him. These pieces of evidence are connected to the theme because they show how Kino treated the Pearl better than his own wife
At the beginning of the book Kino and Juana lived a happy good life until their first and only child Coyotito got stung by a scorpion. The one-second that it took the scorpion to bite Coyotito changed the rest of Kino and Juana's life forever. Kino could not afford to pay for the medical attention Coyotito needed. Kino was determined to find a great pearl that could pay the doctor to save his son. "Kino in his pride and youth and strength, could remain down over two minutes without strain, so that he worked deliberately, selecting the largest shells."(Pg. 18)
John Steinbeck's “The Pearl” has a very evident use of symbolism in his writing. Symbolism is the Practice of using words to represent items. He uses special items to represent many different things like the canoe, the scorpion, but ultimately the pearl itself is one of the biggest symbols in the entire book. The canoe is a Symbol of life as it is Kino's job that keeps kino into the man he is.
Kino becomes a human with evil animal-like features, “Kino looked down at her and his teeth were bared. He hissed at her like a snake,” (59). Steinbeck also illustrates Kino as an animal, “He was an animal now, for hiding, for attacking, and he lived only to preserve himself,” (62). One of the worst things that Kino had done whilst the Pearl was in his possession was beat his wife, Juana, “He struck her in the face with his clenched fist and she fell among the boulders, and he kicked her in the side,” (59). Kino transforms into a cruel man with twisted intentions from this point until the end of the
The Pearl, a phenomenal story written by author John Steinbeck tells a tale of a family that acquires a pearl so large, it would make them wealthy; in their journey to fortune, they experience difficulties such as changes in personalities and even physical harm. The family trek through other adventures such as the selling of the pearl and escaping their home. By the end of the story, several aspects of the main character Kino, father to Coyotito and husband to Juana, are altered by the pearl of the world. His mind goes from a well-oiled machine to a vicious animal to a man who can feel emotion.ou can find specific characteristics of human beings or “man”; these include emotions, a conscience, trains of thought, personalities, desires, etc. All of us exhibit these traits; they make us who we are; if someone were to strip these features from us, we would no longer be “man,” we would be a machine, unthinking and automatic, or animal, instinctual.
John Steinbeck's The Pearl tells the story of Kino, a poor pearl diver who lives in Mexico with his wife, Juana and his baby boy, Coyotito. One day Kino finds a huge pearl worth a great deal of money. Kino dreams of being rich and buying all that he wants after he sells the pearl. The one thing that Kino doesn't realize is that there are many people who will do anything to steal the pearl from him. No one ever suspects the pearl's power todeceive, corrupt, and destroy. Hence, The Pearl depicts the ultimate battle between good and evil.