The Pearl

The world of materialism is like a gigantic mall of life. In this mall of materialism, each store tries to sell its own product with a claim to uniqueness. A store may attempt to sell success in the business world, while another might advertise sure fame in the Hollywood arena. Some stores in the industry of lottery and gambling endeavors to sell a mass of cash. Regardless of the claimed uniqueness of the variety of products in the world of materialism, all attempt to guarantee the same promise, true meaning and significance in life. However, in The Pearl, John Steinbeck conveys the truth that materialism, as an answer to people’s quest for what is good, is merely a counterfeit of that which is good found in the wholeness of the family itself. This truth is portrayed in Kino’s discovery, possession, and lost of “The Pearl of the World.”

Steinbeck masterfully sets up the story by creating an almost perfect family scenario to express the message that life’s good is within the simple things in the family structure, not in material abundance. The author attempts this by way of contrasting Kino’s ideal family life prior to the discovery of the pearl, his chaotic family life during his possession of the pearl, and Kino’s tragic family life after losing the true pearl, Coyotito, that led to the discarding of the worthless “Pearl of the World.”

Foremost, Steinbeck portrays Kino’s almost perfect family in the village prior to the discovery of the “Pearl of the World” by appealing to the senses. In the opening of the story Kino is waking up to the roosters’ crowing, the sound of the pigs in their hunt for food, and the singing of the early morning birds. Their sound is a sweet chorus in harmony with the peaceful sound of the wa...

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...me home to the village with Coyotito still hanging on Juana’s shoulder lifeless. They still possess the great “Pearl of the World”. However, the peace is gone and cannot be retrieved. Their son, Coyotito, is spent for the possession of the great pearl, but cannot be resurrected. The “Song of the Family” is nothing but a sound of broken record playing. The Whole has been pieced. What the great pearl of materialism promised, it actually took away.

Steinbeck paints a true painting of the pearl through Kino’s eyes when he writes, “And in the surface of the pearl he saw Coyotito lying in the little cave with the top of the head shot away. And the pearl was ugly; it was gray, like a malignant growth. And the Kino heard the music of the pearl, distorted and insane (86).” Materialism is nothing but a counterfeit, a lie, an illusion of the true pearl; the family.