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Essays on the novel The Pearl by John Steinbeck
Describe how poverty is illustrated in the pearl
Essays on the novel The Pearl by John Steinbeck
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Recommended: Essays on the novel The Pearl by John Steinbeck
In The Pearl by John Steinbeck, the choices that Kino makes destroy his happy life leaving him with nothing but a desolate life. It starts with him not accepting any of the offers from pearl buyers to buy the pearl because their prices were too low. Their explanation, valid enough was, the pearl is too big! He also decides to try to keep and protect the pearl when he perfectly well knows that people will try to take from him and will go too far measures to take it. He decides to be stubborn and protect his fortune until he gets the perfect deal.
After Kino gets the pearl he starts to be more protective of it than his family,”I will fight this thing. I will win it over. We will have our chance. His fist pounded the sleeping mat. No one shall take our good fortune from us”(Steinbeck 57). Kino is starting to lose track of what he wants. He is so absorbed in what the pearl can do and doesn’t notice what it is doing. He says that he will win it over meaning he will try to make it do good things. Even if
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Every man suddenly became related to Kino’s pearl, and Kino’s pearl went into their dreams, the speculations, the schemes, the plans, the futures, the wishes, the needs, the lusts, the hunger, of everyone, and only one person stood in the way and that was Kino, so that he became curiously every man’s enemy. The news stirred up something infinitely black and evil in the town”(Steinbeck 23). It is explained how the pearl has pretty much stopped time and everyone is drawn towards the evil pearl. The news spread that he had it and wanted to sell it. Most people knew that it could sell for a lot of money. So why not take the easy way and just steal it. Either way, Kino lives in a brush house. Easy enough to sneak and steal the pearl. He also doesn’t have much space to hide it. This is how most people thought, but most of them weren’t ready to fight with a grown man with a
pearl buyers make a deal with each other to offer Kino very little for his pearl. The
“Kino, you have defied the pearl buyers and passed up 1,500 dollars!” I sighed as I pictured the large bundle of money we could have gained. “We would have prospered with all of that cash, but the pearl has filled you with greed. Only a greedy man would reject such a large amount of money. The pearl caused that greed and should therefore be thrown away.
He is driven by greed, so much so that he could even see dreams form in the pearl. Kino is the head of a modest household and until he finds the pearl he lives a satisfied life with all he needs for his family to be happy. As soon as Kino finds the pearl he starts to want possessions he never wanted before. He dreams of education for Coyotito, marrying Juana in a Catholic church, purchasing new clothing for his family, and getting a harpoon and a rifle for himself. “It was the rifle that broke down the barriers . . . for it is said that humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and they want something more” (Steinbeck 32). Located within a small poverty-stricken community, a pearl diver named Kino finds “the Pearl of the World” and becomes suddenly rich, he begins to want items that he thought were impossible before. As Kino thinks more and more of what the pearl can do for him, he starts to think that it will raise his social status as well. This is only the beginning of Kino’s greediness, for the more he gets, the more he will want, and this begins to dehumanize him. Kino focuses on the wealth of the pearl and causes him to change his values about life. In the beginning, Kino is only focused on his family, once Kino finds the pearl he becomes more focused on the pearl, rather than his family. Kino cares a lot more about losing the pearl rather than something bad happening to his loved
For all of these reasons, Kino is a fool. The death of his son, the destruction of his house and canoe, and the loss of his pearl is all his fault. He easily could have avoided all 3 of those things by never even taking that pearl and just throwing back into the ocean when he knew and could sense that it was evil. If I was in Kino’s place I would have sold the pearl as soon as I could to have to the highest bidder just to get rid of it and to make some money since the pearl was evil. THat way my family would still be alive and my canoe and house would still be
In the book The Pearl, the pearl buyers showed greed in many ways. One way the pearl buyers did this was when one said “You have fool’s gold. This pearl is like fool’s gold. It is to large. Who would buy it? There is no marketer such things” (p.49).In other words they tried to trick Kino into giving less money for
In the story Kino would not sell the pearl to the pearl buyers because he knew it was worth more than what they were offering them (50). When Kino did not sell the pearl because of his greed, he did not get the money to save his son. This shows that he cared more about the money than his family. If Kino had sold the pearl and gained the money he would have had enough money to save his son and all of the problems would be over, but because he cared more about the pearl and the money than his son, he did not seize the money. Therefore, he puts the pearl and the money above Coyotitio. An example from the text is “Kino’s face grew dark and dangerous. “It is worth fifty thousand,” he said. “ you know it. You want to cheat me” (50). This quote shows that when Kino’s face got dangerous, he had already lost sight of his family values and is only thinking about the money and the pearl. When Kino knew that they were cheating him, he could not help but pick a fight with them. He wanted money, money, and more money instead of wanting to help his son. These pieces of evidence are connected to the theme because they show how Kino chose money over his
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
He is captivated by its beauty and lets himself be consumed by its promise of power. This is shown several times throughout the story. One example of his obsession with the pearl occurs when his brother suggests getting rid of the pearl, where Kino replied, “If I give it up, I will lose my soul” (Steinbeck 67). It truly shows how far gone Kino really is. Another example of Kino’s obsession with the pearl is when he beat Juana when she tried to throw the pearl back out to sea. Overall, the pearl’s illusion of grandeur combined with Kino’s obsession for a better life caused his strive for improvement to become out of control
Kino found one of the most valuable and precious pearls in the world and being convinced of its worth was not going to be cheated by only minimally upgrading his condition of life. Instead he wanted to break the fixed life and role that he and his family had and always would live. Kino refuses the maximum offer of fifteen hundred pesos that would easily ease his and his family’s pain and suffering for the coming months. Kino is then determined to trek to the capital to find a fair and just offer. Kino continues determined through the mountains after an attempt at the pearl, his canoe destroyed and his hut set a blaze. Continuing to put his family’s life on the line. It eventually takes the death of his beloved son Coyotito to make him realize he needs to stop being so greedy, no matter how hard he tries and to shut his mouth and know his role.
Although it could be argued that they are simply selfish, dishonest characters, their desire to oppress Kino and ‘keep’ him poor could also come from a subconscious ideology that a person must not try to change the ‘post’ into which he was born. Kino, however, sees through the pearl buyers’ scam and plans to travel to the capital to sell the pearl for a greater price.... ... middle of paper ... ...
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
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.
“The news came early to the beggars in front of the church, and it made them giggle a little with pleasure, for they knew that there was no almsgiver in the world like a poor man who was suddenly lucky.”(Steinbeck, 22) The book The Pearl exposes human nature as malevolent. Kino becomes corrupt by the pearl, people try to murder for the pearl, and Kino hits Juana over the pearl.
This leads to change and, eventually, downfall. Before he finds the pearl, Kino “was a well-liked man” (43), and adored by all of his neighbors. Everyone looked up to his kindness and sympathy, but when he finds the Pearl, he changes. The pearl takes control over him, and he becomes too obsessed with getting his money. He loses his many things over it: “now it is my misfortune and my life and I will keep it” (66). The neighbors even suspect, “‘what a pity it would be if the pearl should destroy them all.’” (43) For example, KIno loses his family when he tries to protect the pearl and defies the pearl buying system, and when he mishandles Juana. Loisng his canoe symbolizes thi sloss of his family. He also loses his sanity. he beats Juana and kills four men. He “‘killed a man’” (61) and joins in many fights. For greed, he turns down the salesman`s offer for the pearl and ends with nothing left. Kino has the chance to take the money offered to him and be done, but he is greedy and he wants more. Then, at the end of the book, Kino throws the pearl into the sea, and with it, all the money he could possibly gain. He also lets the doctor treat Coyotito, even with his doubts, and now can not pay him because the pearl is his payment method, which is now gone. He thinks his money is secure, and in his mind, he is a rich man. This is not necessarily true, as readers learn, and because he was so secure, he must now pay for unnecessary
When Kino finds the pearl he is shocked. " It was as large as a seagull's egg. It was the greatest pearl in the world" (Steinbeck 19).Kino and Juana revel in the excitement thatsurrounds Kino's finding the pearl, but their happiness soon turns to distrust. The pearl buyers, whoKino has to sell the pearls to in order to make a profit, try to cheat him. They tell him that the