The Pearl Greed

In the novella The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, a small family of three lives in a village.The main character is Kino who lives with his wife Juana and son Coyotito. Kino will do anything for his family to keep them safe. One day, Kino’s son, Coyotito, is bitten by a scorpion and his life is threatened. His parents take him to the doctor; however, they have turned away because they could not pay. To make a living, Kino is a Mexican-Indian pearl diver. Kino goes out in his canoe in search of a pearl that he can sell to pay his son’s doctor. While pearl diving, he finds a gorgeous pearl that he believes could be hope for his son. Kino finds a pearl, which is so big it attracts the attention of the rest of the village people. The people try

Even though the original intentions of the doctor and Kino are different, greed causes them to not only act but look badly. The doctor, who lacks the skills to be even a good doctor, was motivated only by money. He refuses to treat Coyotito until he would be paid. “I alone in the world am supposed to work for nothing, and I am tired of it. See if he has any money!”(11). This show that a doctor is a greedy man who might be dangerous. Kino wants to do nothing more than to find a way to pay for his son’s treatment. Being a pearl diver, Kino knows he can find and sell a pearl for Coyotito’s treatment. Kino’s thoughts changed from only looking to provide for his son’s treatment to transforming his fortunes for his family. Kino set out in his prized canoe to find “The Pearl of the World” to provide for his son’s health, education, wealth, and happiness. The evilness of greed changes Kino and he now matches how the doctor already

Juana realizes that the prized pearl is evil and needs to be thrown back into the ocean. As much as Kino wants to do right for his family, when he realizes Juana is about to get rid of the pearl he flies into a greater rage. Kino chases and hits Juana and “strikes her in the face with his clenched fist and kicks her in the side”(59). Kino immediately faces another encounter after getting the pearl back because he believes, “if I give it up I shall lose my soul”(67). The pearl is part of him and he can’t let go of it. Kino did not punch the man who jumped him, instead, he killed him. Kino and Juana travel out of the village on a trip to sell the pearl. The entire time Kino feels as if they are being tracked. These trackers believe the cry of Coyotito is a coyote pup and prepare to shoot the pup. Kino jumps a tracker, grabs his rifle and shoots him between the eyes, and stabs another with his knife. The third tracker tries to escape up the mountain but Kino shoots him too. Kino stood silently only to find out Coyotito has also been killed. Holding an expensive possession of the pearl turned Kino from being capable of murder for self-defense to the cold-blooded killing. He killed men fearing they would take his