The Pearl Symbolism

In the novella The Pearl by John Steinbeck, symbolism is used to show what certain events may represent throughout the story. Symbolism is using symbols to give words a different, more in-depth meaning to a story. During the book, Kino, a poor village man from the Baja peninsula in Mexico, finds the “pearl of the world”. Everyone sees him as the man with the pearl, and not Kino. He needed to find a good pearl after his son, Coyotito, was stung by a scorpion and needed immediate medical attention. Directly following the discovery of the great pearl, Coyotito seems to improve. The selfish doctor gives him more poison, similar to a scorpion’s, so he can make profit off the pearl. From there, the pearl brings nothing but bad luck to Kino and

“Kino’s people had once been great makers of songs so that everything they saw or did became a song” (Steinbeck 2). The songs symbolize Kino’s emotions and his surroundings. For example “The Song of Evil” is what Kino heard when the scorpion was climbing down the rope of Coyotito's basket.”The Song of Evil, the music of the enemy, of any foe of the family, a savage, secret, dangerous melody” (Steinbeck 5). This music was playing when danger, an enemy, was approaching, hence the eerie and mysterious melody. Another song that Kino hears in the story is “The Song of the Pearl”. “The secret melody of the maybe pearl broke clear and beautiful, rich and warm and lovely, glowing and gloating and triumphant” (Steinbeck 19). According to Steinbeck, The Song of the Pearl was shrilly and sonorous. It was a jubilant tune at the time of the finding of the pearl. All of the songs mean the world to Kino, and he hears them in his subconscious

In the beginning, it seemed to bring good fortune to Kino, Juana and Coyotito. Kino had numerous plans for what he would do with the money made off of “The Pearl of the World” (Steinbeck 23). “We will be married-in the church… We will have new clothes… A rifle, perhaps a rifle… My son will go to school” (Steinbeck 24-25). Kino had expected great things from the pearl, but throughout the novella, all his plans seemed to backfire. When he tried to sell the pearl, he was offered low prices, ones he refused to accept. “I will offer five hundred pesos”(Steinbeck 52) Kino was furious. “I am cheated, my pearl is not for sale here. I will go, perhaps even to the capital” (Steinbeck 52). He was under the impression that he had found the greatest pearl known to man, and that he was becoming a victim of fraud. The family’s perspective of the pearl changed drastically by the end of the book. At first, the saw a bright future and their entire life as positive, in the end, they saw danger and