The Pearl by John Steinbeck

1096 Words3 Pages

Kino, Juana and their infant son Coyotito live in a modest brush house by the sea. One morning, calamity visits their home when Coyotito is bitten by a scorpion. With hopes of protecting their son, Kino and Juana rush him to the doctor's clinic in town. However, when they arrive at the gate, they are turned away because they are poor natives and not paying customers. Later that same morning, Kino and Juana take their family canoe out to the estuary to go diving for pearls. Juana makes a poultice for Coyotito's wound while Kino canvases the sea bottom. Juana's prayers for a large pearl are answered when Kino surfaces with the largest pearl either of them has ever seen. Kino lets out a triumphant yell at his good fortune, prompting the surrounding boats to circle in and examine the treasure. In the afternoon, the whole neighborhood gathers at Kino's brush house to celebrate his find. Kino names a list of things that he will secure for his family with his newfound wealth, including a church wedding and an education for his son. The neighbors marvel at Kino's boldness, wondering if he is wise or foolish to hold such ambitions. Toward evening, the local priest visits Kino, to bless him on his new fortune, and to remind him of his place within the church. Shortly after, the doctor arrives, explaining that he was out in the morning but has come now to cure Coyotito. He administers a powdered capsule and promises to return in an hour. In this period, Coyotito grows violently ill and Kino decides to bury the pearl under the floor in a corner of the brush house. After the doctor returns, he feeds Coyotito a potion to quiet the baby's spasms. When the doctor inquires about payment, Kino explains the story of the pearl to him. This intrigue...

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...tands watch. Kino decides that he must attempt to attack them unawares before the late moon rises. He strips naked and sneaks up to striking distance. Just as he is prepared to pounce on them, Coyotito lets out a cry, waking the sleepers. When one of them fires his rifle in the direction of the cry, Kino makes his move, killing the trackers in a violent flurry. In the aftermath, Kino slowly realizes that the shot has struck and killed his son in the cave. The next day, Kino and Juana make their way back through town and the outlying brush houses, Juana with her dead son slung over her shoulder. They walk all the way to the sea, with onlookers watching in silent fascination the whole while. At the shore, Kino pulls the pearl out from his clothing and takes a last hard look at it. And then, with all his might, under a setting sun, he flings the pearl back into the sea .

Applying Foster's How to Read Literature like a Professor to The Pearl by Steinbeck
948 Words | 2 Pages
The novel The Pearl by John Steinbeck is about a young poor man with a family who has found a great source of wealth. The novel was written in third person, or a narrator unknown to the reader. The main characters in my novel was Kino, a young native and farther, Juana, Kino’s girlfriend and mother, and Coyotito, Kino and Juana's young infant son. John Steinbeck's novel starts off with a very dramatic first scene when Kino and Juana’s infant, Coyotito, gets stung by a scorpion. They rush their child to the doctor in town, but they were quickly denied help. The doctor refused to give them his services because they didn’t have a enough money to pay the him properly. That very same day they went out on the sea to go diving for pearls. While Kino was diving Juanna was creating a poultice for Coyotito wound. This made the wound heal a little but definitely not all the way. Kino came up from his di...
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The Scorpion Plot
1175 Words | 3 Pages
As Kino and Juana are eating, a scorpion descends on the little Coyotito threatening to sting him. Coyotito sees the scorpion on his cradle, and reaches out to grab it. Coyotito shakes the cradle, which makes the scorpion fall and land on his shoulder and sting him. Kino sees what the scorpion has done and grabs it and crushes it in his hand. Juana grabs Coyotito and begins sucking the venom out of the wound. The child continues to moan and their neighbors begin to gather outside of their hut. Juana tells Kino to summon the doctor, but Kino does not have much hope that he will come. Juana grabs Coyotito and runs out of their hut towards the doctor’s house. Kino and the rest of the neighbors follow. Once they have reached the doctor, a servant is waiting outside his house. They tell him that their baby child needs to see the doctor immediately. The servant tells them to wait, while he calls the doctor. The servant comes back and tells Kino that he doctor is very busy today and won’t be able to help them...
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More Criminal Than Doctor: The Pearl By John Steinbeck
404 Words | 1 Pages
Rejection. Desperate to help your dying child, you go to the one place you can get help and the doctor says no. All because your life savings just isn't enough. In The Pearl by John Steinbeck, the doctor is guilty of malpractice for breaking the Hippocratic oath: not treating Coyotito because he doesn't want to work for little payment. Coyotito is stung by a scorpion and Kino goes to the doctor to get him treated. Kino asks if the doctor will treat Coyotito, and the guard goes to talk to the doctor. The doctor says that he will not treat the baby unless there is payment. Kino gives the guard pearls, and the doctor rejects them. The guard tells Kino that the doctor has a more important patient, lying to avoid work.
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The Pearl By John Steinbeck: Theme Analysis
441 Words | 1 Pages
One of the most common and prominent themes of The Pearl is greed. One of the first examples of this is when Kino went to the doctor to beg for treatment, but the doctor responded, "‘Has he any money?’ the doctor demanded. ‘No, they never have money. I, I alone in the world am supposed to work for nothing- and I am tired of it. See if he has any money!’” (Steinbeck 11). Many would consider it unethical to refuse treatment to someone simply because of their poverty. The doctor refusing to cure the ill child shows how greed has corrupted him to the point of having an innocent baby die rather than offering up his services for free. Another early instance of greed was when the news of the pearl “came to the priest walking in his garden, and it put a thoughtful look in his eyes and a memory of certain repairs necessary to the church. He wondered what the pearl would be worth” (Steinbeck 21). Even the people of God, those believed to have the highest morals, became materialistic. He who is supposed to be satisfied with just the love of the lord suddenly hungered for more. This greed eventually came to Kino when Juana suggested throwing away the pearl, but Kino replied, “‘No,’ he said. ‘I will fight this thing. I will win over it. We
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Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
1165 Words | 3 Pages
Controversial responses about the appropriateness of adolescent novels had been defied since the early 1800-1900 in America. Published adolescent books are continuously being challenged by parents, students, and even teachers in concern to the immoral values taught in the academic environment. The early exposure to the nature of sex, racism, death, and poverty marks the concern to many of these prosecutors. However, ironically these concerns fulfill the degree of adolescent maturity. Since young adults are encouraged to reach adulthood, it only makes sense to include these immoral values part as the young adult’s educational aim. Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck in 1937 is a novel that has the ability to cover the immoral values of reality, in which is depicted in each of Steinbeck’s characters in his novel. Given the opportunity for young adult’s to experience these immoral objectives may increase their discernment to life and prepare them for the world that is ahead of them; this is the universal dream of every parent.
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The Pearle
446 Words | 1 Pages
In The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, evil transforms certain humble citizens into envious savages. Evil was exhibited by the doctor who refused to treat Coyotito because his parents had no money. When the doctor heard of Kino and Juana's fortune in finding "the pearl of the world" (722), he boasted that they were patients of his while thinking of a better life for himself in Paris. Coyotito was healed when the doctor finally came to their straw hut. He deceived Kino by giving the baby a white powder that made him go into convulsions. An hour later he came and gave Coyotito the remedy and immediately wanted to know when he was getting paid. The evil in the pearl had reached the heart of the doctor. The pearl's evil did not restrict itself to infecting Kino's peers; it also affected Kino himself. He wanted to sell the pearl and use the money to better his family's standard of living. He had dreams and goals that all depended on the pearl.
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The Pearl John Steinbeck Literary Analysis
543 Words | 2 Pages
To begin, Kino, a brush house Mexican-Indian was poor but satisfied with his life before he found the pearl. Kino lived with his wife and son, which was all he needed. Living off of ancient traditions, when Kino has his pearl the greed begins to creep into him and the music of evil plays in his head and foreshadows what the pearl will lead to. “He smelled the breeze and he listened for any foreign sound of secrecy or creeping, and his eyes searched the darkness, for the music of evil was sounding in his head and he was fierce and afraid”(Steinbeck 35). The pearl, a small yet powerful token, puts Kino on a rollercoaster, that drags his whole family along with him.
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Of Mice And Men Vs The Pearl
661 Words | 2 Pages
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.
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Humanity's Struggle with Greed Depicted in John Steinbeck's The Pearl
887 Words | 2 Pages
...een stones. Let us bury it and forget the place. Let us throw it back into the sea. It had brought evil. Kino my husband, it will destroy us” (38). The pearl brought greed to the forefront of the community; everyone wanted the pearl for him or herself. Juana, who was at one time thanking God for the pearl, was now telling Kino to throw it away because the greed that it was causing woul eventually destroy them.
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The Pearl: Comprehending Kino's Character Flaws
1312 Words | 3 Pages
Finally,Kino is a man who lets his emotions get to his head, rather than trying to figure out why he feels a certain way.Kino is not a character to be thinking out his actions before doing them.The author explains that “Then ,without warning he [strikes] the gate a crushing blow with his fist.He [looks] down in wonder at his split knuckles and at the blood that [flows]down between his fingers”(Steinbeck,12).So, the people of the coast to go to the doctors home, all together,to get the doctor to treat Coyotito of his bite he attains from a scorpion.The people of the coast are all for the most part pearl fishers , not really making a lot of income when comparing them to the people living in the town , whose career vary as they clearly have much more education.The doctors servant, a clear native like Kino and the rest of the coast people answers the door and Kino asks him if the doctor will treat Coyotito.The servant asks the doctor who rudely spats out about how he never gets paid for his work.The servant asks Kino if he has any money and he pulls out 8, ugly, misshapen, flat, pearls.The doctor then tells the servant to lie to Kino and tell him that he had to go out to a serious case.Kino knowing that this is a lie does not bother to think about what he does, he punches the door of the doctors home and walks away.He also has a lot of regrets at the end of the story.Kino looks at the pearl for the last time,the narrator explains “and the pearl was ugly;it was
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Humanity's Struggle With Violence Illustrated in Steinbeck's The Pearl
691 Words | 2 Pages
One example of this universal theme of humanity’s struggle with violence that occurred in this novel happened when Kino violently attacked his wife to keep her from throwing his “precious” pearl into the sea. “ . . . he leaped at her and caught her arm and wrenched the pearl from her. He struck her in the face with ...
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The Pearl, by John Steinbeck
885 Words | 2 Pages
Kino, Juana, and Coyotito go back to the beach and row out to an oyster bed, where he begins to search for the pearl. As Kino continues to search, Juana takes things into her own hands after being refused by the doctor and sucks the poison out of Coyotito and then puts seaweed on the wound, unknowingly healing him. Meanwhile Kino gathers several small oysters but suddenly comes across a particularly large oyster. He picks the oyster up and returns to the surface. When Kino opens the oyster he discovers the pearl. Word that the pearl has been discovered travel through the town quickly. People in the town became jealous of Kino and his family which eventually leads to a great deal of harm.
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Greed Themes In The Pearl
1186 Words | 3 Pages
She can see the evil within the pearl, and all the people like Kino, the priest and the doctor. She stays with Kino throughout their journey, even after he hits her, because kino is “ It meant that he was half insane and half god. It meant that Kino would drive his strength against a mountain and plunge his strength against the sea. Juana, in her woman's soul, knew that the mountain would stand while the man broke himself; that the sea would surge while the man drowned in it." (Steinbeck). she cannot imagine living without a man. Because of her position as a wife in a traditional society, Juana is necessarily subservient to Kino. She must follow what he views as his larger ambitions, even though her good sense cautions against it as their situation becomes increasingly desperate. Which is why she stays faithful to Kino and is with him every step of the way. Juana is the only who does no let the greed control her. She knew that what her and Kino were doing was dangerous, especially once they had gotten out of La Paz. Juana even refuses to leave him when they must hide from the trackers. Juana seems to be the only one who does no let the wealth captivate her. Like Kino, Juana is at first seduced by the greed the pearl awakens, but she is much quicker than Kino to recognize the pearl as a potential
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The Pearl Literary Analysis
575 Words | 2 Pages
If you were given a million dollars, what would you do? Spend it in a short amount of time? Or save it responsibly for the future? Many would say the latter, confident that they will accomplish that. But for a few, it doesn’t turn out that way. In the book, The Pearl, a family, Kino, Juana and their child, Coyotito, go through various hardships after they have found a pearl, eventually losing everything they had loved. With three examples from the novel, I will explain what the pearl in the book symbolizes.
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Essay On The Role Of Women In The Pearl
1100 Words | 3 Pages
Juana, the wife to fisherman Kino, is one of the main characters in The Pearl. Coming from poverty, Juana and her husband live a minimalist life, as her simple clothes show (a battered blue head shawl and skirt, and a green ribbon knotted in her braids). Many themes in the story revolve around her. Although Juana understands her role to be a subservient and passive wife, she is smart, brave, and determined throughout the novella. Symbolizing the power and strength of women, Juana gradually becomes dominant over her husband. Juana’s second role in The Pearl is to be the protective mother of her son, Coyotito. Last, she is wise and logical in troubling times and acts as the voice of reason. Juana’s words and actions emphasize her various roles in The Pearl.
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The Pearl by John Steinbeck

Applying Foster's How to Read Literature like a Professor to The Pearl by Steinbeck

The Scorpion Plot

More Criminal Than Doctor: The Pearl By John Steinbeck