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Symbolism In The Pearl By John Steinbeck
The role of a woman in the pearl
In the pearl describe the theme greed
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“Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough.” Greed never shows positive thoughts. In the book, The Pearl by John Steinbeck, Kino needs to find a pearl to help his son from a scorpion sting. However, as the story goes on his perspective of the pearl slowly changes. The pearl first symbolized wealth, luck, happiness, and warmth. But as the story goes on, it started to symbolize greed and evil. Kino has to find a pearl to pay the doctor so he can help his son from a scorpion sting. Kino wanted to find a pearl to pay the doctor so Coyotito could get better from his scorpion sting. “... she had prayed that they might find a pearl with which hire the doctor to cure the baby…” (pg.15). At first he wanted to sell the pearl so he could pay the doctor to help his son. The pearl was a symbol of luck and helped bring needs to pearlfinders. “This was the bed that had raised the King of Spain to be a great power in Europe in past years, had helped pay for wars…”(pg. 16). This shows wealth and a good use of the pearls. The pearl wasn’t used for anything unnecessary. …show more content…
Kino starts to think about other things that aren’t related to helping Coyotito. “...Kino saw in the lucent pearl and he said, ‘We will have new clothes.’” (pg. 24). He is starting forgot why he wanted the pearl. Now, Kino doesn’t believe his pearl is fake and worth the low price that the pearl buyers offer. “‘ I am cheated,’ Kino cried fiercely ‘My pearl is not for sale here…’” (pg. 52). This shows that Kino is greedy and started to change his mind than using the money for Coyotito. Kino doesn’t listen to his wife and he has became so greedy he has accepted the pearl as a part of him. “‘ This pearl has become my soul’ said Kino. “ If I give it up I shall lose my soul.’” (pg. 67). Kino vows the pearl to never give it
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.
First I will be telling you how the pearl changed Kino’s character over the course of the novel. He went from living a happy and calm life, to gaining wealth and destroying his innocence. Kino prays for wealth to be able to help his poisoned son, his life then changes forever when Kino goes diving and came across a sacred pearl. The pearl had great fortune, with this he could now do many things such as give his son a good education, marry his wife, Juana, in a proper church, etc. Then the pearl begins to give them bad luck, people begin to break into their house for the pearl. Kino tries to sell the pearl but he wasn’t getting offered the amount he wanted. Juana tries to throw the pearl away, but Kino was obsessed with it and out of anger beats
He is one of the most greedy person in this book.Kino Was perfectly fine in the beginning of the book, but then he found the pearl and turned his life upside down.Kino had a perfect relationship with his wife, but then “he struck her in the face,he cluched her with his fist and she fell among the boulders,and he kicked her in the side.Kino looked down at her and his teeth were bared.He hissed at her like a snake, and Juana stared at him with wide UN frightened eyes,like a sheep before the butcher(59)”.Kino even got worse “When Juana tries to hid the pearl and Kino goes crazy and almost attacks her like a crazy man(38)”.But then there is this side of Kino when he first gets the pearl”When Kino thinks of all the things that the pearls wealth and money will do for them but not for anyone else(36)”.This is greedy because he only thinks of himself for the pearl.But Kino am greedy Most of the
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
Kino isn’t so smart because the pearl attracts trackers and they would want to take the pearl from Kino. In chapter 6, Kino let his son die because he does not want to let the pearl go. Coyotito’s scream is mistaken by the trackers as the cry of a coyote. One of the trackers fires his rifle, and the bullet kills Coyotito. Coyotito’s name ironically resembles that of the animal that they thought he was. Kino’s greed had developed before Coyotito died. Kino was obsessed with the pearl. Kino can’t let go of this dream even after it clouds over into his dark
In the beginning, Kino is tricked by how the pearl buyer looks and seems like a nice person. “His face was fatherly and benign, and his eyes twinkled with friendship”.(47) Readers can tell that the pearl buyer has a good first impression on Kino. In addition it mentions how the pearl buyer was a caller of good mornings. “He was a caller of good mornings”(47). The author begins to personify the pearl buyer, and from what the author says, the pearl buyer seems like a nice person. “His eyes become wet with sorrow for your loss”(47). From this impression the author gives, the readers can tell he seems to be caring, but can also assume he’s sneaky enough to pretend to care. After Kino presents his pearl dramatically and the pearl buyer begins to judge it, he realizes he’s being tricked. When he tells Kino his pearl isn’t worth much “His shoulders rose a little to indicate that the misfortune was no fault of his”(49). Readers can tell from the personification of his actions that he’s trying to trick Kino and Juana into thinking the pearl isn’t worth much for his own benefit. During Kino’s whole visit, the pearl buyer was also playing with a coin. The coin also symbolizes the buyer’s sneakiness. “And the fingers of his right hand worked faster and faster” (48). In addition, he begins to practice his legerdemain again when he tricks Kino into thinking there’s more than one buyer. “Right hand went behind the desk
...the root of all evil, and that the true root of all evil is actually greed. The reason this could be considered true is because money is essentially an object that created by people. It is not the money that can be seen as evil, it is the greed people possess to obtain money. Even if money did not exist greed would still be around, it just would not be powered by money. But in this particular setting the evil is in fact money. Furthermore, Steinbeck displays how the love money can be good in some cases but it also has a downside to it. Money creates a sense of jealousy, immoral, and in extreme terms just plain evil. Kino's discovery of the pearl could have brought him an unending amount of wealth and happiness but instead, it led to the death of his son and enabled him to kill a man unjustly.
On page 89 it states, "He looked into its surface and it was gray and ulcerous. Evil faces peered from it into his eyes, and he saw the light of burning. And in the surface of the pearl he saw the frantic eyes of the man in the pool. In the surface of the pearl he saw Coyotito lying in the little cave with the top of his head shot away. And the pearl was ugly; it was gray, like a malignant growth." In the end, Kino had finally realized that the pearl was nothing but a waste. Nothing good has come out of his journey to the rich life. He just suffered. The pearl held nothing but horrible memories. Now the pearl meant evil and
When any problem occurred that she felt she could solve, she tried to tackle it. She knew that there was a problem with Kino once the swelling hadn’t receded. As the doctor wouldn’t come cure her child, she tried to work her own magic to at least bring down the swelling, by applying her own remedies on Coyotito, which actually reduced the swelling. The pearl -once the dealers would not give Kino the price he felt the pearl deserved and trespassers were starting to come around to attempt to thieve the pearl - she felt was starting to corrupt her family and way of life. As such, she requested that Kino either destroy it or get rid of it, stating that “Kino, this pearl is evil.
While every person is born with sin, people can still have a good heart. Kino has a lot of what we would consider good characteristics, especially in the beginning of the novella. Kino loves his common-law wife and wants to get married in the church whenever he sells the pearl. He also terribly loves his son, Coyotito. That is what started this whole adventure. When Coyotito got stung by a scorpion Kino took him to the doctor, despite knowing the doctor would not see him. He went pearl diving hoping to find something worth enough money for Coyotito to be seen and treated by the doctor, little did he know that that would be where everything would start going in a down-hill spiral. The pearl in a whole is not evil just like in the beginning Kino was not evil. It was the choices that Kino made that caused him to drown in this dark abyss of pride and greed. So was it his greed that caused him to do wrong acts or was it his pride that caused him to have greed? Out of all of Kino’s characteristics, “It is his pride that is most striking, and it is his pride that brings him disaster,” (Bates 43). “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall,” (Proverbs 16:18). It is in fact Kino’s pride that causes him to fall into sin. If he would not have been so prideful he would have sold the pearl at the original price the men were offering then none of the sinful actions
The dealer that Kino goes to see has always been greedy. His job is to purchase things for cheap, and sell them expensively. With all his neighbors behind him, he went to a pearl dealer to see how much he can get for it. When the dealer saw the pearl, his facial expression didn’t change, but the coin that he had been fiddling with fell silently into his lap. He started to inspect the pearl and tells him, “This pearl is like fool 's gold. It’s too large… It is a curiosity only” (49). Kino exclaimed that it’s “the Pearl of the World,” and “no one has ever seen such a pearl” (49, 50). The dealer offered him one thousand pesos, which was still more than what Kino has ever seen. They brought more dealers into the argument to get their opinions. One of them doesn’t even want to be involved with the pearl. Another dealer offers him five hundred pesos. Kino mentioned about going to the capital to sell it because they were cheating him (52). The dealer offered a final fifteen hundred pesos, but Kino left with the
...rtly utilizes conflict throughout the narrative to illustrate the fact that greed was the cause of those conflicts. Steinbeck describes Kino as a loving man, but the pearl awakens such dark greediness in him, that he is corrupted to the point where he beat his wife to make sure the pearl is saved. This conflict with his wife is a direct result of his greediness, and his unrelenting greed leads to his son’s death. John Steinbeck is able to convey the theme that insatiable greed is the precursor to agonizing misery, through the use of various elements of fiction that include characterization, symbolism and conflict. Through these elements of fiction, Steinbeck creates a dark, tragic story that warns of the consequences of greed in a world where everyone is looking out for themselves and their capacity for evil and greed is far outweighs their capacity for benevolence.
He woke up every morning, and sat outside to enjoy the beautiful morning sunrise, with the animals around him. When sitting with his wife to eat, they would eat in a peaceful silence. When Kino appreciated the moment, he enjoyed the little things. However, the pearl changed Kino's behavior. After he gained the wealth of the pearl, he became anxious. He didn't sleep soundly anymore, and was on constant alert. Kino actually admitted to this, when he said "everyone..." when his wife asked him who he feared (Steinbeck 36). Before the pearl, Kino was relaxed, and appreciating of the moment. Sadly, the greed for the pearl poisoned his mind. Since he was consumed in it's wealth, he was protective of it, willing to risk anything for it, letting it corrupt his lifestyle, and his mind. Nevertheless, Kino was not the only one affected by
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