Kino’s lack of material items did not keep him from happiness. That is until he thought it was possible to acquire a greater amount of wealth and increase his happiness through the pearl. In turn, this resulted in the downfall of Kino and his family.
Kino’s life before the pearl brought him satisfaction and contentment. He was a loving husband and father. “Juana is driven, although instinctively as a woman to heal the family, nevertheless in reality to act for the man to protect the family.” (Karsten 6) He raised and took care of them. Kino loved Coyotito; His son was his pride and joy. He brought together Kino and Juana and made them a family. There is also Juan Tomàs, Kino’s brother, who supported Kino throughout his life. “We do know that we are cheated from birth to the overcharge on our coffins. But we survive. You have defied not the pearl buyers, but the whole structure, the whole way of life, and I am afraid for you.” (Steinbeck 70)
Kino had few possessions. He had his home, a brush hut, which provided protection and shelter.
In addition, a canoe, this is a family heirloom. It was passed down from grandfather to father to son.
“Kino and Juana came slowly down to the beach and to Kino’s canoe, which was the one thing of value he owned in the world.” (Steinbeck 19)
“It was once property and source of food, for a man with a boat can guarantee a woman that she will eat something.” (Steinbeck 19) Kino also had the song of the family. The song brings a feeling of unity “... the Song of the Family is identified along with other unnamed songs, the heritage of Kino’s people, in the calm beginning of the story... (Karsten 2)
Many changes and alterations were brought about by the pearl. Kino immediately began to make a list of things that he wanted to buy with the pearl’s wealth. He has an opportunity for social mobility and acts upon it. Among the many things on his list were an official marriage, new clothes, a rifle, and education for his son. Instantaneously, Kino’s desires became cloudy. “There was no certainty in seeing, no proof that what you saw was there or was not there.” (Astro 29) Kino then started doubting his dreams and the pearl became misty and cloudy.
Kino’s community thought of him differently because of his sudden acquired wealth.
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.
“You had become so wrapped up in the pearl’s worth, that you were willing to hurt me, your own wife, in order to protect it! Greed surely played a role in this, as no right-minded man would ever assault his wife for the fun of it.” Kino spoke softly, unable to meet my gaze, “I am a man. I must never show weakness.” I didn’t believe Kino’s excuses, and I am pretty sure he didn’t either.
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
“The Boat”, narrated by a Mid-western university professor, Alistar MacLeod, is a short story concerning a family and their different perspectives on freedom vs. tradition. The mother pushes the son to embrace more of a traditional lifestyle by taking over the fathers fishing business, while on the other hand the father pushes the son to live more autonomously in an unconstrained manner. “The Boat” focuses on the father and how his personality influences the son’s choice on how to live and how to make decisions that will ultimately affect his life. In Alistair MacLeod’s, “The Boat”, MacLeod suggest that although dreams and desires give people purpose, the nobility of accepting a life of discontentment out weighs the selfishness of following ones own true desires. In the story, the father is obligated to provide for his family as well as to continue the fishing tradition that was inherited from his own father. The mother emphasizes the boat and it’s significance when she consistently asked the father “ How did things go in the boat today” since tradition was paramount to the mother. H...
In Robert Burn’s poem he wrote about how the plans and ideas of man can and do often go astray. This gave the inspiration for the theme and title to Steinbeck’s book. This shows that the best plans and thoughts can be thwarted. These plans can be destroyed by many innocent distractions. Even if the best intentions were meant, it still ends in an unpredictable way (Scarseth).
Alistair Macleod’s “The Boat” is a tale of sacrifice, and of silent struggle. A parent’s sacrifice not only of their hopes and dreams, but of their life. The struggle of a marriage which sees two polar opposites raising a family during an era of reimagining. A husband embodying change and hope, while making great sacrifice; a wife gripped in fear of the unknown and battling with the idea of losing everything she has ever had. The passage cited above strongly presents these themes through its content
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 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
The trackers are after Kino because of the pearl he possesses. The trackers had gotten mad when Kino had killed one of them. If the trackers caught the pearl, they would be paid a high price for getting the pearl. Greed is the main thing making the trackers pursue Kino. In chapter 6, the text states “ the family retreats farther into the shade for another rest, while Kino sleeps soundly. Juana is restless”, then it says “Kino wakes from a dream and demands that they keep quiet, creeping forward, he spots a trail of the trackers pursuing their trail. The feeling of greed and its destructive nature are very controlling in most of Kino’s decisions and of the numerous amounts of bad turns of event for Kino as the story goes on. So if you have something valuable, you should get some
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
To conclude, there are two main opposing representations and aspects of home presented in this poem, from what is seen as the "norm", the narrators life on land, to the "favoured", the narrators life at sea. Home is irrevocably linked to lifestyle and should not just be where the heart is,(though there is a sense that our "Heart's fulfilment" is important) but should more importantly be a place where we can live a life that will bring us towards heaven, which the poem portrays as our eternal home. The Seafarer is a poem which urges us to carefully "consider where we possess our home, and then think how we com thither."
One example that shows that Kino projects his family is when he tries to protect his baby coyotito from the scorpion by trying to catch it before it landed on coyotito. After the scorpion stung his baby he punched it into the floor “He threw it down and beat it into the earth floor with his fist” (6).This shows that Kino is protecting his family. Kino is also grateful and sees good thing when he finds the pearl on page 19.
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
The discovery of the "magnificent" pearl changed the lives of Kino and Juana severely because they were not used to this kind of wealth. Before they found the pearl, Kino and Juana lived a happy, humble and quiet life. "Kino heard the little splash of the morning waves on the beach. It was very good - Kino closed his eyes again to listen to his music."(Pg. 1-2) Kino loved the simple life; nevertheless whenever things were beginning to look good and simple something went wrong.