¨You don't need materials to find happiness.” This quote shows how people don't need materials and money to be happy with your life. In the novella The pearl by John Steinbeck, a poor fisherman finds a huge pearl after his baby boy gets stung by a scorpion. Initially the pearl was going to be used to pay for medicine for the baby boy named Coyotito. Yet as the story progresses Kino , the poor fisherman, begins to want more and more. But it is not only Kino who desires wealth and experiences greed. Through the authorś characters: the three mysterious attackers, the lazy doctor, and the protagonist Kino,himself, we see how they show that materialism and greed left unchecked, can lead to immoral behavior, such as violence. The first person who …show more content…
As a reader one would expect Kino to throw away pearl and to keep his family out of danger. Yet he does not, why? because he is driven by greed. At first we learn Kino only wants the best for his family and gets the pearl only for medicine. Then, as the story continues he starts wanting more for himself and for his family. For example, he says he wanted a gun and wanted to get married, even though they are happy as they are. Not only does he start wanting more, but starts acting differently. Juana starts to see these changes in her husband, so she tries to throw the pearl away. The way Kino reacts to this is by Sprinting after Juana and to stop her he punches and kicks her. This shows how he hit his own wife just to stop her from throwing a material. Then he doesn't even have to kick her, but he does out of greed and frustration. Then later in the story he starts to care again for the family, but as long as he has the pearl he still is ready to fight or even kill for it. Two trackers and a rifleman are after Kino because they want the pearl for themselves. Kino, Juana, and Coyotito hide in a cave thinking that the three men will walk right past
In The Pearl, Kino wants to sell the pearl for money, for several reasons. One of which is to help his dying baby, Coyotito. Kino ended up getting more greedy and wanted more and more from the pearl, that a bad ending was sure to happen. The author includes several bad events that happen, due to Kino's greed and attempts to mess with fate. For example, his baby died. This is sort of ironic because he wanted the pearl so he could make Coyotito better, but... A couple other examples of how Kino meets with disaster when his house burnt down and his canoe was trashed. On page 29 of this, Novel it says, “He knew that the gods don't take their revenge on a man if he be successful through his own efforts.” This shows that Kino knew what was going to happen, but didn't care because his greediness got the best of him. Likewise, in “The Monkey's Paw” Mr.White was careless, which ended up with him finding himself in the middle of a disaster. On pg 187, it says “...And that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow.” Mr. White didn’t care, he was warned by the sergeant, when he said to him “Better let it burn.” because the sergeant knew it was bad and would bring great pain and sorrow and problems to Mr.White and his family, but he paid no attention to the sergeants
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.
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
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
At the beginning of the book Kino and Juana lived a happy good life until their first and only child Coyotito got stung by a scorpion. The one-second that it took the scorpion to bite Coyotito changed the rest of Kino and Juana's life forever. Kino could not afford to pay for the medical attention Coyotito needed. Kino was determined to find a great pearl that could pay the doctor to save his son. "Kino in his pride and youth and strength, could remain down over two minutes without strain, so that he worked deliberately, selecting the largest shells."(Pg. 18)
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
When Kino found the pearl, he thought this would make him popular...it did but he didn’t realize the consequences he could cause. What he didn’t realize is that everyone wanted that pearl, he thought that he would have power which he did. By the end of the week the whole town wanted Kino for being disrespectful. Juana was a great wife, but she tried to warn Kino about the pearl, because she knew that the pearl could bring great danger to her family. Kino never realized that he beat his wife because she tried to throw the pearl back into the ocean, so the danger could go away. The town changed when they found out that Kino found the pearl, they went from worn out to happy. When they realized that Kino turned into a big jerk, half the town started to hate him and his family. Some guys were supposedly Kino’s friends, they drank with him until he was drunk, and then they asked and asked where he hid the pearl. Once Kino found out that those two guys tried to steal the pearl, that possibly ruined his whole entire reputation in that town. Jealousy isn’t always a good thing, the town was jealous that Kino was the one to find that pearl. Everyone wanted it but I guess Kino was lucky enough to find it. Always enjoy your life and never let the stupid little things ruin your reputation with
A while later Kino was attacked by another man who wanted the pearl for himself and defended his pearl by killing the man. It is around this point in the story where Kino displays his greatest point of greed and selfishness.
Juana warns Kino that the pearl is evil and will destroy his family, but he refuses to throw it away because it is his one chance to provide a different life for his family. That night, Juana takes the pearl and tries to throw it into the sea, but Kino stops her and beats her.
The pearl was not meant for anyone to find, and the finding of one was luck, “a little pat on the back by God.” The problem in this story is that Kino is trying to sell his pearl and everyone bids a low price. That means he keeps it longer and everyone is trying to steal it from him. The conflict is man vs. man, the reason why is that a lot of people are trying to steal it from him the day he got it. It went to the point that people were tracking him for it and attacking him in his sleep.
“Money never prevents anyone from being happy or unhappy.” The quotation means that money cannot buy pleasure and you can find jubilation in the few subjects in life. Money controls society so abounding individuals never have a chance to figure out what else is important such as friends and family. Your loved ones can be used to create memories and with those memories you can attain true happiness. Human nature is so controlled by money that they do not understand the value of the few concepts in life.
..., a person who earns $25,000 is happier than a person who makes $125,000 and an employee who makes $500,000 is only slightly happier than someone who makes $55,000. Lastly, there are more important things in life that and make you happy, for example, friends. They don’t come with a price tag, and if they do, you definitely need new friends. Money won’t make you happy since good times can’t be bought. You don’t need a fancy vacation to have a good time; it’s just a matter of who you spend it with. Over the years, humans have blown the value of money way out of proportion. People make it seem like if you’re not filthy rich, then you won’t live a good life but it’s not true. You can lack money and yet still live a perfect, happy life.