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Essay about the life of john steinbeck
Essay about native american literature
Essay on john steinbeck
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Symbolism in The Pearl by John Steinbeck
Novels were created to show a very naive view in great depth. The Pearl is a novel in its most complete form. Steinbeck does this by conveying life symbolically. Through symbols, John offers the reader a clearer look at life and it?s content. He shows major imagery in four ways: Kino, music, Coyotito, and the 'Pearl of the World'.
Kino overall symbolizes clearly good and innocent. Kino is thought of as 'a wise, primitive man' who is hungry for fortune because of the great pearl, which he discovers and later in the story he becomes 'an angry, frightened, but resolute man, determined to keep what he has earned'. He is a young diver who lives in a small village on the coastline of Mexico. In the beginning of the story he has come to o...
Pearl is a symbol of Hester’s transgressions and even has similar qualities as the sin which she represents. Pearl’s life and behavior directly reflects the unacceptable and abnormal nature of Hester’s adulterous sin. Hester is plagued with more than just a letter “A”; she is given a child from her affair who is just as much a reminder of her sin as the scarlet letter. Ultimately Hester overcomes the shame associated the scarlet letter and creates a sense of family for herself and Pearl. This relationship is integral to the theme of this novel and the development of its characters.
Many stories in the world have a lot of the same characters. Carl Jung believed that universal, mythic characters called archetypes reside within the collective unconscious of people in the world. Archetypes are important because basically any story you will read will have archetypes in it. The archetypes in The Pearl are important because without the Hero, Ally, or Loyal Retainer archetypes in the book, The Pearl would have no story. This is why John Steinbeck uses many different archetypes in The Pearl such as the Hero, Ally, and Loyal Retainer.
The aspect of the John Steinbeck novels, The Pearl and Of Mice and Men, that is most comparable is how, in both books, Steinbeck denies the main characters of each book, Kino and George and Lennie to change their role in life or to beat fate. Steinbeck’s grim outlook of life was perhaps brought on through his early failures and poverty, because all three of the pre-mentioned characters had opportunities to change their fate or role but failed. The elements of discussion are Kino, George and Lennie, a comparison and a contrast.
John Steinbeck’s novella, The Pearl, is written as a parable, which allows the reader to interpret its themes in their own way. It can take place in any time period, with any setting, and using any protagonist. The themes Steinbeck used throughout his book are universal and can applied to anyone’s lives. Its contrasting portrayal of good and evil creates a clear understanding of themes such as greed, illusions, and humanity and reason versus animalism and instinct.
Throughout The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, the themes of greed and prejudice are greatly expressed, from the beginning with the unjust doctor to the suspenseful end of the supposed ‘Pearl of the World.’ It is amazing, that even in a timeless story as this one, these harsh realities still haunt their world. It could take place yesterday, today, or tomorrow, but the point is that one cannot revert the world to one way of thinking, that is why greed and prejudice still exist. One can try as hard as they want but there are going to be those who are stubborn, of hard will, and those who believe their thoughts are right. I want to show that these themes go far beyond this parable and apply to the world we live in.
In The Pearl , the Mexican fisherman, Kino is very poor, but relatively happy. Kino is very close with his wife Juana, his baby son Coyotito and with the other fishermen. While diving for pearls one day, Kino discovers an extremely old and large oyster. Inside the oyster Kino finds the great pearl. The pearl is worth much and with it comes the promise of a better life for Kino and his family. The life of Kino and his family are changed forever by the greed of other people who begin to want the pearl for themselves. After much hardship, Kino realizes that the pearl could only bring more trouble, and casts the pearl out to sea.
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.
The Pearl written by John Steinbeck is a parable, a story that teaches a moral lesson. The focus of this novel is on a poor Indian family. The family consists of three members: Kino, a husband, father, and fisherman, Juana, his wife and loving mother; and Coyotito their infant son. This indigent family lives in a small brush hut along the Gulf of Mexico by the town of La Paz. One day Coyotito, is bitten by a scorpion; a scorpion sting can be deadly to a baby. Kino and Juana are very worried over the health of their baby; therefore, they hope to find a pearl worthy enough for the doctor’s payment to the doctor to treat Coyotito. With luck on their side, Kino finds a pearl the size of a seagull’s egg; he calls it “The Pearl of the World.” This novel like others, is centered around a major theme; the theme of a literary work is defined as the main idea, concern or purpose about life that the author wants to convey to his or her reader. John Steinbeck in his novel The Pearl reveals the vital theme of Kino and his family’s struggle with greed.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Pearl, is a symbol of sin and adultery in the sense that she leads Dimmsdale and Hester to their confession and the acceptance of their sins. A beauitful daughter of the towns adulturist has somtimes demon like traits. She is also the only living symblol of the scarlet letter "A". In another way Pearl also makes a connection between Dimmsdale and Hester.
The canoe symbolizes Kino’s heritage and his family. It and how to care for the wood had been passed down for generations. When the pearl is brought into Kino and Juana’s life the canoe became broken which shows that there was conflictions within the family. The scorpion shows that bad things happen to the purest things and we don’t really have control over what happens. The scorpion stings Coyotito, the son of Kino, who injects him with its poisonous venom. The couple does everything they could to save their son’s life but in the end, Coyotito’s life is still taken even though it is not taken by the scorpion. Kino’s dreams and the great pearl are things that were too good to be true. The night Kino finds the great pearl, he dreams of many wonderful things that he could do with the money he would get from the pearl. A rifle, a wedding for him and Juana, and an education for Coyotito, but instead of these wonderful things, the pearl brings nothing but havoc into the lives of Kino, Juana, and Coyotito. The pearl did teach the family valuable
The pearl symbolizes many different things. To Kino, at first it symbolized happiness and hope. On page 39 in chapter 3, it has stated, "So lovely it was, so soft, and its own music came from it- its music of promise and delight, its guarantee of the future, of comfort and security. Its warm lucence promised a poultice against illness and a wall against insult. It closed a door on hunger." Kino sought happiness and riches, and as he was desperate he was blind to the greed that was enveloping him. All he saw was impossible hopes and dreams in the pearl. In other words, to him, the pearl guaranteed money and the comfort of a tranquil life.
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
Kino starts to realize that money cannot buy happiness, but by then it is too late. He is forced to take his family into hiding. They were followed by trackers, and Kino is forced to kill one of them. Kino and his family hide in a cave. He goes outside to attack the men that are still there, and one of the men ends up shooting Coyotito. Kino has to go back to town with his grieving wife, and without his son. When Kino and Juana are going to throw the pearl into the Gulf, they look into it. In it they see Coyotito, and the evil that killed him. Then they cast the pearl out into the water.
In the beginning he saw the pearl as this great thing that would help his family live on and be happy. "Our son must go to school. He must break out of the pot that holds us in," he said this with hopes of using the pearl for Coyotito’s schooling and giving him a better future with that knowledge. Toward the end of having the pearl he becomes insane and insecure. Juana realizes that the pearl is evil and says to Kino, "Kino, this pearl is evil. Let us destroy it before it destroys us. Let us crush it between two stones. Let us - let us throw it back in the sea where it belongs. Kino, it is evil, it is evil!” Kino then starts taking into consideration of Juana is saying and becomes more into the thought that the pearl is really evil. Kino believes different things about the pearl from the beginning to the end, he goes from seeing it as hope to destruction and
The pearl evokes multiple reactions from a variety of people; Kino sees it as a blessing and an opportunity to change his life. In the