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- The Pearl: Biography: John Steinbeck
- The Pearl: Novel Summary: Chapter 1
- The Pearl: Novel Summary: Chapter 2
- The Pearl: Novel Summary: Chapter 3
- The Pearl: Novel Summary: Chapter 4
- The Pearl: Novel Summary: Chapter 5
- The Pearl: Novel Summary: Chapter 6
- The Pearl: Character Profiles
- The Pearl: Metaphor Analysis
The Pearl: Theme Analysis
- The Pearl: Top Ten Quotes
- The Pearl: Essay Q&A
Good versus Evil The most prominent theme in the parable of the pearl is that of the struggle between good and evil. As is the case with most parables the characters and events of the story are rendered more definitely aligned with good or evil than would be possible to appreciate amongst the degree of overlap inherent to the real world. Throughout the story the songs that Kino hears in his head reveals to him on an instinctual level of a person or thing's true nature. Thus, the song of evil accompanies the Priest who treats the indians like children and the doctor who regards them as animals. The song of the family, or the song of life, accompanies the life-sustaining morning activities as well as the family itself as they flee from their pursuers. In Kino's conception of good and evil anything that threatens the family is evil. Thus the song of evil can also accompany natural things like the scorpion which stings Coyotito. The pearl, also a product of nature, is never clearly defined as inherently good or evil. Rather its effect upon the family is shown to be evil once it has proven to be a treacherous repository of Kino's dreams. Poverty versus Wealth The pearl's immediate and lasting effect upon Kino is to cause him to dream of better things for himself and for his family. Although the pearl attracts attackers and pursuers, Kino is determined that it shall be the means by which his family rises above their station and, most importantly, his son achieves literacy. In this manner the story is a political one. The story delineates and draws moral conclusions about the differences between early nineteenth century Mexico's poor, characterized by the sympathetic characters such as Kino and Juana and the country's rich portrayed using unsympathetic characters like the doctor. Family Although Kino begins the story with the "song of the family" coursing through his being, he is soon sidetracked by the desires generated by the pearl. Though these desires are for things that Kino believes will make the family stronger - a rifle, a marriage, education - It is Juana who struggles to maintain the family as it once was. Significantly, it is Juana who first suggests destroying the peal between two stones and actually attempts to free her family of its influence by throwing it back into the sea. She realizes that the family would have no meaning without Kino and relents to his desire to sell the pearl in the city. Just as the family is what drives Kino's desires, so does the sense of family bind Juana to his side when she refuses to part with him during their flight into the mountains. Once Coyotito has been killed, however, the family has ceased to exist and Kino can see that the pearl, contrary to his initial belief, has brought nothing but bad fortune. Fortune The operations of chance and the effort to discern good luck from bad luck in an underlying theme in the story. The pearl itself is the byproduct of a chance grain of sand embedding in an oyster. Additionally, Kino's finding of the pearl is depicted as the lucky moment of collusion of being in the right place at the right time with the right need. The luck that that the pearl brings Kino's family, however, is revealed to be bad luck when his attempt to sell it at a fair price leads to the death of his only son.
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John Steinbeck
Ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.
The Pearl takes place in a small village on the outskirts of La Paz, California. It begins in the brush house of Kino , Juana , and their baby, Coyotito , a family of Mexican Native Americans. In the midst of Kino and Juana’s morning routine, Coyotito is stung by a scorpion that has fallen into his hanging box.
Aware of how poisonous the scorpion’s sting is, Juana orders that the doctor be gotten and when the doctor refuses to come to them, insists they go to the doctor themselves. Kino, Juana, Coyotito, and their neighbors proceed together to the city. When the servant reports their arrival at his gate, the doctor, lounging indulgently in bed, is insulted by the mere notion that he would “cure insect bites for ‘little Indians’” without compensation. The servant informs Kino that the doctor will not be able to see them and Kino punches the gate, infuriated by the doctor’s evident discrimination.
Kino and Juana set off in their canoe to search for pearls. Kino dives down to the seafloor and finds one oyster lying alone, gleaming from within. Upon returning to the canoe, Kino opens this oyster last and finds within it the most perfect pearl in the world.
News of Kino’s pearl spreads rapidly through the town, inspiring desire and envy in everyone who hears of it. When Juan Tomas asks Kino what he will do as a rich man, he responds that he and Juana will be married in a church, that they will have new clothes, that he will have a rifle, and that his son will receive an education.
The priest visits the brush house to remind Kino and Juana to thank God. Then the doctor, inspired by the news of the pearl, arrives in order to treat the baby. He administers a first treatment and predicts that the poison will strike within the hour. Within the hour, Coyotito indeed becomes ill and the doctor administers a second treatment to cure him. Kino promises to pay the doctor after selling the pearl, which the doctor feigns not to have heard about.
That night, after dark, Kino hears noises in the house and manages to strike a thief looking for the pearl with his knife, but is also struck in return. Juana begs, to no avail, that they get rid of the pearl.
The next day, Kino and Juana, followed by their neighbors, go to visit the pearl dealers . The first dealer Kino visits assesses the pearl at a mere 1000 pesos, declaring it too big and clumsy to be worth anything more, though it is clearly more valuable than he lets on. Kino accuses the dealer of cheating him, so the dealer instructs Kino to ask around for other appraisals, which are even worse than the first. Kino concludes that he’s been cheated and decides to go to the capital for a better estimate.
That night, Kino fights off another attacker. Juana tries to throw the pearl into the ocean, but Kino follows her, rips the pearl away from her, and beats her to the ground. Some minutes later, Juana rises to discover that Kino has been attacked yet again, and, this time, has killed his attacker. Now that Kino is guilty of murder, Kino and Juana truly must leave the town.
As Kino approaches the canoe to prepare for their departure, he sees that someone has made a hole in its bottom. Then, upon seeing that their house is engulfed in flames, the family seeks refuge in Juan Tomas’s house. They flee north at nighttime, pursued by trackers who have followed them from the village.
The family retreats into a cave on a mountainside, under which the trackers come to rest at night. When it’s completely dark, Kino prepares to attack them but, as he is about to, Coyotito lets out a cry, provoking one of the trackers to shoot at what he assumes to be a coyote. Though Kino succeeds in killing the men, Coyotito has already been shot dead.
Juana and Kino, united and beleaguered, walk back to the village side-by-side with Coyotito’s dead body in Juana’s shawl. Kino throws the pearl back into the sea.
57 pages • 1 hour read
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Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue-Chapter 2
Chapters 3-4
Chapters 5-6
Character Analysis
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Discussion Questions
Consider the priest and the doctor as foil characters. How do their characteristics and roles overlap, and how do they differ?
The narrator says that The Pearl is a parable, which is a simple story that teaches a moral or lesson. What morals or lessons might Kino’s people derive from the story? Do those morals and lessons differ from the ones Steinbeck intends readers to take from it?
Consider dialogue within The Pearl . Though Kino and his people speak an unidentified “old language,” the dialogue is recorded in English. What tone and style does Steinbeck adopt for the dialogue, and how does it influence your perception of the characters and events?
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Essay Samples on The Pearl
Imagery and character analysis in the pearl.
In the very beginning of the book, Kino watches as his son, Coyotio sleeps. While he is sleeping, Coyotito is stung by a scorpion despite Kino’s efforts to catch it and kill it. They go to the doctor to get Kino treated for the sting...
- Character Analysis
- Imagery in Literature
The Theme Of Group Behavior In The Pearl By John Steinbeck
The article is a study exploring the pattern of group activity in John The Pearl's novel. There's a major influence on other individuals from Stein show group behavior. We are the long-term basis of human life. Steinbeck's group-man theory is based on Darwinian interpretation of...
- John Steinbeck
Theme of Greed in John Steinbeck’s Novel The Pearl and Jack London's Story A Piece of Steak
In John Steinbeck’s realistic fiction novel, The Pearl, Kino drastically changes his life when he finds a pearl of great value. Local authors, Jack London and John Steinbeck, both use greed, murder, and poverty in different ways to express their themes. Greed is a theme...
John Steinbeck's The Pearl Through the Prism of New Formalism
Using the New Formalism as a lens to analyze Pearls, the reader can see that Steinbeck uses images, symbols and music to develop a theme according to which luck can lead people with good intentions to the path of evil and negative. In modern society,...
- The New Deal
John Steinbeck: Literary Works, Life and People Who Inspired Him
Recurring Ideas in Of Mice and Men, Travels With Charley, and The Pearl The Desire to Escape One recurring theme that is displayed in Of Mice and Men, Travels With Charley, and The Pearl is the desire to escape, which causes the characters to venture...
- Literature Review
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Best topics on The Pearl
1. Imagery And Character Analysis In The Pearl
2. The Theme Of Group Behavior In The Pearl By John Steinbeck
3. Theme of Greed in John Steinbeck’s Novel The Pearl and Jack London’s Story A Piece of Steak
4. John Steinbeck’s The Pearl Through the Prism of New Formalism
5. John Steinbeck: Literary Works, Life and People Who Inspired Him
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- A Raisin in The Sun
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- William Shakespeare
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The Pearl Themes and Symbols
Table of Contents
Greed is the main evil force that the parable is meant to warn against. The doctor is greedy and only treats Coyotito after hearing of Kino’s pearl.
The pearl dealers are greedy and want to trick Kino into selling his pearl for less than it’s worth. The town’s people are Kino’s neighbors in daylight, but turn into Kino’s attackers and enemies at night as they try to take the pearl away from him.
Kino himself is greedy when he refuses to dispose of the pearl that brings him danger. It seems that the pearl and material wealth in general brings out the greed in the people who seek it.
Dreams and Ambition
Ambition is a characteristic that is innate in human nature . However, in the novel ambition is a sin punishable by a higher power and is a reason behind Kino’s downfall. Kino desires to rise into superiority by giving his child a good education and having new clothes for him and his wife, all of those are innocent dreams of a poor man in a rich man’s world .
Kino’s dreams are simply dreams and could not come true because they would upset the social hierarchy. Moreover, one should not aim above or below their inherent position in society.
Kino lives in harmony with his family up until Coyotito is poisoned. It is clear that Kino would go to great lengths to cure Coyotito and when the opportunity arises he desires a better life for him and his family . However the pearl drives Kino crazy with greed and as a result he loses his blissful relationship with his wife and ultimately loses his son.
That being said, the novel ends as Juana and Kino walk side by side as equal partners. It seems that family is somewhat restored when the pearl is no longer in Kino’s possession.
Money versus Happiness
From the start of the novel it appears that Kino lives in a natural and peaceful environment in harmony with his wife and child. They have a roof over their heads and they have Kino’s ancestral canoe and most of all they have each other. Kino has the false belief that the newfound material wealth could grant them more happiness.
In the end the pearl costs Kino his harmonious life, his house, his canoe and his family . The moral of the story is that money cannot buy happiness .
The pearl is a symbol of wealth which is quite ambivalent in its nature throughout the novel. When Kino first finds the pearl, it is a symbol of hope and salvation. The pearl and what it holds of wealth represents a great potential for the family and so their ambitions grow big. But like wealth, the pearl represents all the evil in the world. It seems all the greed and evil surfaces in the presence of wealth.
The Scorpion
The scorpion is a form of foreshadowing as well as a symbol of the evil that is yet to come into Kino’s life. The scorpion sneaks into the family’s home in attempts to take away their most valuable possession, their son. This is a foreshadowing of the many town’s people who are filled with poisonous envy and evil as they sneak into Kino’s home to steal the pearl and poison his life.
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Home / Essay Samples / Literature / Books / The Pearl
The Pearl Essay Examples
The theme of greed in the pearl by john steinbeck.
When wanting spirals into destruction, a family is broken apart, shattered by a rare discovery. A pearl that seems so pure, so innocent that it seems as if nothing evil can come from it. The Pearl by John Steinbeck appears to be a story about...
Literary Analysis of the Pearl by John Steinbeck
“Steinbeck illustrates the tragic consequences of the loss of that freedom of the spirit in The Pearl, expressing a profound sympathy for the individual and the community that suffers under such an oppressive system.” (Perkins). In The Pearl, John Steinbeck describes that he feels great...
Brutal Reality and Hardship: "The Pearl" by John Steinbeck
A lot of issues of the world rotate around the wealthy. In The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, he recounts the story of a couple and their child who experience the ill effects of the outcomes of needing. Subsequent to finding 'the pearl of the world,'...
Nothing Goes as Planned: "The Pearl" by John Steinbeck
Kino and his family were appreciative of everything they had, but when Kino discovers the pearl it shapes him to become a different person. He sees the pearl as a symbol of hope and protection. It holds wealth, which drives Kino into an ambition to...
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About The Pearl
John Steinbeck
United States, Mexico
The Pearl is a novella by the American author John Steinbeck. The story, first published in 1947, follows a pearl diver, Kino, and explores man’s purpose as well as greed, defiance of societal norms, and evil. Steinbeck's inspiration was a Mexican folk tale from La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, which he had heard in a visit to the formerly pearl-rich region in 1940.
The pearl, The Scorpion, Kino’s Canoe
Nature Imagery, Kino’s Songs
Greed, Dreams and Ambition, Family, Money versus Happiness.
Kino, Juana, The doctor
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