He did anything to keep it,even endangering his family. Without knowing it, Kino was beginning toconsider the pearl more important than his family. But after finding the Pearl of theWorld, Kino slowly began to change. He showed these qualities by simply supporting his familyand working hard everyday diving for pearls. Inthe beginning of the story, he appears to be a very hardworking man and also aman of good morals. Throughout ThePearl, Kinos character is indirectly revealed by his actions and thoughts. After the sudden death, Kino and Juanahead back to the village where they heave the evil pearl into the ocean and hopethat its burdens are never bestowed on any person again. In aneffort to escape, Kino attacks the men but not before they fire a shot into themountains and mortally wound Coyotito. Hethen flees with his family to the city where three men hunt them down. Kino is also attacked for the pearl and in one of the fights, he kills a man. After this, the pearlbrings nothing but trouble once the pearl buyers try to cheat him for the pearl. News spreadsquickly that Kino has found the immense pearl and as soon as the doctor hears ofthe newfound wealth, he rushes to the aid of Coyotito. When Juana set sight on the “Pearl of theWorld,” she felt as though all her prayers had been answered. Knowing that the biteis extremely deadly, they take Coyotito to the doctor, be he refuses to assistthe child because of the familys financial status so the family now turns tothe sea to seek their fortune. As soon as Kinos son, Coyotito, is bitten by a deadlyscorpion, Juana, the mother of Coyotito, naturally turns towards the spiritualaspects of life by praying for her son’s endangered life. Instead, he learns that thevaluable Pearl of the World can not buy happiness but only destroy his simple,yet content, life.
#The pearl john steinbeck review full#
Simply yet powerfully written, The Pearl is a novella deserving of all its accolades, full of symbolic and haunting warning against the darkness of human nature.In John Steinbeck’s The Pearl, a poor yet humble pearl diver by the name of Kinofinds a giant pearl with which he hopes to buy peace and happiness for hisfamily and an education for his son, Coyotito.
In terms of the scenery, it is really not different. To make this effect even stronger, after you read the final page, go back and read the first page of the novel again. Steinbeck’s writing had a way of drawing me into Kino’s life, thus inciting emotions such as terror and grief as that life was slowly and sweetly destroyed by the pearl. It was alarming to witness the speed at which the young man’s life fell apart, as he clung to the dreams that the pearl reflected for him, trying to convince himself that the pearl could help him gain back happiness.
It is in human nature to constantly seek more, a desire depicted beautifully through the story of Kino and his family. The ability to be content, the ability to restrain oneself in the possibility of more wealth, is incredibly difficult to gain. Yet what is it inside humans, represented by Kino, that spurs them to keep going, in pursuit of something luring and foreign that has cost them so much already? About halfway through the novella, it is already clear that Kino has lost more than what he can regain with the pearl. Violence, hatred, and deceit enter his simple life, all rooted in greed. Although alluring and happy at first, it is slowly merged with the “music of evil” as things start spiraling downward. Kino then begins to hear the “music of the pearl”. Desperate to save their baby by obtaining money to pay the doctor, Kino happens to find a great treasure in an oyster underwater. The reader can, then, perhaps catch a glimpse of the “music of the family”, a melody that flows through the harmonious landscape, a melody that constitutes Kino’s peaceful life before the pearl.Įverything begins when Kino and Juana see a scorpion crawl down into Coyotito’s hanging box. The Pearl by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck begins with one of the most picturesque, idyllic scenes in literature: a pearl diver, Kino, awaking at dawn, gazing lovingly at his wife Juana and their baby son Coyotito, listening to the sounds of the sea.