John Steinbeck Pearl

Great Essays
John Steinbeck was one of the last great american authors. He wrote many books and novellas including The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, and The Pearl. The Pearl is about Kino, a poor native who discovers the pearl of the world. Kino plans to use the pearl to improve the lives of his wife Juana and his baby son Coyotito. However, the pearl only brings misfortune and evil upon the family. Kino slowly becomes obsessed with using the pearl to make his family rich, even as it turns their whole village against them. An accident happens where Kino kills a man, so he and his family flee the village. After many days of walking, Kino and his family is found by trackers sent to find them. Kino, in defense of his family shoots at the trackers and …show more content…
He loved his family and was loyal to the traditions of his people. On page 2 the text states “His people had once been great makers of songs so that everything they saw or thought or did or heard became a song. That was very long ago. The songs remained; Kino knew them, but no new songs were added. That does not mean that there were no personal songs. In Kino's head there was a song now, clear and soft, and if he had been able to speak of it, he would have called it the Song of the Family” Kino’s very focused and happy with his family, so naturally the Song of Family is a song he regularly hears. Another of example of how Kino was a good man at the beginning of The Pearl is on page 26, "My son will read and open the books, and my son will write and will know writing. And my son will make numbers, and these things will make us free because he will know - he will know and through him we will know." This shows how Kino did not only think for himself when he found the pearl, he thought of his people. He thought about using the pearl to break the barrier that kept his people …show more content…
He becomes warped by violence and greed. His need to possess the pearl made him violent and quick to lash out. An example of this was on page 58 and 59, when Juana goes to get rid of the pearl. Those pages state, “And rage surged in Kino. He rolled up to his feet and followed her as silently as she had gone, and he could hear her quick footsteps going toward the shore. Quietly he tracked her, and his brain was red with anger. She burst clear out of the brush line and stumbled over the little boulders toward the water, and then she heard him coming and she broke into a run. Her arm was up to throw when he leaped at her and caught her arm and wrenched the pearl from her. He struck her in the face with his clenched fist and she fell among the boulders, and he kicked her in the side. In the pale light he could see the little waves break over her, and her skirt floated about and clung to her legs as the water receded.” Kino ends up beating Juana, something he would have never done before the pearl. He was loved her and was proud of her resilience. Another time when Kino was showing his evil was when he killed the two men. On page 60 we see Juana’s reaction to the murder. The text states “as she considered, the light came again, and she saw two dark figures lying in the path ahead of her. She leaped forward and saw that one was Kino and the other a stranger with dark shiny fluid leaking from his throat. Kino

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