The Pearl Greed Quotes Analysis

In the book The Pearl by John Steinbeck the word poison is mentioned in almost every chapter of the book. Every time it is mentioned, the author used the motif of poison for a specific reason, and they all lead up to one of the major themes of this novel – greed causes destruction. Three times that poison was mentioned were when the scorpion poisoned the baby in chapter one, the poison fish swimming just below the surface of the water in chapter 2, and the evil rising in the town being compared to poison sacs filling with venom. Each mention to poison puts the representation of greed as a poison in a new light, subsequently setting the stage for the effects of greed in the following chapters. Coyotito getting stung by the scorpion was a …show more content…
Steinbeck offers a detailed description of the surroundings, including the spotted botete, or poison fish, that lay in the eel grass beds. This time poison was symbolic of the evil that can lurk under what appears to be beautiful. The pearl was beautiful, luminous, and resplendent; it was perfect. Yet all it brought was corruption and destruction, poisoning the beauty. When we get to chapters 5 and 6, Kino’s innocent nature is already poisoned, showing the rage that Kino had under the surface that was exemplified in chapter one, when he punched the doctor’s gate after the doctor refused to treat Coyotito. The final event, occurring in chapter 3, is probably the straightforward: “The poison sacs of the town began to manufacture venom, and the town swelled and puffed with the pressure of it.” Steinbeck made it infinitely clear that the town was almost immediately corrupted by the news of the pearl, and not only was it corrupted, but it began to make poison of its own. This builds upon the theme, by not only showing that greed corrupts, but that those corrupted will also look to spread their