The Pearl Happiness

Improved Essays
Imagine winning or finding something that you think will make you happy or change your life for the better. Instead though it does the opposite. However, some material things can make people happy, but they can also turn people's life around in an unexpected way. For example, in the novella The Pearl the main character Kino thought that by finding a pearl it would make his life better. Contrary to what he thought the pearl caused him much misfortune. In The Pearl by John Steinbeck the message of the novella is that material objects don’t guarantee happiness. The pearl, a material object, put Kino and his family in danger. Rather than the pearl bringing him happiness the alternative happened. “The baby moaned with fright, and Juana’s eyes were wide and terrified” (63). This quote is an example of how the pearl endangered his family when someone burned down their house. After Kino found the pearl the people in the village tried different ways to steal the pearl from Kino. Although, many of these attempts didn’t work it still put his family in danger. Knowing this Kino tried to move away from the danger, but it followed him and his family anyway until he got rid of the pearl. …show more content…
‘“My pearl is not for sale here. I will go even to the capital”’(52). Since Kino didn’t sell the pearl in his village and wanted to go to the capital it caused more danger to come to his family. Also, Kino wasn’t able to buy and do all the things he thought be able to do after he sold the pearl. Consequently, by not selling the pearl to the pearl dealers it caused his boat to be broken so he couldn’t go to the capital and sell his pearl there. When Kino didn’t sell the pearl it took away some of the hope he had, had for the

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