What Is The Doctor's Greed

In the novella, The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, the story describes a story about an Indian family of three, Kino, the father, Juana, the wife, and Coyotito, the baby. The family lives a simple life, but all that changes when Coyotito is poisoned by a scorpion. Kino desperately sets off to find the so called ‘Pearl of the World’ to help Coyotito, since the selfish and greedy doctor rejected helping them. Unexpectedly, Kino does find the ‘Pearl of the World’, but even so, his decisions about the pearl from here on lead to harm and danger. In the end, Kino and Juana have lost almost everything, their house burned down, Kino,who killed a man is now considered a murderer, and even to the extent where their baby has died because of the pearl that …show more content…
This shows that sometimes, people will trick others to get what they really want, but in truth, they really aren’t what they actually seem to be. While the doctor plays the hero, secretly, he is only doing this for money because of his greed. This shows that while Kino and Juana see the doctor as a savior, underneath, the doctor is ironically, the total opposite, showing that things are never what they seem to be. Adding on, the theme starts to develop when Kino goes to sell the pearl in exchange for money to improve their lives. However, the pearl buyer claims that it is worth nothing when he inspects the pearl, when really, behind his “mask”, he is shocked at the beauty of the pearl. “But there was no sign, no movement, the face did not change, but the secret hand behind the desk missed in its precision. The coin slipped silently onto his lap, and his fingers closed around it into a fist. ” (63) This indicated that while above, his mask shows no emotional change on the outside, on the inside, his coin routine fails, which means that the pearl buyer knows that this pearl is worth much. He is also shocked at the appearance of the pearl because it says that his hand closed into a fist, showing his emotion, and the buyer was not happy with how a simple Indian owns such a valuable pearl, when it should be the buyer’s. The buyer portrays the theme because while …show more content…
And Kino hear the music of the pearl, distorted, tortured and insane.” Through this, it is shown that as Kino has finally realised that things are not always what they seem to be. Before, Kino was always set on the idea that the pearl could fix everything, that it was the key to the world, he fought with his family for the sake of the pearl. This ties back into my theme because Kino was easily blinded with the illusion of what he believes the pearl to be. He did not realize that the pearl was not at all what he thought it was. While he only saw the hope in the Pandora’s box, he was really playing into the hands of harm and risk. The pearl seemed to be a piece of hope, beauty, and chance, but really, it it was almost nothing that it seemed, instead, it was the complete opposite. Kino had lost sight of what was possible, and what wasn’t real, he let himself think that the pearl was something it really wasn’t.
To conclude, one important theme that this book represents is that things are not always what they seem, which may lead to a horrible outcome. Kino had thought that the pearl was a chance of hope and a new start. What he did not see was the true pearl, the one that was filled with harm, risk, and danger. Because of that, Kino and Juana lost nearly everything, house, family, and much more. What they finally learn is that no matter how good things may seem to be, that’s almost never what they