John Steinbeck Hero's Journey

The loss of innocence John Steinbeck’s book, The Pearl, is about a Mexican pearl diver, Kino, and his family. The story is told through the eyes of an outside narrator about his journey with “The Pearl of the World.” The main character is Kino, who is hardworking and desperate to support his family. In the book, the author uses revealing actions to show that disappointment and greed can make a man forget his purpose. Kino started as a family man, but by the end of the book, he was controlled by the greed he felt in his heart.

his family. Greed and ambition have not only blinded Kino, but other members of his village as well. Jealous neighbors of Kino resorted to brutality and savagery in hopes of securing the pearl. Kino chose to respond to the attacks against him with more violence, and the

Of all the symbols that are in Steinbeck’s story, the pearl of the world is the most important because of its direct impact on Kino, Juana, and Coyotito. The Pearl is about a poor diver, Kino, who gathers pearls for a living. Then, on a day like any other, Kino comes to the surface of the sea with a pearl as large as a seagull’s egg. Kino thought it would be a source of wealth, hope, and comfort, whereas it was actually the evil that destroyed their family.

Kino has been ambushed during the night and has killed someone. Juan Tomas recommends him to get rid of it because it has caused a lot of trouble. “"I was attacked in the dark," said Kino. "And in the fight I have killed a man." "Who?", asked Juan Tomás quickly. "I do not know. It is all darkness – all darkness and shape of darkness." "It is the pearl," said Juan Tomás. "There is a devil in this pearl. You should have sold it and passed on the devil. Perhaps you can still sell it and buy peace for yourself."” (Steinbeck 64) Yet, Kino’s actions still don’t convince him to take Juan Tomas’s advice, as a result Kino faces the biggest tragedy he has experienced which is losing his son, Coyotito.

In conclusion, Steinbeck’s novella demonstrates how innocence and hope is destroyed by greed and ambition. Kino seeks to gain wealth and status through the pearl. As he does so, he transforms from a happy father, who was content with his current life, to a greedy person, who can see no good in anything except for the pearl. The pearl, which originally represented Kino’s hope and innocence, is destroyed by

I believe that is because Kino thinks that the pearl is worth a lot of money. Therefore, even if Kino had an evil feeling and bad things were happening to him, he still kept moving forward. For example, Steinbeck quotes: “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.” (Steinbeck, 59). This quote is related to my thesis statement because Kino is trying to stop Juana from throwing the pearl away in order to move

However, Kino was enraged with anger at Juana for trying to throw away his pearl. The pearl had changed him for the worse, it had become part of him he loved the pearl. Kino would do anything to make sure that nothing would happen to it, even if it meant beating up his wife in order to save his pearl.

Just like in real life, the characters in literature tend to be faced with very tough decisions in one way or the other. During these times, our decisions can turn us into heroes or make us look like big fools. The choices can thus affect our lives positively or negatively. ‘The Pearl’ is a 1947 novella by John Steinbeck where he tells the story of Kino, a pearl diver. Through the story, he tries to explore the nature of man of evil, greed, and defiance to the norms of society. He tells the story of how Kino found and lost the pearl. In this paper, the argument will be made from the point of Kino as a hero.

However, two vibrant changes occur as the story progresses —Coyotito, his son, getting stung by a scorpion and Kino’s discovery of the pearl—broaden Kino’s horizons and outlook on the world. As Kino begins to strive for wealth and education for his son, the simplicity of his life becomes increasingly complicated by greed, conflict, and violence. Kino’s character then falls through a gradual decline from a state of innocence to a state of corruption and disillusionment. The factors promoting this decline are ambition and greed. Thus, when going got tough for Kinoo and he had to escape town he faced a lot of hardships, since he had to go into hiding and the only immediate help he had was from his brother. This had an adverse effect on his personality as he became increasingly negative, given the way he hit his wife shows how the pearl preoccupied his mind to such a great extent that he grew indifferent to everything else as evil and restlessness eloped him. In addition to these social changes, Kinoo, after attaining the pearl was on the move to gain economic sustenance, but not being able to find the right price to sell his pearl got him feeling even more uncertain and disappointed but he continued to strive and was reluctant to give up because he wanted everything in his reach for his son, who he consequently ended up losing in the

In the novel The Pearl by John Steinbeck the protagonist throughout the book is Kino. Kino throughout the book changed a lot with things like his attitude, mindset, etc. Kino went from being a very happy, family man to a greedy, inconsiderate family man. Kino's overall mindset and attitude change came from the outside influences such as the pearl and the townspeople. Kino became a corrupted character in the book because of the many different situations he had to deal with. In the book the protagonist Kino changes in a negative way because he was corrupted by many outside influences.

The Pearl written by John Steinbeck is a parable, a story that teaches a moral lesson. The focus of this novel is on a poor Indian family. The family consists of three members: Kino, a husband, father, and fisherman, Juana, his wife and loving mother; and Coyotito their infant son. This indigent family lives in a small brush hut along the Gulf of Mexico by the town of La Paz. One day Coyotito, is bitten by a scorpion; a scorpion sting can be deadly to a baby. Kino and Juana are very worried over the health of their baby; therefore, they hope to find a pearl worthy enough for the doctor’s payment to the doctor to treat Coyotito. With luck on their side, Kino finds a pearl the size of a seagull’s egg; he calls it “The Pearl of the

He imagined a better life for his family. Despite everything that went wrong, despite people telling him to throw the pearl away, Kino continued to believe in the value and importance of the pearl. Early on Juana tried to convince Kino to get rid of the pearl, “‘This pearl is a sin! It will destroy us,’ and her voice rose shrilly ‘ throw it away.’”(John Steinbeck 38). Kino would have ordinarily taken into consideration his wife’s concerns and this was out of character. While under the spell of the pearl, It didn’t matter to him that Juana had his best interest in mind when she advised him to get rid of the pearl. Even after Kino was attacked, he was unwavering in his conviction in the value of the pearl, “but Kino’s face was set, and his will was set” Kino was given many chances to throw away the pearl, but yet he was stubborn and continued to believe in the pearl even though his world was falling apart and even though he could lose

In literature, a tragic hero is a character of noble birth with heroic qualities. This character is usually fated by some supernatural force to great suffering, destruction, and even doom. Often, the hero struggles mightily against this fate and in the process, wins the admiration of the reader. The character of Kino in John Steinbeck’s novella, The Pearl, while not of “noble birth,” is indeed a tragic hero. He suffers from the tragic flaw of greed after he finds a pearl of great value. Steinbeck, through the use of an omniscient narrator, reveals the human weakness of Kino’s actions in order to teach a moral lesson. At the same time, however, the narrator often shows a certain respect and admiration for the fact that Kino strives to realize his ambitions. He will stop at nothing to make sure he gets a fair price for

     Novels were created to show a very naive view in great depth. The Pearl is a novel in its most complete form. Steinbeck does this by conveying life symbolically. Through symbols, John offers the reader a clearer look at life and it?s content. He shows major imagery in four ways: Kino, music, Coyotito, and the 'Pearl of the World'.

For this book report, I have chosen to read the book, “The Pearl”. The book “The Pearl” has a very strong moral and plot. The book is classified under the genres “Fiction”, and “novella”. The book “The Pearl” has a total of 90 pages. John Steinbeck is the author of this book.