Master Puppeteer

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

“He snatched his knife out of the sheath and slammed it into a tree trunk. Next time there would be no mercy.” Pg 31

Kino is the last person you would expect to abuse power. He is a kind loving man, who wouldn’t touch a fly. But all of that changes once power is involved. Juana was his everything in the beginning of the book. His partner in crime. And then he finds the pearl. Evil and greed begins to grow on him like mold on a moist piece of bread. The mold starts of small. Kino questions the doctor's authority. The mold begins the reproduce. He harms somebody with a knife in the middle of the night. And before you know it the mold has taken over the entire piece of bread until nothing of the bread is left. Kino beats up Juana on the beach when she tries to get rid of the pearl by throwing it back into the water, and then he kills a man with his knife. How did we go from not harming a fly to actually killing another human being? Power. Power turned this loving man into a monster that nobody would be able to recognize. He abused his power as a man by beating up Juana. His Juana. His everything. He risked his entire family’s lives by keeping this pearl but he didn’t see it that way. He saw it as the chance of starting over, when in reality it just made his life even more miserable than before. What comes from power? Greed? Evil? Hatefulness? All of the

But her joy didn’t last for very long. A few days after the pearl was found, Juana cried, “It will destroy us all,” “even our son.” There was also another incident, where Kino was badly wounded, “There was a long deep cut in his cheek from ear to chin, a deep, bleeding slash.” After this occurred, Juana said, “Kino, this pearl is evil. Let us destroy it before it destroys us. Let us crush it between two stones. Let us-let us throw it back into the sea where it belongs. Kino, it is evil, it is evil.

The short story “Saboteur” which was written by Ha Jin is a very interesting and unique story. After performing a close analysis, one will find, through the description of the characters and the tone, that Ha Jin tells the story of anger and revenge. This type of behavior took place within the most unlikely characters.

Kino was attacked by mean trying to steal the pearl. He killed one of them in self-defense but Juana tells him that does not matter. He will still face consequences from the townspeople once the body is found in the morning.

“Who is there!” Mako shouted. There was another rustle in the bushes-nothing else. Mako crept up to the bushes but saw nothing over there. He said to himself, I'm hearing things. He continued on to search for the banana trees. Maybe it is better I do not encounter anything, he thought to himself as he glance at his banana knife. Then Afa started barking-Mako glanced where Afa was looking and saw a girl jumped down from a tree as she held her spear to Mako’s neck. She looked like a tribal girl - All Mako had to defend himself was his banana knife. Mako leaped backward, as the tribal girl tried to strike him. Mako caught the middle of the spear with the hilt of his knife and thrust it upward, making a cut in her cheek. She charged at him and Mako thought she was going to charge right at him so he bent his knees to keep balance from blocking it, but Mako was wrong. Shania anticipated the stance so she faked a hit, jumped of his thigh, turned, slashed, and rolled. There was a medium sized cut in Mako’s back. Mako lured her toward the ocean near his boat. He put his hand in his boat grabbing for something---his spear.

It was the sound of footsteps. Fear surges into Kino and attacks on the unknown personality with a knife like an angry cat. But he misses his target and crashes into lightning and goes bleeding from the forehead. To illustrate that "he felt cloth, struck at it with his knife and missed, and struck again and felt his knife go through cloth, and then his head crashed with lightning and exploded with pain. "(Steinbeck

It also creates a sort of wary, cautious feeling for the audience as Kino senses an underlying danger. This long description of Kino waiting is juxtaposed with a very short and quick scuffle. Kino is cut with a knife, described by lines such as "the little rush, the grunting struggle, the blow." and "but it was over by then. " This

In The Pearl the protagonist finds the pearl of the world and is faced with many dangers and adventures after. Throughout the story Kino kept fighting the challenges he faced. He avoided death, escaped burning his burning house and fought and killed trackers to evade capture all in the hopes for a better life for his family. In the first quote it is during the night, Kino feels an evil presence outside their hut. He rushes outside knife in hand only to be jumped by an unknown assailant.

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

Another example of greed is shown when Juana takes the pearl from Kino to throw back into the sea. Kino realizes what she is doing and goes after her. Just as Juana is about to discard the pearl, Kino grabs her arm and wrenches the pearl from her. He punches her in the face and when she falls on the boulders, he kicks her in the side. The following quote establishes the violence that Kino unleases on his wife in order to protect his precious pearl from harm, due to his greediness of what the pearl will bring to him and his family: “…Rage surged in Kino. He leaped at Juana and wrenched the pearl from her…with clenched fists, struck her in the face…kicked her in the side…Greedy fingers went through his clothes” (58-59).

In The Pearl, Kino caused the tragedies his family experienced because he only cared about the pearl and therefore put every other concern second. For example, as Kino regained his consciousness after an attack during an attempted robbery, his first

After fighting battles with himself, Kino began to lose his ability to control himself because he was set on his plan for his family that he once saw in the pearl. “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). Multiple instances have occured since Kino first got the pearl, including two attacks to steal it during the night, as well as thousands of eyes that have stared through him and looked into his soul full of secrets, making him feel scared throughout the day and night, worried that those eyes would turn into attacks on his pearl, which holds the future for his family. After Juana, Kino’s wife had enough jealous stares and greedy attacks, she took the pearl and boldly planned to throw it into the water, for it to drown with the wealth and the struggles attached to it. But, as Kino was constantly aware of everything occurring with the pearl, he didn't care whether it was his wife or a stranger, because he knew he had to attack and prevent the loss of the pearl, especially since he has such a close connection to it. “The pearl has become my soul. If I give it up, I shall lose my soul.” (Steinbeck 67). Kino cannot live without the pearl and as everyday goes by, his connection with the pearl grows stronger, and his

In the novella, The Pearl, Kino is faced with many decisions that later impact his life in ways that he could never image. The Pearl tells the tale of a great pearl that could change the life of any man. Kino happened to be this man, but this great pearl caused nothing but havoc and harm to come upon his family. When they were running from all of the trouble the pearl had caused them, Kino’s son died, their hut burned down in the attempt to get away, and Kino had become a man of anger and violence.