The Pear Book Report
Alejandro Gonzalez
5th period
“Letter to the Author”
The Pearl, written by John Steinbeck, takes place in La Paz Mexico. The begins with a description of the family in the first few pages of the book. The family consists of, a couple, and one toddler. Juana, the wife of Kino, and mother of Coyotito.
After the description of the family, the book continues with a scary problem. Coyotito is sleeping and as he is sleeping, Kino notices a scorpion crawl down the rope that is connected to the hanging box Coyotito lies on. Kino attempts to catch the scorpion but Coyotito moves and makes the scorpion fall on him. Although, Kino eventually kills the scorpion, sadly Coyotito was still stung by the scorpion.
The couple and a couple of neighbors, rush Coyotito to the local doctor. The doctor refused to treat Coyotito because the family could not afford to treat Coyotito. Kino and Juana leave the doctors and take Coyotito down near the sea, where Juana uses a seaweed poultice on Coyotito's shoulder, which is now swollen. Kino then jumps from his canoe for oysters in an attempt to find pearls. Kino eventually finds a surprisingly large oyster. When he opens the oyster, he soon finds out there is a large pearl that is worth more than he can count.
Reading through the book, I noticed that they rarely used figurative language. Let's be honest, figurative language is way more entertaining then with a book or passage with no figurative language. The book is still well written with an entertaining plot in my opinion and maybe there is figurative language but I haven't noticed since the book is over 50 years old. Let's get back to the story.
Kino puts back his head and howls, causing the other pearl divers to look up and race toward Kino's canoe.
Soon, everyone in La Paz finds out that Kino has found such an amazing pearl. The doctor who refused to treat Coyotito decides to visit Kino. Kino's neighbors begin to feel bitter toward him for his good fortune, but neither Kino nor Juana realize this feeling they have engendered.
Kino’s brother, Juan Thomas, asks Kino what he will do with his fortune. Kino responded saying he will probably use it for a wedding in a church. He claims that he will send Coyotito to
Though coyotito was small and had no way of talking or communicating, the pearl brought the most evil to him. He was innocent and unaware, but due to his father’s desires, he was murdered. Kino wanted him to have a chance, he wanted him to go to school, and have an education. “My son will go to school,” he said, and the neighbors were hushed.
The difference between Kino at the beginning of The Pearl and the ending is the amount of happiness Kino has. In The pearl on page 89 John Steinbeck states " And in the surface of the pearl he saw Coyotito lying in the little cave with the top of his head shot away." At the beginning of the story all Kino had was happiness because he would finally be able to give his son the life he deserved with the fortune that he would obtain from selling the pearl.
This intruder made Juanna believe the pearl is evil, and they should get rid of it. Kino ignores this remark, and the next day goes to sell the pearl for money. All the salesmen in town give him low of offers that he rejects. During the night Juanna goes out to throw the pearl in the sea, but Kino chases her down. When Kino gets to her, he grabs the pearl and beats her to a crimple. Kino is walking back to the house when he is jumped by a group of men which he quickly scares off by killing one of them. Juana finds him lying next to the dead man when she quickly decides that they leave because Kino will be labeled as a murder. They are about to leave when they realize their canoe has been trashed, and their house has been set up in flames. With the towns people believing that the whole family has passed in the fire, they hide out in Kino’s brother’s house. After a few day of hiding here, they head for the capital to sell their pearl. The family travels in nightfall to keep from being seen, but to their, surprise they are being followed by three trackers. Kino tries to mislead the trackers, but they catch up and set up camp near by. When Kino goes to attack them, Coyotito starts to cry which wakes up the trackers. One of the trackers fires in direction of Coyotito. Then Kino quickly jumps into action and kills the trackers. When he gets back to his camp, he finds that the shot the tracker took hit and killed his son. Kino and Juana finish their travel the
After confronting the scorpion, Kino and Juana encounter the doctor- the ultimate embodiment of evil in The Pearl. When the doctor’s servant explains Coyotito’s scorpion bite to the doctor, he claims “I am a doctor, not a veterinary,” and leaves the family, miserably, at his
In hopes to save their sick child, parents Juana and Kino rushed into town to see the doctor. All the neighbors heard Coyotito scream in pain which lead them to rush out of their brush houses to see what was wrong. After learning that the baby was stung them all accompanied the family into town. Kino’s brother, Juan Tomas, gave his account of the
The pearl is no longer a symbol of hope, it has changed to a symbol of his loss. At the end of the story, Kino and Juana are depicted walking back into the town of La Paz. However, they go straight to the Gulf next to each other. There is no supremacy. They have both suffered the same loss and are equals.
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.
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.
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
Evil is shown by the doctor many times during the story. At first, he refuses to treat Coyotito because his parents have no money. When the doctor heard of Kino and Juana's fortune in finding "the pearl of the world", the doctor boasts that they were patients of his while thinking of a better life for himself in Paris. This greed and lust cause him to plot ways to gain wealth. Coyotito is healed by the time the doctor comes to Kino's straw
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
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
Kino a loving father and husband whom had dreams for his family, as shown in steinbeck’s The Pearl. But fate led him to a pearl of exqwizit magnificence. This pearl assured the dreams he wanted for his family, to marry ied to his wife Juana, and for his son Coyotito to get a proper education. But because of Kino’s obsessive attitude over the pearl it doomed his family to a different path, one with fear, death, and corruption. Juana his loving wife whom was spectacle of what Kino was doing and questioned him “Who do you fear?” (35) Kino answered with “Everyone”(36). You may argue that Kino’s actions are being based on greed therefore greed is responsible for the death of Coyotito and the destruction of the family, I invalidate that argument because greed is an emotion. Greed, is an emotion and emotions cannot control you, you have the ability control your emotions. DO NOT READ THE RED “In my target essay, I argued that emotions can be controlled, in the sense that we can shape or influence which emotions we have, when we have them, and how we experience and express these emotions.”
sell the pearl in order to pay for a doctor Coyotito needs, but the pearl buyers
After a while, Coyotito had mostly healed and Kino needed some more money so he and Juana and decided to go on his special canoe and go hunt for pearls. His boat was special because it was well taken care of and had lots of coating on the boat. When they went out to sea, Kino dived into the ocean and started to look for good oysters that hadn’t been opened yet. He had collected about a bucket when he spotted a massive oyster that wasn’t with the others. He was very anxious to get to the canoe and open the oyster to see if there was a pearl. When Kino was able to get back on the canoe, he showed Juana the massive oyster and her eyes popped at the size of it. They start to open the pearl and they see this massive pearl in the inside of it. Kino knew this was the pearl of the world that everyone was