The Pearl Greed

“The Pearl” by John Steinbeck, truly has a great example to the life lesson on greed. A family destroyed and a culture distressed is what one can see in the short story, “The Pearl.” Greed plays an important role in the lesson of “The Pearl,” in which John Steinbeck uses imagery and foreshadowing to highlight this theme and he utilizes personification and similes/metaphors to explain the theme easily.

In John Steinbeck’s novella, The Pearl, he conveys that wealth can corrupt and change by displaying how the pearl changes the lives Kino, Juana, and Coyotito, leads to their downfall and how it also affects the town of La Paz.

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.

John Steinbeck’s The Pearl follows the story of a Mexican-Indian family who lived in a small village on the coast of the Baja peninsula during the colonial era in Mexico. Kino works tirelessly as a pearl diver to provide for his wife, Juana, and Coyotito, his son. Although he was poor, he and his wife were initially satisfied with their lives. However, Coyotito’s scorpion sting and the discovery of the Pearl of the World opened Kino’s eyes to a much larger world. His simple, peaceful life was marred by the violence and conflict that the pearl brought. The pearl, which incited greed in all who come in contact with it, changed from a symbol of hope to that of chaos and misfortune.

Greed is perhaps one of the most destructive forces in this world, it breeds anger, hate, jealousy, and more. The novella “The Pearl” is based on how the finding of a pearl causes greed to be awakened in the hearts of people and cause them to commit evil. During the Novella, Steinbeck develops the theme that greed left unchecked can cause immoral behavior and that is show in the doctor, the attackers, and Kino. All of them are forced by greed to commit sins that they otherwise would not do.

In a small town called La Paz, a pearl diver named Kino life turns upside down after the promise of imminent wealth is brought to him. The story of The Pearl, written by John Steinbeck, is a story that swerves left and right, and revolves around greed. With many examples of foreshadowing, imagery, and characterization, John Steinbeck shows many ways that greed can be influential. Greed is like violence, it’s evil and overtakes anything else. John Steinbeck shows this in many ways whether it be how greed can change someone, in literary techniques, and how greed has changed Kino and his family.

     John Steinbeck’s The Pearl is a Novella, which is longer than a short story and shorter than a novel. The story is about a poor mexican family and the father Kino, whose occupation is diving for pearls off the Baja peninsula. After retrieving the pearl the family becomes wealthy and content and soon after the father turns into a criminal. This shows how greed and aspiration can demolish innocence. Steinbeck's motive for creating the book was to show the reader that the cause of all this stress and chaos is because of poverty. As illustrated in The Pearl, people call for desperate measures when poverty

Throughout the book there are many themes and the one I chose to use was greed. Greed was present in many instances like; the doctor didn't want to help Coyotito because Kino and Juana couldn’t pay him what he wanted. He finally decided to help after he heard that they had found a perfect pearl and he wanted it for himself. The priest wanted it to help repair and make changes for the church. “It came to the priest walking in his garden, and it put a thoughtful look in his eyes and a memory of certain repairs necessary to the church”(Steinbeck 34). The pearl buyers also demonstrated greed because they tried telling Kino that it was worth nothing and that it was too big. Kino was a happy and hardworking father until he had found the pearl. The pearl changed him and it turned mean and greedy. When Juana tried throwing it back Kino fought her for the pearl back left her on the beach. Also, the many attackers who tried taking the pearl away from them, which made it to where they were trying to kill Kino, Juana, and Coyotito so they can get the pearl. The biggest symbol that represents greed was the pearl.(Symbolism in the Pearl)

"And, as with all retold tales that are in people's hearts, there are only good and bad things and black and white things and good and evil things and no in-between. If this story is a parable, perhaps everyone takes his own meaning from it and reads his own life into it.” The Pearl is a novel written by John Steinbeck. Steinbeck is known as one of America’s greatest authors. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature because of his realistic and imaginative writing. Steinbeck had traveled to Mexico, where he took a marine biology course, there he met a group of Indians, who told him the story of the “pearl of great price.” In the Pearl, Steinbeck develops the theme of how evil can bring man’s owns destruction; and can bring out the

In the world, greed is extremely powerful and can take over someone in the blink of an eye. It is not something that people can quickly recover from, and this is beautifully portrayed in the novel The Pearl, by John Steinbeck. In The Pearl, greed overtakes a man named Kino who has a wonderful family. He ends up finding a pearl and wanting more than he can get. This destroys his family and shows him that he should be grateful for what he has.

However, the most noticeable of these recurring themes is greed. Greed is portrayed by the author as a destructive thing using the writing techniques of characterization, foreshadowing, and symbolism in The Pearl. One way that John Steinbeck portrays greed is

The works of John Steinbeck have been used universally on scholarly account because of his ability to establish themes in his writing that are relevant to life. The Pearl, is one work that contains issues as ideas that are still significant to this day. One theme, such as greed, is displayed throughout the course of the novel. As each character develops, their intentions with the pearl become evident to the reader. This theme is seen through many of the characters who are eager to obtain the pearl. In The Pearl, the theme of greed is shown through the doctor’s intentions, Kino’s attitude, and Juana’s discontent of the pearl.

In The Pearl, the main life lesson Steinbeck writes about is to not be greedy. Kino, the main character, finds an unrealistically large pearl that forever changes his life. Kino and his family were happy before they found the pearl. Juana, Kino’s wife, sensed that the pearl was a bad sign. Juana said, “Kino, this pearl is evil.

John Steinbeck’s, The Pearl, describes a man and his family’s journey through financial setbacks, racism and the discovery of a pearl that changed their lives. The pearl, is the cause directly and indirectly of every troublesome event that occurs throughout the novel. There are three key events that clearly illustrate that the pearl is the cause of all misfortune. At first, Kino proclaims his visions derived from the pearl’s illusory value and his words backfire and result in great loss in the end. This is followed by Kino refusing the pearl buyers’ offer, sparking a chain reaction of unfortunate events. In addition to this, the hunters seeking for the pearl, whilst acting out of greed, end up destroying Kino’s family.

     Lastly, the Pearl of the World is hard to grasp for because it is significantly realistic to be true, yet it is as far idealistic as possible. Everyone wanted the same thing, but they knew they all would not be able to have it. The material pearl reveals the irony of good fortune in that what should have been the profession of a lifetime, turns out to be a disaster, producing a great