The Pearl- By Ben Steuri

Summery:

The Pearl by John Steinbeck is about an Indian family living in the poor town of La Paz. The main characters were a couple named Kino, Juana and their son named Coyotito. They lived in a small tent outside the city walls and right on the beach of a gulf. One morning, Coyotito was stung by a scorpion and is in need of medical assistance. The family left their house and confronted the doctor. The doctor was as rich, fat man who didn’t feel that it was important enough to tend to a poor man from a different tribe. Kino would not have had enough money to pay for the baby’s health; Kino actually didn’t have any money at all. He knew that if nothing would be done about his son’s sting, there would be a good chance that Coyotito would die. So he decided to take his boat out and go pearl diving to raise enough money for the treatment. While diving, Kino spots a good size oyster with its shells partly opened and inside he sees a descent size pearl. He takes it to the surface and sure enough the “Pearl of the World” is buried in the oysters flesh. The news of Kino found a giant pearl spread through the town and into the gates of the city very fast. As soon as the doctor was informed he rushed to Kino and preformed the treatment. Kino didn’t have the money up front so told the doctor that he would sell the pearl the following day and then pay him back.
That night, someone snuck into Kino’s tent and tried to steal the pearl, but their mission was unsuccessful. The following morning, Kino walked to the city along with Juan Tomas, his brother, Juana and many other supporters of the pearl. There were four pearl buyers and each one thought the pearl was worth less because of its incredible size and how dull its color was. Since no one would buy it in this city, he decided to go on the following morning to the capital city and see if it would be worth any thing there. And the baby’s treatment still hadn’t been paid for. That night while Kino was sleeping, Juana, who did not encourage the idea of going to the capital, tried to sneaks the pearl out and through it in the ocean but Kino is awaken and goes after her. He rips the pearl out of her hands and beats her in the face. He then walks back to his tent but is jumped by a thief and again is attacked for the pearl. Kino ends up accidentally killing the man who attacked him and is forced to flea the area. They are unable to use their boat because the robber had also smashed a whole in the floor of it. That morning, Kino, Juana, and baby Coyotito are on their way traveling on foot to the capital city. A search party of three men (one armed with a rifle) is sent out to find them and sure enough they find the family’s tracks. Kino leads his family in to a cave in the mountains to hide from the trio as he attempts to kill them. During the evening, Kino charges the man with the gun and stabs him with his knife. He then takes the gun, kills the other two men and sees another reflection of eyes in the dark and by reaction fires the gun. Only then he realized that he had fired upon the cave and had in fact shot at Coyotito’s reflection. Finally the ultimate curse of the pearl had come to Kino. The couple then walked back to La Paz, was welcomed back and both decided that it would be better if they no longer owned the pearl. Kino threw the cursed pearl into the gulf where it sunk to the bottom and was never seen again.

Reaction:

In my reaction of the pearl, I will discus the issue of “Greed as a destructive force”. When Kino had found the “Pearl of the World”, he looked into the pearl and saw himself holding a Winchester Carbine and said, “A rifle, perhaps a rifle.” He had also seen Coyotito going to school and being well educated he the said, “My son will go to school… This is what the pearl will do”. He had gotten so caught up in his visions that he was obsessed with the pearl. But others also saw what this pearl could do for them selves. Kino had taken harsh beating from thieves attempting to steal the pearl. When Kino wanted to cash the pearl in to buy other thing and repay the doctor, the strong will lead him to a dangerous game of hide-and-seek and eventually lead to the death of his son, Coyotito. All this greed for the value of the pearl did indeed “destroy” them. The boat had been ruined, their house had been burnt down, the unsafe nights fearing the robbers, and most heart breaking to Kino was the loss of Coyotito. Greed truly did bring a destructive force upon Kino, Juana, and even to Juan Tomas and his wife, Apolonia. If Kino would not have been so greedy in terms of getting “fifty thousand pesos” for his pearl, he would have gratefully taken the one thousand peso offer from the first dealer. That would have saved him pretty much all of the evil curses that the pearl had brought onto him. I don’t blame Kino for his greed because I think a lot of people in America would want to get as much out of any thing they sell as they could. To tell you the truth, I think I would even try and find a higher bidder for my pearl. Everyone makes mistakes just the end results of all of them come out differently. Kino was truly doing it for a good cause; all he wanted was Coyotito to do well in life and be able to support his family and friends for life. I wouldn’t necessarily call it greed; I would call it being desperate for some money and while he is at it, get some good money. In conclusion, I think this was a good book, the author went into great detail explaining the environment and the setting in which thing were happening. I can recall about two pages towards the end were strictly used to explain the mountains and the cave that the family hid in. It was very helpful to set good imagery for the reader.