The pearl-by bree martin

While reading Steinbeck's novel "The Pearl" we see how greed can become a destructive force, how greed can destroy innocence, the triumph of good over evil, the triumph of evil over good, the failure of the american dream, and the oppression of native cultures. We see this through the main charecter "Kino", who was a mexican man, and a poor diver. He had a wife named "Juana" and an infant son named "Coyotito". The tension in the book is when Coyotito gets stung by a scorpion. When Kino and Juana see a doctor they get turned down. For they had no money. All they had were 8 misshapen seed pearls, flattened and almost valueless. They went to look for a pearl which they could pay the doctor, and so they did, it was "Perfect as the moon". For Coyotite, was their only child and they weren't planning on loosing him. When they got home, the news that Kino found the "Pearl of the world" had spread all over town. When the doctor heard of this, he went to Kino's, and offered to keep it in his safe. Kino declined his offer, and kept it with him. For he trusted no one with it, he feared everyone. As we read on we see how the pearl affects the ppl around Kino. For 3 times kino was attacked at night by strangers who attempted to steal the pearl. And in all 3 attempts the strangers were harmed, and one was killed. For as Kino said to Juana "This is our one chance, our son must go to school. He must break out of the pot that holds us." Juana disagreed, she said the pearl was a sin, and was evil, she told 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 in the sea where it belongs. Kino it is evil, it is evil!.". Kino then told her, "No, I will fight this thing. I will win over it. We will have our chance. No one shall take our good fortune away from us, believe me, I am a man". Because of Kino's actions that led to the killing of a man, he told Juana that they had to flee from this all, he tells her they would go north. They would go in their canoe with Coyotite and flee. That morning Kino went to get the canoe ready, but to his dismay someone plunged a hole in it. For this raged him "For the killing of a man was not so evil as the killing of a boat. For a boat does not have sons, and a boat cannot protect itself, and a wounded boat does not heal". On his way back to his house he heard the neighboors screaming, and saw his house burning down. Juana carrying Coyotite; ran to Kino, and together they fled. As they set off on foot, they later bumped into "The Trackers", and Kino ended up killing them. Although Coyotite ended up being killed in the process. At the ending of the book Kino and Juana return home, and end up throwing the pearl back into the Gulf. "And the music of the pearl drifted to a whisper and disapeared".
525 words



Reflection:

Reaction#1:

Evil over good:
The "evil" in Steinbeck's novel "The Pearl" is obviously, greed. For greed may change you as a person. For greed changed Kino as a person. It changed him from a content, happy, loving father, into a savage criminal, that demonstrates the way greed may/can change/destroy a persons innocence. Ever since Kino found the pearl his dreams, and songs changed. By this I mean before he had the pearl his songs were happy songs, such as "The song of the family", but when Kino finds the pearl, it changes his song to "The song of evil". Kino's greed leads him to being very, extra protective over the pearl. It leads him to killing a man that was after it, behaving violently towards "Juana" his wife, and don't forget, the cause of the death of "Coyotite", his infant son. This and other actions done by Kino, detached him from his cultural traditions in his society. He basically turned into an animal, for he had only one thing in mind; the protection of the pearl, and partly thr protection of his family. Therefore the pearl was the cause of all of the greed in the book. I believe the pearl turned into a symbol of human destrustion. For when Coyotito died Kino's voluntary abandoning of the pearl suggest that the destructive forces of the world were too powerful to overcome, even for them. What represents the "Good" in Steinbeck's novel, is the songs of true love, heart, encouragment, and kindness that Juana bestowed over Kino, Coyotite, their home, and herself. All throughout the book we read about how Juana sang and prayed for protection and miracles to happen. She prayed for Coyotite to get better, for Kino to find a pearl which they would use to pay the doctor or Coyotite's sting, and much more. Juana represents a true, good mother, and a true good wife. It seems that she would obey and follow her husband where ever he would go, even though she disobeyed him, when she tried to throw out the pearl. For she only tried to do so because she cared about her family, and didn't want the pearl to ruin her families lives. She thought the pearl was a sin, and that they needed to destroy it before it destroyed them. For me I think she was a loyal, faithful mother and wife.

Reaction#2:

To me this book was a sad book. For in the end Coyotite dies. This saddens me because the main reason Kino and Juana wanted a pearl was to hire a doctor who could help Coyotie. Kino said it was his dream for his son to be educated and go to school,a dn the pearl would help do that. But in the end when Coyotite dies, that dream was crushed. All of this nonsense happened because of the actions and mistakes of the main charecter "Kino". For if he listened to his wife, and threw the pearl back into the ocean earlier then he did, then Coyotite would've still been alive.
580 words