The Pearl by John Steinbeck

In The Pearl by John Steinbeck, Kino (the main character) finds a giant pearl and instantly becomes everyone's enemy. Imagine having people breaking into your house almost every night, being in constant fear that your family will be harmed. Imagine being at risk of attack every time you step outside your house. Do you think having a giant pearl would be worth undergoing all those things? The book, The Pearl by John Steinbeck, obviously is a tragedy.

John Steinbeck's book The Pearl, fits the plotline quite well. When Coyotito gets stung by the scorpion and the doctor won't help, that is when the world is in conflict for the main character (Kino). The world is in conflict for Kino because to him, Coyotito and Juana are the most important things in the world, and if anything were to happen to them he would live an empty life. The rise to power is when Kino finds the pearl. The reason why that is the rise to power is because now Kino can afford to hire the doctor. The tragic flaw or human weakness is Kino lets the pearl get into his head. Kino now realizes that the pearl is worth more than enough to pay the doctor and starts to fantasize about sending Coyotito to school, getting married to Juana in the church and so on. The tragic fall is that Kino is constantly being attacked and having people trying to steal the pearl. The reason for the tragic fall being so, is all a result of Kino not selling the pearl. Because Kino decided to keep the pearl, he was attacked, and out of self defense, he killed the attacker, forcing him to leave the village. The death or death symbolism is that Coyotito died. There was also a lot of symbolism that matched as well.

The symbolism from The Pearl matches the tragedy mode of literature. With most of the scenes taking place at night, that plays a large part in the symbolism. The mentioning of shadows as well as the darkness of a moonless night also played a rather large part. A bit of not as important symbolism is that they mentioned a dog barking. That was all the symbolism that I pulled out of The Pearl.

The Pearl has a match for each of the characteristics. I found that the book was realistic. I thought The Pearl was realistic because this seemed like it really could have happened. The second and final characteristic is that the main character (Kino) is in control. Kino was in control because he could have sold the pearl for one thousand pesos, or let Juana throw it into the ocean, but Kino didn't because he was in control and wanted to keep the pearl. There were only two characteristics, and I think that they match the book perfectly.

The Pearl by John Steinbeck obviously is a tragedy. The pearl Kino found was as big as his palm and worth over ten thousand pesos, that is why everyone wanted it. Kino threw the pearl back into the ocean because it ruined his family. If you had a pearl that big, what would you do with it?