What Does The Pearl Symbolize Greed

John Steinbeck's The Pearl is a complex novella written in 1947 about a poor Indian man named Kino. Kino is content with his current life, but when he unexpectedly finds the glorious "pearl of the world", he finds himself in many sticky situations. The pearl causes evil to suddenly appear in Kino's life, and he has to decide what to do in order to protect his family and give them a better life in the future. To some the pearl may symbolize greed. To others, it may symbolize human nature, or an illusion. Your outlook on the pearl might even change because of what religion you practice. The pearl is a lot of things, and complex is definitely one of them.
Greed, the narcissistic desire to have more and more. "Money is the root of all evil" was a phrase penned in the bible, and it certainly holds true in this story. During the events following the discovery of the pearl, Kino becomes more and more determined to sell the pearl for a hefty sum of money. You can easily tell when he starts to develop greed, and it starts to take him over. Multiple times Kino refuses to get rid of the pearl, and even attacks his own wife so that she would not get rid of it. He would even go as far as traveling for days on end just to get a good price on the pearl, so greed would be a good explanation for Kino's drastic behavior.
At the very
That word appears many other times throughout the book, but they never use it to describe the pearl. To some, that is exactly what it is. This is a fitting title for the pearl, seeing as it did trick him into thinking one thing, but in reality, it's a disaster waiting to happen. At first when Kino finds the pearl, he experiences nothing but joy, but soon realizes that the "dream" is not all it's cracked up to be. Juana realizes this sooner and tries to warn Kino, but her warnings go unheeded until his ignorance leads to the death of his