Pearl By John Steinbeck Literary Analysis

In the short novel The Pearl by John Steinbeck, some people are willing to do some very bad things all because of greed. People are willing to burn down homes and even kill, all because of a poor man's pearl. In the beginning of our story our main characters (Kino, Juana, and their son Coyotito) are Native Mexicans who are very poor and living in a hut village on the Gulf of California, near La Paz (otherwise know as the town of stone and plaster). They wake up one morning to find a scorpion on the verge of attacking their son. Kino attempts to knock the scorpion away but it falls and stings his son, making him very ill. The doctor in La Paz will not treat them because he is a racist and will only do something for money (which they have none of). These next examples will show how materialism and greed can lead to things such as violence and immoral behavior. Once he is rejected by the doctor, Kino goes pearl diving to attempt and get some money for the treatment of his son. Inevitably he comes up with a
They run away and have to cover their tracks in fear of being tracked. And then, they notice that they are being followed by a group of trackers, who most likely will kill them and take the pearl for themselves. The trackers then follow them into the into the mountains where they are hiding out for the night, and they think they hear some coyote baby crying or whining in a cave (it is actually Coyotito). One of the trackers brings up a rifle and shoots into the cave to make the “coyote” stop. Right as the gun fires Kino jumps down and kills one tracker, then quickly eliminating the rest with the use of the rife. This shows how people have become so greedy that a total of 5 people have been killed just because some people wanted