The Pearl By John Steinbeck Essay

The Pearl Why did it take the death of his son for him to realize what he had become? In novella “The Pearl” John Steinbeck shows us through Kino just how difficult it is to challenge the accepted customs of his society. Kino is living in a village his family has always lived in. His village was colonized and ruled by the Spanish. Kino needs money to pay the local doctor for his baby’s illness. He finds something that changes his life forever. Unfortunately, no one in power in Kino’s town is happy for his historic find. They don’t want Kino to become a wealthy man. Through Kino’s struggles to keep his pearl, John Steinbeck in “The Pearl” shows us how difficult it is to challenge the accepted customs of his society.

As you could imagine, everyone from his culture was happy for him, but it began to settle and everyone got to wondering… “What can I get out of this?” On page 63 when the town is turning on Kino something awful happens. While they were in search for the pearl they burned the house down. They thought it was hidden in his home. And everything was destroyed that was inside. Even his canoe which was very important to Kino. On page 30 the doctor lies to Kino about the scorpion bite.
The local pearl buyers came together and said no one give him a price above a thousand. This helps them all because this is forcing him to sell it super cheap even though it is worth a ton of money. Kino is furious because they tried to take advantage of him. He thought that he could go to another town and get a much better price. He set off to the next town and guess what the government did? They hired men “trackers” to hunt them down and take the pearl, fearing they will lose any chance at getting the pearl. They were a good ways ahead of trackers but they could only out run them for so long. What will they do? We all know how bad the government wants that