Nobody in life or in stories is perfect. Each character has their own flaws and there are lessons to be learned from watching them. In John Steinbeck’s The Pearl, Kino, a young pearl diver from La Paz, Mexico, finds a huge pearl finds a huge pearl one day while diving. After finding the pearl demonstrates some major character flaws that lead to problems afterwards. Flaws such as being greedy, having his judgment impaired and being ruthless and violent. Kino learns his lessons, but only after through extreme circumstances. The reader is supposed to learn that money can corrupt you, and then lead to many problems.
Kino, after finding the pearl has become greedy. He only thinks about the pearl and how great his and his family’s life would be when he sold it for a lot of money. When he goes to sell the pearl, even though the pearl buyers were giving him a lower price that what it was worth but still enough to do something for his family, which was 1000 pesos, he declined it saying that he wants and can get more. Just a couple of hours before he had went to sell the pearl, he and his family had next to nothing, so 1000 pesos would have been a step up from what they had, but his greed convinces him that it is a better idea to decline the money and try to get more. Juana tells him to throw it away multiple times after they have been attacked since it is what the attackers want. When he kills a man that attacks him they have to leave their home and are now on the run. This all happens because Kino’s greed gets the better of him and corrupts his mind and values.
Being violent and ruthless is another pair of character flaws that Kino shows. Obsessed with the pearl, Kino punches his own wife Juana as she is trying to get rid of it. She falls to the ground and he now kicks her in the side while hissing, teeth barred and glaring at her with murderous intent as if she were an enemy. After, Kino returns to their home, but only to be attacked by a