The Pearl Greed

oo much wealth satisfies individual’s heart desires but at times can bring worst out of him or her. The pearl is a novel written by John Steinbeck and examines a man’s own destruction through greed. In this novel, hope and evil consume Kino and the entire city of La Paz immediately information goes around that Kino found the pearl of the world. As asserted by Forman, greed, culture, anger, happiness, luck, death, mystery and evil are all major aspects in this book.

The story unfolds when Juan and Kino’s baby, Coyotito, is bitten by a scorpion. The doctor refuses to treat Coyotito as he knew that the Coyotito’s parents were poor and could not afford to pay for their son’s treatment. Kino discovers that he has to get something valuable to pay
Kino decides to vend the pearl for fifty thousand pesos; nonetheless, the highest bid was only fifteen hundred pesos. He makes his way to the city to get a higher offer. Unfortunately, the pearl only brings to him unhappiness. On his way to city, Kino is attacked by evil men who attempt to take away the pearl. Being unsuccessful, the evil men destroy Kino’s canoe and as well as the house.

Regrettably, Kino begins to understand that money cannot afford happiness, but it was too late. He decides to hide his kin. While hiding his family, Kino realizes that he is being followed by the evil men, and murder one of the evil men. Whilst attempting to kill the remaining evil men around their hiding place, Coyotito, Kino’s son was shot by the attackers and dead instantly. Kino and his wife goes home without their son and decides to throw the pearl back to the sea.

In summary, the novel attempts to elucidate that wealth and money cannot afford happiness. Kino gets the pearl and believes to have all reasons live a happy life, but he ends up living a miserable life. Therefore, people should always be contented with what have and appreciate the importance of everything in their