The Pearl Symbolism Essay

There is no doubt that Kino’s majestic pearl symbolizes and portrays different ideas and feelings throughout John Steinbeck’s The Pearl. Kino dives for the pearl and sees it as a symbol of hope and a bright future. However, with the ironic ending of the novel, it is easy to conclude that Kino and Juana feel differently about the pearl at the end of the story than they did at the beginning. So, how exactly does the pearl’s symbolism change? Not long after little Coyotito is stung by a deadly scorpion, Kino dives into the sea and finds what he refers to as the Pearl of the World. Kino looks into the iridescent surface of the pearl and is filled with a sensation of hope for himself, his son, and his wife. He sees in the pearl scenarios
Kino carries a rifle and his infamous pearl. Juana carries a limp and bloody bundle in her shawl. Kino sets the rifle down and looks into the pearl one last time. He once saw the forthcoming wonders that he had dreamed of. Now, however, he sees the revolting events that have happened. He sees his wife, defeated, crawling on her knees. He sees his son with his head blown away by the impact of the tracker’s bullet. “And the pearl was ugly; it was gray, like a malignant growth. And Kino heard the music of the pearl, distorted and insane” (89). Kino sees all the evil the pearl brought him. He sees all the wicked and all the havoc it has wreaked. Kino finally looks at the pearl, a symbol of destruction and pain, and he flings it into the sea. In conclusion, the pearl’s symbolism changes, in simple and unsophisticated speak, from good to bad throughout The Pearl. Once representing hope and wishful thinking, the pearl now symbolizes death, despair, and destruction. It symbolizes greed and envy; the pearl represents malevolence. Ultimately, the changing symbolism of the pearl is Steinbeck’s way of writing a simple story with a lucid and uncomplicated plot that has a deeper and more intricate underlying