If you had the pearl, yet then you realized it wasn’t helping, but ruining, what would you do? Would you be able to give it up? Could you? Or would you be too attached to even think about letting it go? Kino wasn’t able to. He was falling in love with the pearl. The pearl changed him, made him greedy. An inanimate object changed his whole personality. It pushed out all of the greed that was in Kino’s heart. The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, shows that greed is a horrible act that destroys the life that people could have had.
In the beginning of The Pearl, Kino was just a poor man who desperately needed help for his son, Coyotito, after he was stung by a scorpion. When the doctor refused to help him, I knew that Kino would get mad, yet I didn’t expect him to punch the doctor’s door. Everyone, including me, gets angry sometimes, but most people won’t punch a door. Right then I predicted that if his family found a pearl, it will change him. Sadly, the change happened quite drastically. At the beginning of John Steinbeck’s novel, Kino was simply a poor man who had a lot of pride in him, which showed. Yet as the story goes on, he starts to become a monster. This man had no limits for what he would do to keep the pearl safe, even if it meant killing and injuring. If I had found the pearl, I would have made absolutely every effort I could to keep it safe, yet I wouldn’t even think of killing someone. This beautiful but inanimate piece of rock basically possessed him. It’s terrifying to know what an object can do to a person, even though it can’t think. The horrible idea is that the person can.
Even though the pearl changed Kino and gave him more greed, this object changed Juana in even more ways. Kino became greedy and willing to do anything to save his beloved pearl. Juana, his wife, at the beginning of the book, was kind, loving, cheerful, and went along with anything that Kino told her to do. While the story nears an end, she becomes more nervous and is more willing to stand up to her husband. When her family was heading up into the capitol, Kino wanted Juana to take their son and hide in a tiny cave that he discovered. Juana refused to leave him. At the beginning of the book, she would have gone, no questions asked. Kino finding the pearl changed her, in ways very different from her husband’s. Some ways helped her, and some ways hurt her and her family. Juana didn’t know which was which until the pearl was gone, and her life changed forever.
While Kino and Juana had greed in their hearts and let it control them, sometimes normal people have it even worse. Few people in life are so greedy where it literally controls them, yet people may have greed in their hearts that comes out when they desperately want something, or when the find an object that seems like it’s the turning point of their lives. This has never happened to me, yet I can connect with it. Whenever I desperately want something, I get a little greedy. Everyone does. Would I ever let it take over my life? No. Kino let the pearl take over his life. Even though I would never let it happen to me, connection is easy to make with Kino. If you find something that feels like the changing of your life for an amazing way, of course you’re going to take it. Greed is the main topic of The Pearl, which is not challenging to relate to.
John Steinbeck’s beautifully written piece of writing shows exactly what happens to people when greed takes over their lives. Greed wouldn’t take over my life. Would what happened to Kino ever happen to you? The Pearl, written by John Steinbeck, shows what becomes of people whose lives have been taken by greed.
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