ipl-logo

How Does Steinbeck Characterize Kino's Greed

716 Words3 Pages

You hit the jackpot. Enough to provide for you and your family beyond your wildest dreams. Imagine the riches it would bring, but also the darkness of human nature. Kino lives contently in a small village with his wife Juana and son Coyotito. It’s a simple but happy life. That is until he finds “the pearl of the world.” Although it seems that all of their problems will be gone, in reality it gives way to evil and desire. John Steinbeck creates a remarkable novella following the story of Kino and his family as they are impacted by greed. In the story of The Pearl, characteristics of Aristotle’s System of Tragedy are evident through Kino’s demonstration of hamartia, catastrophe, and catharsis.

Firstly, Aristotle’s System of Tragedy …show more content…

Everyone in the village could relate to Kino and his family and they were deeply impacted. To illustrate this point, Steinbeck states, “Everyone in La Paz remembers the return of the family… It is an event that happened to everyone.” Kino’s actions affected all of the people of La Paz. They learned the lesson to not follow the path that he took. Also, in the story it says, “And there was a panic in Kino now, a panic of flight. The trackers would find his trail, he knew it. There was no escape, except in flight.” This quote shows how Kino believes that the only way out of the hole that he dug his family into is to run away. Society is taught that if they are greedy, they will end up in Kino’s situation with no way out. Whether it is the people in the book or the reader, catharsis is evident because humanity learns from Kino’s poor decisions. Hamartia; the mortal flaw, is shown through greed, and when Kino suffers the effects of this, it is called the catastrophe. At the end of the story, society learns from his mistakes, therefore making catharsis also evident. Kino is a tragic hero because he exemplifies hamartia, catastrophe, and catharsis; elements of Aristotle’s System of Tragedy. These characteristics appear in many other pieces of literature and help us understand what is happening in the story and what the author is trying to

Show More
Related

  • Tiger Woods: The Tragic Hero Of Professional Sports

    1487 Words  | 6 Pages

    Throughout history, there have been numerous heroes who have been celebrated and decorated because of their accomplishments. On the other hand, there are also numerous heroes who would have been decorated, but experience a downfall that tarnishes their status. This concept, the tragic hero, is a theory first pondered by Aristotle. In order to fully understand the tragic hero, it is important to first define it. According to Aristotle, the tragic hero is a character of noble stature, aligned with greatness but also flawed, experiences a downfall as a result of free choice, and does not wholly deserve their misfortune.

    Read More

  • Summary Of A Prayer For Owen Meany

    1235 Words  | 5 Pages

    Catharsis as described by Ley and Reinhold is the cleansing “of the tragic emotions of pity and fear”, specifically in a piece of tragedy. At the start of the book, the reader pities Owen Meany for his small size and peculiar voice. He is often picked up and passed around by Sunday school children, and is portrayed as psychically weak in the beginning. Throughout the book, the pity and fear for Owen Meany and his deadly fate continue to build, until the final scene where catharsis of these emotions is reached. As Owen ages, the pity the audience feels for him soon turns into fear of his imminent death as seen in his reoccurring prophecy like dream that tells the audience how he will die.

    Read More

  • How Jeff Smith Landed In Jail Essay

    1979 Words  | 8 Pages

    The senator demonstrates an example of the pity that the discovery of Smith’s fate aroused in people, an emotion attributed to tragic heroes. Next, a tragic hero must have a recognition of their actions and change from ignorance to knowledgeable. When Aristotle is describing elements of a plot, he says that “Recognition, as the name indicates, is a change from ignorance to knowledge . . . The best form of recognition is coincidental with a Reversal of the Situation (Aristotle 20). A complex plot is where the reversal happens simultaneously with the recognition.

    Read More

  • Tragedy In A Separate Peace

    2070 Words  | 9 Pages

    The Essence of Tragedy: Loss and Lesson Every tragedy has a lesson equal in significance to its sorrow. When our lives are faced with perilous situations beyond our control, it is up to us to take from them what we need to. By distancing ourselves from the initial feelings of misery, we are able to take away lessons that we would not recognize otherwise. The use of tragic elements in A Separate Peace impacts the audience in a way other novels cannot, by using tragedy to invoke deeper meaning and sympathy within the reader, which in turn instills teachings that cannot be forgotten.

    Read More

  • Antigone Creon Tragic Figure

    476 Words  | 2 Pages

    “When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways- either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength…” -Dalai Lama. In two of Sophocles’ famous plays, Antigone and Oedipus, the King, the character Creon is the victim of an unparalleled tragic fate that exemplifies Aristotle’s “tragic figure.” His definition being a character whose “tragedy should evoke pity…[they] must be essentially admirable… [their] demise must come as a result of some personal error…” (Simpson 1).

    Read More

  • Creon's Tragic Hero In Sophocles Antigone

    660 Words  | 3 Pages

    Almost always, in Greek tragedies a “tragic hero” has a hamartia, or tragic flaw, which will cause their concluding demise. In the Greek playwright, Antigone written by Sophocles, the interesting character, Creon, is a prime example of this. According the Aristotle’s theory, to be a tragic hero you have to have three traits: a flaw, a fall, and acceptance of your current situation. Creon’s flaw is his ego, which blinds him and lures him to do rather profane activities. Due to Creon’s ego, him losing everything caused by that very hamartia, and acceptance of the series of unfortunate events that occurred; Creon is the tragic hero in Antigone

    Read More

  • Walter White Character Criticism

    761 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the Ancient Greek tradition, a tragedy includes Hamartia which is, Peripeteia, Nemesis and Hubris. Hamartia is the hero’s tragic flaws. Peripeteia is when the hero has a reversal of their fate, nemesis is the consequences of the hero’s actions and hubris is an overwhelming pride. An example of a tragic hero would be Walter White from Breaking Bad. Walter White goes from loving family man to a drug kingpin in a short couple of years, showing his ultimate undoing and demise.

    Read More

  • What Is The Circulatory Structure Of Waxen Wings By Ha Songan

    967 Words  | 4 Pages

    Catharsis is the process of releasing strong or repressed emotions over a time, primarily throught art, which literature would be included under. A reader achieves catharsis through a fictional tragedy because Catharsis is also considered one of the most important aspects of a tragedy by the ancient greeks, specifically within their mythology. Perhaps another reason that Ha referenced Icarus, a greek mythical figure, was to emphasize that without catharsis, this story isn’t a tragedy. Additionally, at the end Ha writes, “In that shadow, half of you could now forever hang in midair.” If this happened to anyone in reality, they would probably consider this one of their worst moments.

    Read More

  • Friendship In The House On Mango Street

    606 Words  | 3 Pages

    For one moment in their lives they were more than just a bunch of poor kids. For one moment these children's lives they were free. Likewise I see Cisneros’s theme of friendship reflect in my own life as well. Just as Esperanza's friends shape her, my friends do the same. They give my courage and strength.

    Read More

  • Creon Is The Tragic Hero In Antigone

    798 Words  | 4 Pages

    He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through an error of judgment.” Notice that Aristotle uses the words he, man, and him and not she, woman, or her. This hints that the tragic hero must be a man, not a woman. A tragic hero must also have certain characteristics such as hubris, hamartia, peripeteia, anagnorisis, nemesis, and catharsis. These all mean that the character’s tragic downfall must have a beginning, middle, and end and emanate a feeling of pity and fear in the audience.

    Read More

  • Gilgamesh Epic Hero Analysis

    839 Words  | 4 Pages

    Aristotle, in his Poetics, describes two of the essential plot devices central to the tragedy: a reversal of fortune (or peripeteia) and a recognition of what has occurred (anagnorisis). The tragedy of fate is a play in which an individual is disgraced by either his actions or by the will of

    Read More

  • Examples Of Catharsis In Antigone

    156 Words  | 1 Pages

    According to Aristotle, the plot must cause catharsis to the audience. The character should go from a good situation to a worse, that is, peripeteia. He should also go through the process of realization of suffering, that is, anagnorisis. As I have already mentioned,

    Read More

  • Death Of A Salesman Aristotle Analysis

    1065 Words  | 5 Pages

    He is overbearing on his children, and as expected they grow up confused. His struggles begin when he looses his job, at the end we expect him to kill himself, which he does. According to Aristotle, tragic hero should be able to arise the feelings of pity and fear in the minds of audience. Willy’s failure to accept his own inadequacy is what causes catharsis that characterizes a tragedy. Catharsis refers to purification or cleansing and purgation of emotions, especially pity and fear.

    Read More

  • How Is Othello A Tragic Hero

    440 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tragic heroes always meet their demise in the end. They have characteristics that result in their tragic deaths. In William Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Othello, the protagonist Othello exemplifies the characteristics of a tragic hero. A tragic hero has a flaw which results in the character’s untimely death.

    Read More

  • Essay On Hamlet As A Tragic Hero

    943 Words  | 4 Pages

    A tragic hero is a multifaceted, admirable character with a tragic flaw that turns his life from glory into suffering. Hamlet is an example. ‘Born’ personality, shifting mentality, and inevitable fate leads to its tragedy which eventually triggers audience’s pity. Unlike other tragedies where tragic heros discover the truths by their own actions at the end of the story, realizing that the reversal was brought by their own actions. Hamlet begins differently by knowing the truth from things happening to him.

    Read More

More about How Does Steinbeck Characterize Kino's Greed

Open Document