The Pearl Character Analysis

John Steinbeck’s The Pearl is a fiction novel taking place in La Paz, Mexico. There we meet a small family of Kino, his wife Juana, and their little son Coyotio. In the novel we see the family lives in a small, desolate pearl diving village. This poverty directly affects the way we see the main character, Kino, when he eventually finds “The pearl of the world”. In John Steinbeck’s The Pearl the character Kino’s love and desire for a better life for his family causes them to be in a worse situation then they otherwise would have been.

Kino and his family are impoverished and wish to move to a higher social class. Kino and his family live in a small village. They and everyone else live in tiny grass huts. As Robert Bell puts it in his

It becomes clear that Kino is starting to get attached to the pearl when Juana starts to doubt the worth of he pearl versus the trouble it has brought to them, Kino responds “In the morning we will sell the pearl, and then the evil will be gone, and only the good remain. Now hush, my wife.” This demonstrates that Kino is starting to value the pearl more than the warnings of his partner. In addition, the fact that Kino blankley disregarded his wife’s opinion also shows the troubles the pearl is causing within their relationship. As the family heads into town to sell the pearl, Kino believes that the pearl buyers are undervaluing the worth of his pearl. In one moment, Kino goes as far as to say that the buyers are purposely cheating

Since the family is being hunted, Kino decides that they must leave the village and head to his brothers house. This trip take them through the mountains to escape the trackers following them. But kino know they are getting close and decides he must do something. So he sneaks up to he trackers as hey said up camp and started stabbing them. He eventually grabbed one of the men’s gun and shot at a figure which was his baby son. It states in the text “He raised the gun and aimed deliberately and fired... And then Kino 's brain cleared from its red concentration and he knew the sound - the keening, moaning, rising hysterical cry from the little cave in the side of the stone mountain, the cry of death.” (Steinbeck, pg 46) Kino’s sworn protection and love for the pearl ultimately ended with the death of his only son. The story ends with Kino puting the pearl back into the water, knowing that it only brought evil. As for it states in the novel “And Kino drew back his arm and flung the pearl with all his might. Kino and Juana watched it go.” (Steinbeck pg 47) This shows that Kino understands that the pearl has done nothing good for them and that it was not worth it.

To conclude, in The Pearl Kino finds that even though his dreams and desires may seem obtainable the truth is that he has found himself in a worse time they hen otherwise would have been in. Their attempt to move to a higher social class influence this. The