The Pearl

The naval base Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan. The bombing resulted in the destruction of 8 battleships and over 200 aircraft. About 2,000 people lost their lives and another thousand were wounded. After the attack, President Roosevelt declared war on Japan. People all around the United States persecuted any person of Japanese descent because they were believed to have aided and sympathized with Japan. These assumptions may seem ridiculous to believe now but after the attack people were afraid and concerned and these assumptions and rumors were everywhere. Two months after the attack the President gave an executive order that all Japanese Americans must evacuate their homes and be relocated as a matter of national security.

They all had to meet at a train station to be sent to one of the ten internment camps. The camps were located in California, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Wyoming, Arkansas, and Colorado. Each camp held about 10,000 people who were considered to be prisoners. The camps were surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers and they were usually located in the middle of the desert. The barracks where the prisoners had to sleep were very crowded and the rations of food weren’t very great. The camps were under very strict rules. There were curfews at night and most prisoners had a job and had to keep the camp clean.

The treatment was very unfair especially because these people didn‘t deserve it. They were stripped of all their rights and freedom because people were paranoid about them attacking America. All of the hatred and anger Americans had after the attack was directed towards Japanese Americans because they looked like the enemy. The sad thing is 70% of the 120,000 people in the internment camps were born citizens in the US. and they were treated like enemies and prisoners of war. No one even tried to defend them, most people would financially benefit from.

President Roosevelt’s order and they felt safer so there was no reason for people to go against authority if it didn’t affect them in a negative way. Most people just let this happen and didn’t give it another thought. These internment camps were around for the rest of the wars. The government then released all prisoners to go back to their homes and live as before. Many of the people went back to their homes and found it in wins. The government also admitted their mistakes and gave any prisoner money to go and live their lives again. The damage was already done and 3 to 4 years of their lives could not be returned.

You would think that if you gained something of value it would only cause good things to happen, and no harm However this is not the case in the book “The Pearl” John Steinbeck‘s novel “The Pearl,” is about a Mexican family Kino, the husband, Juana, the wife, and Coyotito their little son, that find a very valuable pearl. However, this pearl causes the family to be robbed, attacked, and cheated. The exact moment in the story when the pearl changes from a symbol of hope to a symbol of greed is when Kino says “This pearl has become my soul.” “Ifl gives it up I shall lose my soul.” When Kino says that it has become his soul it indicates that it’s changed because he can’t give up the pearl even though it is causing harm and making him the public enemy number.‘

Further, when something is said to be part of your soul that means that you are extremely connected. Since the reason he thinks he is connected to the Pearl is that he wants to use it to get things when he can no longer get those things it has changed to symbolize greed. Another scene that supports this idea is when Kino beats Juana for trying to throw the pearl into the ocean. This supports the idea because he hurt Juana in anger because she tried to throw something of value out into the ocean when it was causing harm, However, Kino could not see this over his greed and still beat up Juana. Through this transformation, Steinbeck is trying to show that all good things can still have some side effects. This is because even though Kino got something that should be extremely helpful it still caused Kino to beat up Juana and Coyotito to die.

Romanticism flows throughout Hawthorne’s, “The Scarlet Letter” (1850.) He develops this romanticism by utilizing nature to give the reader more insight to the sins throughout the novel, however did not only limit to just that. It also gave refuge to the individuals who did not “fit in” to the puritan society. Hawthorne is a critic of the Puritan society and believes in the power of the individual and the heart. He disagrees with the severity of Puritan punishments and the need to publicly shame individuals. Through the perspective of main characters Hester Prynne and Pearl, he reveals how society attempts to correct sin by punishing an individual. Hawthorne also uses nature to distract the audience from the true conflict of the story and alluding Pearl to in The Parables and the Treasure of the Pearl in the bible is how Hawthorne validates his argument of utilizing romanticism throughout the book.

Certain elements of nature help to connect natural elements of the world to human nature. The rosebush that is first introduced at the beginning of the book at the jail scene, symbolizes the hope that a broken world still has. The beauty of the rosebush that Hawthorne describes also helps to distract both the reader and the other characters of the book from the harsh looked and decaying prison. “It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom… or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow.” The rosebush gives color and light to the impoverished front of the jail. This allows the prisoners to think and be reminded that there is still beauty that lies among the Earth even if they are trapped and are not capable of personally experiencing the true beauty that still lies among them. The rosebush also signifies new beginnings, and new light for people to look forward to.

While Hester was imprisoned, the rosebush was her only hope, just as Pearl conveys. Pearl was seen as Hester’s only desire to keep fighting when Wilson calls her a “red rose” who has been “plucked” from the bush of wild roses, where Hester’s hope was fulfilled. This demonstrates how no matter what, beauty can come from even the darkest of situations and places in life. Nature throughout the book, demonstrates the variation between characters and how it describes and establishes certain characters as well. Connecting back to the rosebush, not only does does it help establish a sense of hope for certain characters, it also validates certain characters and their individual personalities. Much like Hester, the rosebush has been, “kept alive in history” (Hawthorne 46.) This proves her strength as both a woman and as a mother.

She fights every day to overcome the burden that the scarlet letter has brought into her life. She also does not stop to keep Pearl, her only hope in life and fights overcome the harsh criticism and punishments the Puritan society has brought upon her life on a day to day basis. Hawthorne describes how the rosebush, “sprung up under the footsteps of sainted Ann Hutchinson” Ann Hutchinson was viewed as a very powerful woman in her time. Not many women were viewed this way and did not have a strong place or voice in a Puritan society, therefore Hester had to use the scarlet letter as a motivation to move on and also find relief from Dimmesdale’s death which was a, “darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow”.  This demonstrates how Hester has also held this strength from the beginning of the book when she was beaten down to the end, where she overcomes her conflicts.

Along with nature, Hawthorne romanticizes the bible and alludes to it as well in order to reveal the secure love that Hester had for her daughter, Pearl. She is the biggest biblical allusion throughout the book because she follows the whole storyline and her symbolism is never absent. Hester explains how she named her daughter Pearl, “as being of great price—purchased with all she had—her mother’s only treasure” (Hawthorne 74.). This is a direct reference to The Biblical Gospels of Matthew in the bible. Matthew was in search of Pearls, and when he found one with great value, he went and sold everything he had just to buy that one pearl. Much like Matthew, Hester had to suffer and work for what she truly wanted, which was her daughter. She gave up everything she had in her life just for her daughter as did Matthew in order to find satisfaction in life. She gave up her dignity, her community, and her religion just to be with her daughter.

Hester is now lonely and does not communicate with anyone else besides her daughter and she truly appreciates the bond they have which makes Pearl her only treasure in life. Pearl is also Dimmesdale’s “pearl of great price,” because when they eventually connect as a father and daughter, he gives up his own life and gains forgiveness from God for confessing his sins. Naming Pearl after something of great value, shows how Hester has no regrets for her sins and finds no shame in her sins because they delivered something significant to her life. The romantic elements Hawthorne utilizes throughout the book between nature and the bible, helps to establish Hester and Pearls love for each other, how nature can distinguish between certain characters, and how nature can connect to certain aspects of human nature. The romanticism also helps to distract the audience from the conflict in the book.