The Valuable Pearl in the Book The Pearl by John Steinbeck

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.