In the story, The Pearl, Kino finds the pearl of the world; a pearl that had a veneer of good but inwardly possessed the horrible wrath of greed. When Kino finds the pearl, he realizes it was his family's path out of poverty. With the money, he wants to send his child, Coyotito, to school and he wants his wife and him to have a formal wedding. But as the story progresses, the pearl begins to arouse greed throughout the town. The local doctor tries to swindle Kino, pearl buyers conspire to deceive Kino when shows up to sell the pearl, and Kino is violently attacked outside his home in an attempt to steal the pearl. Kino, determined to get a good price for the pe ...view middle of the document...
Although the pearl could have been very beneficial, it ended up fostering greed and destruction.John Steinbeck uses animal imagery as a way to foreshadow and explain the hunt for Kino at the end of the story. Several images of predator and prey are mentioned in the book, like the little night hawks silently stalking the mice, hint at the subsequent pursuit of Kino. With "an animal light" in his eyes, Kino's actions and movements began to resemble that of a trapped animal running to survive. Kino runs to a high place, the book mentions, "as all animals do when they are pursued." The trackers scuttle around the ground looked for a sign of Kino and followed it like dogs, excited to find a trail. The prey is hunted for awhile and then finally meets the predator, but instead of losing its own life Kino loses his most treasured object, his son.As Kino he goes through the physical journey the pearl takes him on, he also encounters a physiological journey, a journey of light and dark. In the beginning of the story, the pearl represents a light because Kino's journey is virtuous. He is out to make his family succeed. But a his actions turn greedy and as his mind is possessed by the pearl, Kino is in the dark. Evil is represented as darkness. When he kills a man, Kino is said to be in the dark. As the pearl's song plays stronger in his mind, the darker and darker Kino's soul became. Although Kino faced an intense physical journey, the conflict between his soul and light and dark played a deeper toll on him at the end.Steinbeck, John. The Pearl. Penguin Publishers: New York, 1924.
