The Pearl: Moral

The Pearl is definitely an amazing story to read. The author John Steinbeck keeps it short and sweet. It shows how something that most people would think as a treasure could lead you to your downfall or maybe like in the book, it could bring evil to others too.
Kino found the Pearl of the World in the beginning of the story and the rising action is mainly what happens after he found the pearl, how all this neighbors are suddenly very interested in it, and how thieves are coming in the middle of the night to try and steal it.

Since the beginning, Juana, Kino’s wife has always knew of how the pearl would cause great evil upon their family. She was looking ahead and she knew that Kino would be overcome with greed once the pearl took up such a big part of his life that he wouldn’t notice the evil it came with. He didn’t know when to stop being so greedy because he merely thought that this was a great blessing from the gods.

How could Kino have been so blind? Not only has attackers been coming from the outside of his family, but he himself is the “attacker”. When Juana tried to throw the pearl back into the ocean, how could he have not listened to his wife and tell himself that the pearl was causing him to go insane. He was thinking too positively and wasn’t looking at the effects that the pearl has caused.

Nearing the climax of this parable, Kino tries to run away with his family to try and go to the city and sell the pearl for a good price. By doing this, he led his family into great danger. Trackers were sent to find him because he had killed a man that had tried to attack him and steal the pearl. After dodging the trackers for a while, Kino eventually tries to get rid of the,. He attacks them and kills them without second thought but because he had become so insane, he accidently killed his own son.

That is the point where Kino finally realizes what evil the pearl has caused him. When he goes back to his village with Juana and their dead son, he looks into the pearl. On the surface of the clear, precious stone, Kino sees all the evil that it has caused and finally throws it back into the ocean.

The moral of this story is to not to be overwhelmed by greed. It tells us to be careful of our blessings because they just might be a curse in disguise. Kino had to find out that the pearl was evil the hard way; the death of his own son while trying he was to protect his family and more importantly (to him) the pearl, which had become his soul. It also teaches us not to grow too attached to something because you never know when it can suddenly disappear or turn its back on you. That’s when it hurts the most...