The Pearl Greed

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In the novella The Pearl by John Steinbeck, Kino has found the pearl of the world. Kino, Juana, and their baby, Coyotito, must run from their town for safety after multiple attacks. Along with the exciting plot, this story has a much deeper meaning. “If this story is a parable, perhaps everyone takes his own meaning from it…(Epigraph)” The theme or moral of the story is greed corrupts. This is true because John Steinbeck uses motif of nature, imagery, and motif of sound. The theme of greed will corrupt is shown many times throughout the story and in many ways. One of these ways being through the motif of nature. In the beginning of the book, before Kino finds the pearl, Steinbeck uses the motif of nature to show purity. Then afterwards, when…show more content…
This quote shows death and corruption in nature, by the parts “dropped its seed, and died”, and “Little tufts of sad grass.” Steinbeck uses another quote that shows the corruption in nature and it is, “... and now and…show more content…
Before Kino found the Pearl, Steinbeck used pure and soothing songs such as the Song of the Family. For example, “In Kino’s head there was a song now, clear and soft, and if he had been able to speak of it, he would have called it the Song of the Family”(2). Steinbeck puts this in the novella because it represents what Kino’s life was before he got greedy and corrupted. Now after Kino finds the pearl, Steinbeck uses corrupted and evil melodies such as the The Song of Evil. For example, “The music had gone out of Kino’s head, but now, thinly, slowly, the melody of the morning, the music of evil, of the enemy sounded…(27)” This quote shows corruption and evil by using the words “the music of evil”, and “the enemy sounded.” Again, Steinbeck uses the evil melody of the Song of Evil to show Kino’s corruption after he finds the pearl. For example, “Now the darkness was closing in on his family; now the the evil music filled the night, hung over mangroves, skirled in the wave beat”(62). This quote shows the result of Kino’s greed by using the words, “darkness was closing in on his family.” Steinbeck uses motif of song to convey his theme because it shows life before Kino became corrupted and greedy, and life while Kino was corrupted with

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