Analysis of: The Pearl by John Steinbeck

The Pearl by John Steinbeck



A. The Pearl

1. Literally: The short novel is about a man called kino who finds this pearl that he thinks would bring him luck and fortune when in the end it cause death, misery, pain and a curse.

B. Setting:

          1. It takes place in the gulf of what I believe it’s Mexico.

C. Characters

          1. Main Charters:

Kino: poor Mexican man who has a wife a baby boy and works at sea diving looking for pearls to sell and barely talks to his wife.

Juana: Kino’s wife, mother of a baby boy, barely talks with his husband but goes with him wherever he goes. She’s very respectful and caring, doesn’t care about the money and her family always comes first.

Coyotito: Kino and Juana’s baby boy. Doesn’t talk but always knows what’s happening, got stung by a scorpion and is a pretty little fighter.

          2. Secondary:

Juan Tomas: Kino’s older brother who’s willing to help his brother at all causes. Married to a fat woman called Apolonia.

Apolonia: Juan Tomas’s wife. Willing to help his brother in law, Kino, and Kino’s family.

The doctor’s servant: also a Indian from Kino’s culture who wants to help but is not allowed by his master.

         



3. Antagonist:

The doctor: Self-centered monster who poisoned Coyotito and then acted like a hero by getting to Kino’s brush house just in time to save the baby.

The three men: these were the men who were searching for Kino and his family. One of them had colored skin, carried a rifle, smoked and rode a horse, and the other two walked.

D. Plot

1. in this novel we can see how a kind simple man changes by finding a pearl that might make him rich, he could send his kid to school, get married in church with his wife, buy new clothes and a rifle. Through the story, bad things start happening to the man’s family, (his son gets stung by a scorpion, they can’t sell the pearl, he beats his wife, his house caught fire, he kills four men and his son) so the man and his family go on a journey to sell the pearl and in the end all it does is bring the misery so they end up throwing the pearl back in the sea.

E. Conflict:

Man vs Man and Man vs Nature

The ‘pearl of the world’ Kino found and thought it would bring him riches, actually curses him and his family. Kino tries to sell the pearl but all the buyers give him a low price and all of a sudden worst things start happening.





G. Climax:

The one moment that didn’t want to make me sleep and actually kept me at the edge of my seat, was the moment where he beats Juana and when he starts to kill the three men that looked for him and accidently kills his son by shooting him in the head with the rifle he’s always wanted.





H. Resolution:

After their long journey, Kino returns with Juana and Coyotito’s body and  without looking at anyone, stopping where their house was or looking at Kino’s broken canoe they walked to the shore and threw the pearl back to the sea now that Kino noticed that the pearl wasn’t good and only brought him misery and loss.

I. Point of View:

To be honest I thought the story was way too slow and that the author described too much, but it still gave me that curiosity of wanting to know if it’s real or not and what happened to Kino and Juana after that excepted ending and what did the rest of the society thought of them. In my opinion I would’ve liked the story a little bit more if the author didn’t describe everything the way it did, described a little more the violent scenes and if it would’ve had more action in it, but besides that it was ok.

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