Steinbeck Essay, Research Paper

Steinbeck’ s The Pearl was based on a story he had heard during his expedition with a friend to the Gulf of California about a poor Mexican fisherman who found a pearl which he though would guarantee his future happiness, but however it almost destroyed him before he threw it back into the ocean (Astro 62). “While Ricketts idea about the inherent virtues of the simple, natural life serve as a thematic substratum on which Steinbeck builds his parable, the novelist’s chief concern in The Pearl is with how man’s failure to “participate” in “the region inward adjusts” can lead to complete personal and social disintegration” (Astro 66). “Man himself appears, becomes, or emerges as good or evil because of the way men use other men, nurturing or destroying the human relationship between them, validating or invalidating the meaning of their existence” (Karsten 54). “John Steinbeck can properly be called the author of disengagement on at least two levels, for its traces the symbolic journey and withdrawal of novels protagonist” (Hayashi 48).

In Steinbeck’s novels he offers a moral lesson about the nature of good and evil. Steinbeck illustrates that good and evil are inseparably intertwined and that this duality is essential to existence. Thus the ambiguous nature of the pearl- which at first symbolizes beauty and hope but becomes gray and ulcerous- parallels Kino’s duality as he himself becomes cold and hardened (Meyer 30). At first the faces of evil, here and everywhere, are brilliant attractive, and tempting. It is only by man’s nature that when Kino first discovers the pearl he’s deceived by its brilliance and the false promise it holds out to him. He declares that the pearl is his soul and if he gives it up he will give his soul up (Hayashi 49).

Also in Steinbeck’s novels he asserts that duality undergoes all of man’s actions and that intertwining good and evil are a part of each postlapsarian [time after the fall of man] human (Meyer 29).

“Good is identified both with admirable individual qualities (philanthropy, kindness, generosity, self respect, courage, creativity) and with conventional moral goodness. Evil is identified with ignoble individual qualities, with criminal acts, and with carnal pleasures, particularly sex acts: and not only with prostitution and perversions, but also with sexual satisfaction in general” (Fontenrose 375).

The Pearl is a lyrical tale which Steinbeck calls these types of tales black and white story like a parable. “It is a parable about the search for happiness and the nature of man’s need to choose between the inherently benign natural life the frantic self-oriented modern world (Astro 63). The very concern with material things with technology is for the most part unnecessary to mere biological survival. It is man’s nature to want material things and still not satisfied (Metzger 45). Just as man’s existence is an accident so is the pearl and that existence has meaning within human relationships basic of which is the family. Just as the pearl is good it eventually becomes invested with evil because of the ways men use it (Karsten 54). “Kino’s Faith in the seemingly desirable nature of the pearl is no less than an obsession, an obsession with almost religious fervor as the pearl becomes Kino’s new God” (Hayashi 49). In The Pearl Steinbeck writes that humans are never satisfied with what you give them, that you give them one thing then they will just want something more. Steinbeck has favored to animals because they are satisfied with what they have and will want nothing more (Astro 63).

“In The Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck stresses the evolutionary idea that men must adapt to changing conditions. Among the worst offenses he feels one man can commit against is that of inhibiting the process of adaptation or of causing another to revert to a former state in self-defense” (Hoffman 324).

In The novels that Steinbeck writes he importance of the medieval pearl is centered in the role of the children in each. Coyotito can in several ways be identified with Kino’s “pearl of great value.” The pearl, which is from the sea is only a means by which Coyotito will be given a chance to get an education. Also the pearl brings new opportunities for at first the doctor refuses to treat Coyotito, but now the child becomes his means to getting the pearl, for the doctor feels that the child is the pearl. But more important than these fine relationships is the fact that if Coyotito dies he is gone and then the pearl has no significance. The moment the pursuer with the rifle fires, Kino kills him. Then Kino kills the two trackers who led the assassins to him (Morris 372).

Sometimes when Steinbeck writes he uses symbolic representation, the musical parallel must now be related to the central theme, within the human relationship where Kino’s life has meaning, the song of the family is warm, clear, soft and protecting. Here in the song represents completeness. It continues to have these qualities as long as the song of the pearl doesn’t overwhelm it (Karsten 55-56). In The Pearl and in the Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck uses music as a symbolic representation of the theme paralleling the basic story. The second manifestation is found in Steinbeck’s use of description to suggest the relationships between Kino and his community and between the community and the town as social embodies of the theme again paralleling the basic story (Karsten 54-55). “Although the physical scorpion is destroyed it is evident that another springs up in the city of La Paz.” “Despite the promises of peace that its name suggests the city provides still further duality as Steinbeck examines the “civilized” community and compares its evil with the scorpion while contrasting it with the goodness of Juana and Kino’s primitive existence” (Meyer 31-32). “The social element is developed rapidly through the episodes of Coyotito’s scorpion bite and the doctor’s refusal to treat a child whose father cannot pay a substantial fee. The fist he crushes into a bleeding mass against the doctor’s gate conveys Kino’s helplessness. This theme of helplessness reaches its peak in the pearl selling attempt” (Morris 371). “The allegory works also universally and Kino is every man. The darkness in which he awakes is one of the spirit. The cock of the crow is one of warning that the spirit must awake to its own dangers.” “The allegory journey has often been called the way into the dark night of the soul, in which the darkness stands for despair, or hopelessness.” “We cannot describe Kino or his people as in despair, for they have never known any life other than the one they lead; neither are they in hopelessness, for they are not aware that there is anything for which to hope” (Morris 371). “The merge of dissonance and darkness continue to prevent the bright music of Juana and are depicted as a threatening song which emanates from a scorpion, Steinbeck’s first symbol of the sin and evil which threaten every man. The novel asserts that if existence, attempts to see only one side of the human condition are futile” (Meyer 31).

The flowers of the bougainvillea are symbolic in color for instance purple can represent royalty, or it can represent the bad behavior of prejudice and avarice; red-brick can represent the blood that has been shed on the subjugation of the Indians; white although in most cases it represents purity in this example it represents cowardice (Karsten 57).

In The Grapes of Wrath some of the elements of tragedy are: the driving forces the swift rush of events, inevitability, mounting pity and terror, clash, violence His characters react properly in the face of evil and the foolish things they do are pieces of eternally human foolishness (Frohock 324). In the conclusion of The Grapes of Wrath it has been said to be extreme, sensational, and overwrought. The Joads have reached at last a condition of utter desolation, Rose of Sharon, her baby born dead, is rain-drenched, and her breast weak and heavy with milk. In the barn they come upon a boy and a starving old man too weak to eat the bread his son has stolen for him. Ma knows what must be done but the decision is Rose Of Sharon’s. Rose of Sharon also knows what has to be done and then with just a glance at Ma she excepts to feed the starving man (Shockley 368).

In Steinbeck’s novels he offers a moral lesson about the nature of good and evil. Steinbeck illustrates that good and evil are inseparably intertwined and that this duality is essential to existence. Thus the ambiguous nature of the pearl- which at first symbolizes beauty and hope but becomes gray and ulcerous- parallels Kino’s duality as he himself becomes cold and hardened (Meyer 30). At first the faces of evil, here and everywhere, are brilliant attractive, and tempting. It is only by man’s nature that when Kino first discovers the pearl he’s deceived by its brilliance and the false promise it holds out to him. He declares that the pearl is his soul and if he gives it up he will give his soul up (Hayashi 49).

Also in Steinbeck’s novels he asserts that duality undergoes all of man’s actions and that intertwining good and evil are a part of each postlapsarian [time after the fall of man] human (Meyer 29).

“Good is identified both with admirable individual qualities (philanthropy, kindness, generosity, self respect, courage, creativity) and with conventional moral goodness. Evil is identified with ignoble individual qualities, with criminal acts, and with carnal pleasures, particularly sex acts: and not only with prostitution and perversions, but also with sexual satisfaction in general” (Fontenrose 375).

In conclusion Steinbeck uses many different strategies and methods with representation of symbols. He also brought out the fact of material things and how the man is never satisfied with what he gets and how man always wants more. Good and evil are represented also in the two novels. How something that seems so good and so rewarding could just turn around and turn into something very evil. Steinbeck uses the comparison of dark and light to symbolize good and evil.

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