The Pearl By John Steinbeck Essay, Research Paper

In The Pearl, by John Steinbech, evil transforms certain

humble citizens into envious savages. Evil was exhibited by the

doctor who refused to treat Coyotito because his parents had no money.

When the doctor heard of Kino and Juana’s fortune in finding “the

pearl of the world” (722), he boasted that they were patients of his

while thinking of a better life for himself in Paris. Coyotito was

healed when the doctor finally came to their straw hut. He deceived

Kino by giving the baby a white powder that made him go into

convulsions. An hour later he came and gave Coyotito the remedy and

immediately wanted to know when he was getting paid. The evil in the

pearl had reached the heart of the doctor. The pearl’s evil did not

restrict itself to infecting Kino’s peers; it also affected Kino

himself. He wanted to sell the pearl and use the money to better his

family’s standard of living. He had dreams and goals that all

depended on the pearl. When Juana wanted to destroy the pearl, Kino

beat her unmercifully:

He struck her in the face and she fell among the boulders, and

he kicked her in the side…He hissed at her like a snake and she

stared at him with wide unfrightened eyes, like a sheep before a

butcher. (742) Juana saw through the outer beauty of the pearl and

knew it would destroy them, but Kino’s vision was blurred by the

possible prosperity the pearl brought. The malignant evil then spread

to a secret cult known only as the trackers. This corrupt band of

ruffians attacked and destroyed Kino’s life. The very night that the

trackers learned of Kino’s pearl, they tried to steal it. The next

night, Kino was attacked twice, which resulted in Kino committing

murder. After the final struggle of the night, Juana went back to

their home to find more baneful members of the heartless cult

rampaging through their belongings to find the pearl. The end result

was Kino and Juana’s house going up in flames. The trackers then

committed the cardinal sin, they destroyed Kino’s canoe:

This was an evil beyond thinking. The killing of a man was not

so evil as the killing of a boat. For a boat does not have sons, and

a boat cannot protect itself, and a wounded boat does not heal. (744)

The trackers annihilated the most important material possession that

any citizen of the community owned, “…for a man with a boat can

guarantee a woman that she will eat something. It was the bulwark

against starvation” (717). The evil invaded Kino’s life and everyone

who knew of it.