The Pearl: Evil Essay, Research Paper

The Pearl: Evil

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.