Pearl Essay, Research Paper

This book is about a pearl diver named Kino. He and his wife and son are a poor family. When his son becomes ill, Kino takes to the sea on a quest to find some way to save his son. He finds a magnificant pearl. Kino and his wife belive that they will be wealthly and live the rest of their lives in happiness, but when Kino visits the local pearl handlers, he feels the prices which they offer him are ludicrous and refuses to sell.

Kino takes his family and together they set out on a trip to Mexico City, where Kino believes he will get a better price for his astounding pearl. Due to the fact that the pearl dealers are so obsessed with Kino’s pearl, they send a group of trackers after them. The trackers trap them partway up a rock face and one of the men shoots Kinos son, mortally wounding him. Kino and his wife return to their home on the beach and Kino throws the pearl back into the sea from where it came.

Kino, the protagonist, is a strong willed, if stubborn, man. He refuses to sell the underhanded pearl dealers his valuble pearl although he desperately needs the money. He does this because he feels very strongly that what the men are doing to him is wrong, and he refuses to give in to that.

The main idea of the story is that good things can have bad effects. While its intentions were good, the pearl brought about the downfall of the protagonist. Due to the greed of the pearl dealers, and partly becasue of Kino’s own lust for wealth, his son is killed and he loses almost everything he owns.

I beleive that this was a very good book. I enjoyed the variety and color with which Stienbeck portrayed his characters. The story itself was well written and I felt very close to the main characters of the book.