Kino's Greed Became his Downfall (Spoilers for The Pearl Ahead)

                                                               

  By: Harmony Lehman

    The Pearl by John Steinbeck is a novelette touching on themes of human greed and suffering. It tells the story of a father, named Kino, a mother, named Juana, and a baby, named Coyotito. They are a poor family, living in a poor village, and one fateful day, Coyotito falls victim to a scorpion sting. So, in attempts to save their baby's life, Kino and Juana go out looking for pearls in the ocean, to get the funds to hire a doctor. They find the perfect pearl, and Kino begins to grow an attachment to it. Unfortunately, his greed overcomes him, and eventually lands him and his family on the run from hunters, who, also due to greed, are in search of the pearl. The hunters end up killing Coyotito with a gunshot, and Juana and Kino finally return to their village without their child. The overall theme of The Pearl is greed, and it is prominent in almost every page of this book.

    In chapter 3, Kino looks into the pearl and finds his greatest desires. To wed his wife in the church, to get new clothes, and, most notably, a rifle. Because Kino and his family lived (and always had lived) in a poor village, these things seemed out of reach until now. Kino thinks, "It was the rifle that broke down the barriers. This was an impossibility, and if he could think of having a rifle whole horizons were burst and he could rush on" (Steinbeck, 25). While at first this want for new things seems innocent, and even deserved on Kino's part, this is really just his greed getting ahead of him. Of course, from a sympathetic standpoint, it is logical and justified that Kino and his family should have nice things. They worked hard, diving for pearls, and originally only did it to save their child from a scorpion sting. They had pure motives. But just because their original motives may have been selfless, that does not mean this new wave of want Kino experiences is just as selfless. 

    As the book progresses, Kino becomes more and more attached to the pearl. Because the news of the pearl has spread so fast (as it is, indeed, the "perfect" pearl), many people were aware of Kino having the pearl, and, in their greed, began attacking Kino in attempts to take the pearl from him. At least, that's what Kino sees. In reality, he never actually sees his attackers. If he did not ever see them, how could he know they had ill intentions? The pearl, which was described at the end as "ugly; it was gray, like a malignant growth. And Kino heard the music of the pearl, distorted and insane", was only driving Kino crazy (Steinbeck, 89). It was using this want he had for more and turning it into greed: the kind of greed that blinds you to everything else. And, in this greed, Kino decides that instead of getting rid of the pearl, he will go with his family and run away from those who want to hurt him. This fear of the hunters is warranted, unlike the fear of the mysterious, unseen attackers, as he does actually see them and can never seem to escape them, but the thought never crosses Kinos mind to get rid of the pearl.

    Unfortunately for Kino, the hunters eventually catch up to him and his family. In attempts to save them, Kino tries to initiate a surprise attack on the hunters, but something goes wrong, and one of the hunters shoots a stray bullet, which hits Coyotito, killing him. The gun that killed Kino's son was the very kind of gun he had wished for in his greed: a rifle. This sad irony of the death of Coyotito shows just what greed can do to a person: and, more specifically, what it did to Kino. Kino, originally only wanting to save his son from certain death by scorpion bite, became the very reason his son died at a rifle bullet. The pearl was his false salvation and his very real downfall.