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GREED IN THE NOVEL THE PEARL BY JOHN STEINBECK

Greed for worldly possessions can lead to uncontrollable madness. Using Kino, draw illustrations from John Steinbeck’s The Pearl.

Greed is the insatiable need to possess what you have in such a colossal amount that is beyond enough and still yearn for more. In The Pearl, greed is protecting the little that one has against thieves, and the need to possess what has rightfully been earned by another. When Kino finds the pearl, he is optimistic about life and sees a better future for him and his family. But suddenly, he feels he is not safe, the pearl, though a promise of better tomorrow becomes all of a sudden a source of envy and evil.
Kinos’ suspicion extends to the sudden change of heart of the doctor who hours ago had refused to see to his son. Though the doctor makes Coyotito ill and heals him, Kino has this gnawing feeling that the greedy doctor could be rooting for unconventional means to steal the pearl. That night while asleep, someone enters Kino’s house and tries to steal the pearl. It is from this moment that Kino vows to defend his pearl.
Kino’s obsession sets in motion a series of events that moves him from a simple pearl fisherman to a bloodthirsty man. He violently hits his wife when she tries to throw the evil pearl away. Secondly, he kills an unknown assailant when he is attacked on the shores of the sea. And finally, he kills the three trackers who had followed him out of town, and in the process, kills his only son Coyotito.
One would argue that Kino was a victim here. The society was so ruthless that the pearl buyers could not give him a fair price and hence set in place a chain of events that led to Kino being so obsessed with the pearl that he killed for it. It is true to believe so for Kino’s people had been oppressed by the people in the walled city- a situation that made it easier for Kino to feel that ‘it was easier to kill them than ask for their help.’
It is not only Kino who is carried by the greed into madness. The dark ones seem to be so obsessed by greed and promise of good fortunes that they forget how brutal a man defending his wealth can be. When one of them is killed, their madness descends on Kino’s brush house. The house is searched and later put on fire.
This obsession makes them behave like sniffer dogs and follow every track they could see on the road until they come across a promise of good fortune. Unlucky for them, they encounter the brave adrenaline charged Kino who kills them and triumphantly returns to the village carrying a rifle.

Kino returns to his home, charged and brave that everyone, including those who knew him all of sudden become afraid of the man and woman they see. With blood on their clothes and a rifle in hand, the couple makes its way through the city, people paving the way to let them pass.  

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