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PESSIMISM IN JOHN STEINBECK'S THE PEARL

Steinbeck speaks about the impossibility of making it in a highly polarised world where class defines individual standards of living. 

Every author has their own perspective of the society expressed in their work of art. Some writers have chosen to retain the status quo which is the bedrock of the society even today. Hard as it may be to believe, society is defined by its hierarchical order, which is disturbed like in The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht brings around chaos where the weak and poor enjoy a certain form of justice. Bertolt Brecht uses anarchy to bring a semblance of Justice in Grusinia where an arrogant judge- Azdak dispenses justice to the weak and punishes the corrupt and reach. This lasts for a short while before normalcy is returned.
The book the Great Expectations and Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables somehow border on the pessimist side of the society. However, it is Steinbeck who puts into context the pessimistic view of the society.
The pessimism in Steinbeck’s work speaks about how an individual of modest means can break the status quo to enjoy the good fortunes society has given. When Kino finds the pearl, his hopes and dreams amplify into the luxuries that such a find can give. However, his dreams are shattered when he realizes that the constructs of the society are so rigid that he cannot break loose from the shackles that bind him to poverty.
The pessimism also speaks about the Swahili proverb: “Kidole kimoja hakivunji Chawa” (a finger cannot kill a louse) by showing that Kino and his family could not have managed to fight the forces of ‘evil’ that bound them to misery. Condemning religion as a tool of subjugation, Steinbeck shows how the people of brush houses have been reduced into submission by the church in that anything out of the norm is viewed as evil- a condition that spirals Kino into a lone world of self-defense that results to the death of his son Coyotito.
Although Kino is seen as a man determined to break the control of the city of stone over his people, he seems overpowered. The rage within that drives Kino is quenched by his conscience. At the beginning we see a Kino who would rather kill the members of the walled town than ask for their assistance, but as the book ends, yes, the anger is still there, but the resolve to continue fighting died with his son.
The son, Coyotito seem to represent the courage and optimism of Kino and his people, “My son will go to school.” (Pg46)- An institution which represented hope and a future free from oppression. Kino believed that if his son could read, he could understand all the mysteries of education his children had been denied. And if they could understand, they could have a better future. The death of a son, therefore, symbolizes the death of hope and a perceived oppression-free future.

In The Pearl, Steinbeck captures the despair of many who have tried to fight against different barriers of oppression. Although some have succeeded, their success is usually individual with the award of multimillion Nobel Peace Prize among others which oft makes them forget about the plight of those they stood to fight for while they join the league of those in the city of stone.

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