However, the pearl attracts the greed of others. Kino does destroy the evil-bearers that act to harm his family-he squashes the scorpion, kills the trackers, throws the pearl into the ocean-but he only succeeds in doing so after the evil has run its course and the poison has already seeped in. T he Pearl is a short novel by John Steinbeck in which Kino attempts to pay for his son's medical bills with a valuable pearl. When Kino tries to fight off the thieves and protect the pearl, for instance, he ends up committing acts of evil himself, on both the thieves and his wife. One must either bear it (as in the case of the scorpion) or avoid it (as in the case of the pearl), because to combat it only breeds more evil. The prologue sets up the townspeople as the collective narrator of the tale to come. Everyone that hears it considers the tale in relation to his or her own life. It has become a parable, with stark contrast between good and evil and no in-between. Similarly, the neighbors are evil when they act upon greed over neighborly respect, and Kino is evil when he acts upon greed over love for his wife.Įvil in the novel is an omnipotent, destructive force. A quoted passage frames The Pearl as a story told again and again, and known by everyone in the town. The doctor, for instance, is evil because he acts upon greed over human care and professional responsibility.

While the scorpion’s evil takes the form of lethal poison, man’s evil throughout the novel takes the form of overriding greed. Evil in The Pearl can appear in both man ( the doctor) and nature ( the scorpion) both evil man (the doctor) and good man ( Kino) both ugly shape (the scorpion) and beautiful shape ( the pearl). The plot of The Pearl is driven by a constant struggle between the morally opposite forces of good and evil.

The pearl by john steinbeck