Pearl Reflection

I interpreted the moral of this story as being related to greed and how it can lead to undesirable actions. You can observe Kino’s steadily character changes once he discovers the pearl. He shows off qualities of greed. Furthermore, Kino’s greed leads him to hit his own wife and even cause his son’s death. Also, another theme related to this story is that fate can shape our lives. It was fate that Kino found the pearl, which drastically changed the outcome of his life. He lost his son and lost respect for who he was. Lastly, a very obvious, but very true and critical fact is that wealth does not bring happiness, as demonstrated in this story.

We can naturally relate Kino with every human being on this earth. It’s only natural for greed and ambition to build up once we discover something valuable. However, if we let our greed reach levels that may be dangerous, we will end up with the same fate as Kino. I think everyone has been through a situation/conflict similar to Kino’s. Although the consequences may not have been to the extent of the death of one, I’m sure that because of this “thing” or “someone,” our minds have turned greedy and self-indulgent. On the positive side, because of this, our minds can mature and realize the importance of generosity and the insignificance of wealth. One major idea that I believe Steinbeck wants to really emphasize is that wealth does not equal happiness. Kino has claimed that he has found the “pearl of the world,” but did that yield happiness to him or his family? In fact, what awaited him and his family was the exact opposite of happiness. Why? It was because of the false conception that the pearl would bring his family riches and joys of bliss and eternal happiness. Frankly speaking, Kino and his family had a reason to be content with their life initially. They did not lack anything except for money. They had food, water, and most importantly, each other. However, it was the two occurrences—Coyotito’s scorpion sting, and the finding of the pearl—that changed the course of their life.