The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, is a novel that depicts the fact that greed can take over a life and the peace of a town. When a penniless pearl diver, Kino, finds what he calls the Pearl of the World, it changes his life. Throughout this novel, Steinbeck uses literary devices to express the way greed can change a small town and a family. The author uses tools such as symbolism, characterization, and foreshadowing to add life to the story. These literary devices all express greed in different ways while they create an unforgettable tale. In this book, Steinbeck uses symbolism as a way to explain the pearl and the way it changes. While the pearl initially brings a wonderful opportunity to the family, it ends up changing their lives dramatically. In Steinbeck’s book, Kino finds a pearl that is what he calls the Pearl of the World. As the book says, “It captured the light and refined it and gave it back in silver incandescence.” (Steinbeck 20) This excerpt states that it …show more content…
Throughout the book, Juana has had unsatisfactory feelings about the pearl. She feels that it will cause evil and destruction, which it does. In the beginning of the book, the family starts off as kind people without the pearl. As the story progresses, they find the pearl and their lives slowly begin to change. Juana keeps sensing that the pearl will cause evil and so she tells Kino to throw it back into the ocean. ‘“It will destroy us all,” Juana cried’(Steinbeck 38). This is where Juana starts to have premonition about the pearl. Again and again she tells Kino to get rid of the pearl. Eventually, Kino learns that this pearl is evil, but decides this at the end of the book, when everything had already gone bad. Their son, Coyotito, dies because of this evil pearl and he now knows that he should have believed Juana, for she was correct all