The Pearl is a book written by John Steinbeck. The main character, Kino, found a pearl that would make his wife, Juana, and his child, Coyotito, wealthy. Kino needs to sell the pearl to get this money, but none of the pearl buyers will give him a reasonable price. Kino thought his find would bring happiness to his family, but instead it gave them a great deal of sadness. The theme in The Pearl is that a dream is good until it begins to destroy the other things of value in a person’s life.
A piece of evidence is when Kino’s house caught on fire. For example, “He [Kino] saw a little glow ahead of him,...a tall flame leaped up in the dark with a crackling roar, and a tall edifice of fire lighted the pathway…it was his brush house” (Steinbeck 63). This supports the theme because Kino’s house was destroyed due to his dream. His house was a thing of value to him and his family. Everyone was jealous of Kino’s pearl, which caused them to burn down his brush hut. This supports the theme because Kino’s house was burned down.
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For example, “He [Kino] stumbled toward the beach and came to his canoe…he saw that a great hole had been knocked in the bottom” (Steinbeck 61-62). This supports the theme because it shows how Kino’s canoe was destroyed. Kino’s canoe was passed down throughout his family, which made it a thing of value to him. His dream was to take the canoe and run away with Juana and Coyotito, but it was broken before he got there. In addition, Kino is a symbol in The Pearl. Kino represents ambition. This symbol goes with the theme because Kino had a dream and that dream began to destroy things of value to him like his family’s canoe. This supports the theme because Kino’s canoe was