Examples Of Corruption In The Pearl By John Steinbeck

“The Pearl”, written by John Steinbeck is the story of a man who lives in the town of La Paz in the state of Baja California, Mexico, during the 1900s, a period of colonialism. Within the context of the story, the author uses themes of power and corruption to show the capability and dishonesty caused by power. The Spanish descendants use their power to subjugate the indigenous. The story shows how the character Kino goes from a state of powerless poverty to controlling power. Kino is corrupted by the pearl making him ultimately responsible for his family’s plight.
As the novella´s plotline continues the character of Kino is further developed. He lives a happy life that satisfies him.“It was a morning like other mornings and yet perfect among

“ ‘I am cheated,’ Kino cried fiercely. ‘My pearl is not for sale. I will go, perhaps even to the capital’ ” (52). Before Kino said this, he is told that his pearl was not worth anymore than 1,000 pesos. It is now he, not the sellers, who has the power to decide if he is going to sell the pearl or not. As Kino holds the pearl in his own bare hands, he has the courage to say that he is not selling the pearl. He is being cheated by the buyers, and is willing to not sell the pearl in the town, but to even risk his life by travelling to the capital for a higher price...which, would foreshadow Kino’s development of lack of honesty.
Kino becomes savage he receives the pearls power. He begins to shows violence towards those he loves to save the pearl: “He stuck her in the face with his clenched fist and she fell among the boulders, and he kicked her in the side” (59). Kino is now doing what he needs to do to save the pearl. Juana was about to throw the pearl back into the ocean but Kino didn't not want that to happen so he brutally attacked her in hopes of stopping her from throwing it in the

At the beginning of the novel, Kino is represented as an honest man who chooses to do what is right over doing what is wrong, but by possessing the pearl he changes. “Oh, my brother, an insult has been put on me that is deeper than my life. For on the beach my canoe broken, my house is burned, and in the brush dead man lies. Every escape is cut off. You must hide us, my brother’ ” (65). As Kino’s house burns down the neighbors wonder whether r Kino and his family are inside, Kino can even hear all of the worried voices. If the same circumstance would have taken place at the beginning of the story, when Kino was a more honest man, he would have come out from his brother’s brush house and said that he and his family were fine, and maybe even take responsibility for killing the dead man next to the brush house. However, because Kino becomes corrupted by the power that the pearl gives him, he becomes dishonest, hides and runs away. The influence of the pearl degrades him, from a state of honesty to a state of corruption and he ends up bringing misery to himself, to his family and even to his