What Does Steinbeck Say About Juana's Character

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The journey of Juana's tragic vicissitudes allows us to feel compassion and connect with the character in John Steinbeck's iconic book, "The Pearl". "The Pearl" is a story about a simple and jubilant life turned complicated and dangerous instantaneously.

The calamity of Juana's son's health was the start of the rapid change in Juana's life. Beginning as a young mother with a healthy son, an imperceptible scorpion bite changed her life forever. This one event reveals to us how her misfortunes began and allow us to have a profound understanding of Juana's actions. In addition, Juana then had to endure the journey of being unjustly rejected by a doctor, finding a valuable pearl which brought havoc into her life, and escaping persecution by murderous trackers. …show more content…

When writing this segment of the story, the writer first shows us how mistreated the family was in their village. The description of their situation allows the reader to connect with Juana by comparing her afflictions to discriminatory times in our own lives.

Later on in the story, they found a pearl that brought the family many hardships. Moreover, finding the pearl began as a symbol of hope for the survival and future of Coyotito; however, it instead led to the destruction of the family. In this section of the story, the writer creates an opportunity for the story to have an interesting form of dramatic irony.

Later in the story, Juana's husband kills a man, and she has to leave the town and hide from the men who were tracking them to kill her. The irony of this allows the readers to feel the suspense in the story. With this in mind, Steinbeck uses this irony to keep his readers engaged in the story with many plot twists. Consequently, these events allow the readers to connect with the characters in many