真理大學 人文學報 第七期 326-341 頁 民國 98 年 4 月

A Thematic Study on John Steinbeck’s The Pearl

Huei-hun Tsai¾

Abstract

John Steinbeck’s novelette The Pearl embodies multiple levels of themes in

spite of its brevity. It not only continues the recurring themes in Steinbeck’s fiction
written in the 1940s like Tortilla Flat, Of Mice and Men, and Cannery Row but also
initiates those themes Steinbeck explores in later works like Wayward Bus and East of
Eden. The Pearl is a social protest to fight against the corruptions in a civilized and
commercialized society. As the Indian fisherman Kino is cruelly treated by the doctor
and the pearl buyer, the evils of a material world and the dark side of human nature
are fully presented. The Pearl is also a study on the organism of the group-man which
Steinbeck devoted himself to in the 1940s when he did research on the marine
zoology in the Gulf of California. Just as Kino’s family is the microcosm of the
fishing village so is the town the microcosm of the “world.” The correlation between
individual member-unit and the larger unit of the group-man is skillfully achieved
through Kino and the town. The Pearl then initiates the theme of good and evil which
becomes prevalent in Steinbeck’s later works. As a parable, the greatest pearl Kino
finds changes from the treasure to the torture while all the pleasures Kino anticipates
along with the pearl turn out to be the disillusionment. Only by throwing the pearl
back into the ocean can Kino regain his soul. As Kino regains his soul, he too
accomplishes the quest for the dignity of man. Through the journey, Kino begins as an
individual, then experiences as being the group-man and finally transcends to become
the “successful” individual—the ideal man. In the process of pursuing the human
dignity, Kino is initiated from a naïve and innocent fisherman into the sophisticated
“man.” His journey is the journey of everyman and serves as an allegory to all human
beings. John Steinbeck’s The Pearl, therefore, presents multiple levels of meanings
and touches many important themes recurring in Steinbeck’s works.
Key Words: John Steinbeck, The Pearl, Social Protest, Organism of the Group-man,
Parable Allegory, Kino

¾
Department of English Aletheia University

326
 A Thematic Study on John Steinbeck’s The Pearl

史坦貝克中篇小說『珍珠』主題研究

蔡慧琿¾

摘 要

（The Pearl）主題面向與意涵
史坦貝克（John Steinbeck）的中篇小說『珍珠』
複雜豐富。除了延續史坦貝克在一九四零年代的作品如『托第拉公寓』
『鼠與人』
及『罐頭工廠』中已經探討過的主題之外，更開啟史坦貝克後續作品如『伊甸園
東』中的新主題。『珍珠』批判文明和資本主義社會腐化人性，並對利慾薰心、
強食弱肉之不公義現象，提出強烈的抗議。故事主角印地安採珠人奇諾（Kino）
因為採獲巨珍珠被醫生欺騙，被珍珠販子追殺，人性的黑暗及人心的險惡表露無
遺。『珍珠』中也探討「社群人」（the group-man）之哲學，一九四零年代，史坦
貝克曾在加州灣海域研究海洋生物行為。由此研究史坦貝克提出「社群人」之觀
念，體現「以小窺大」之哲學。奇諾個人的希望由生成到幻滅，過程實為全體採
珠人之典型，而他居住的漁村則是整個世界宇宙的縮影。『珍珠』除了彰顯史坦
貝克作品中慣有之人道關懷、社會批判、以及「社群人」之哲學，並進而成為「善
惡衝突」之寓言。從寓言之層次，珍珠本質善美，然人的惡念泯滅破壞善良，奇
諾也從素樸天真陷入黑暗勢力，為自衛反成為殺人犯。歷經善惡衝突後，奇諾終
於奮力將珍珠擲回大海，才能重回寧靜的生活。他的經歷實為另一現代版之『凡
夫俗子』（Everyman），勸善懲惡之意圖不言而喻。

關鍵字：史坦貝克，
『珍珠』，抗議資本社會，「社群人」，寓言，諷喻，奇諾

¾
真理大學英美語文學系

327
真理大學人文學報第七期

I. Introduction

Among John Steinbeck’s short novels, The Pearl (1947) embodies the most
profound implications. Like Tortilla Flat (1935), Of Mice and Men (1937), and
Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl presents the recurring thematic concerns of social
protest, humanistic awareness, and the philosophy of the group-man which immensely
occupy the mind of John Steinbeck during the 1940s. Besides these realistic themes,
The Pearl initiates Steinbeck’s penchant for parable in his postwar fictions and paves
the way for Steinbeck’s masterpiece, East of Eden, the allegorical novel published in
1952. In fact, The Pearl stands at the very inception of a series of novels including
The Wayward Bus (1947), Burning Bright (1950) and East of Eden (1952), which
Steinbeck himself proclaimed to be allegorical. Accordingly, The Pearl is significant
as a turning point in Steinbeck’s writings to show the shift of emphasis from
sociological and organic concerns to the allegorical thematic concerns.
The source of The Pearl is derived from a story Steinbeck heard in 1940s during
his expeditions with Edward F. Ricketts, a lifelong friend versed in marine zoology, in
the Gulf of California. The story was about a Mexican Indian pearl diver who found a
fabulous pearl and imagined all the pleasures of life he might obtain when he sold it.
However, he was cheated and almost destroyed and finally he threw the pearl back
into the sea. As observed by Frank W. Watt in his book Steinbeck, Steinbeck based on
the original happening and enlarged it from two directions,

“On the one side, he enriched the realistic background and social
context by making the finder of the great pearl the young pearl-diver
Kino, and by depicting in greater detail the relationship of the little
Indian community with the Mexican town-dwellers, the doctor and
the pearl-brokers who despise and exploit the Indians. On the other
side, he enlarged the moral implications enormously by making the
pearl, not merely a source of wealth and selfish indulgence of various
kinds, but a symbol of total material salvation for Kino’s family” (85).

The Pearl explores multiple levels of themes just like what Steinbeck remarks in
the preface of The Pearl that “everyone takes his own meaning from it and reads his
own life into it” (473).

328
 A Thematic Study on John Steinbeck’s The Pearl

II. The Pearl as a Protest to the Corruptions in the Society

In exploring the social criticism in the fiction of John Steinbeck, Raymond M.

Sargent examines Steinbeck’s role as social critic and notes that “Steinbeck used
many techniques to convey his criticism of middle-class values, the economic system,
organized religion, businessmen, conformity, prejudice, and the way society treats its
misfits” (iv). One of the techniques Sargent finds is the use of “primitive” or
abnormal characters for conveying social criticism, because “these characters are used
as mirrors in that their treatment by society reflects society’s injustice, attitude, and
prejudice” (12). The Pearl is on the sociological level a social protest against the
corruptions in the civilized and commercialized world and men’s self-interested drive
for material wealth. The protagonist Kino, the “primitive” Indian fisherman, tries to
enter and compete against the modern industrial and commercialized society. The
vices of the world are embodied through the characterization of the town doctor and
the pearl buyer. Frank F. Watt is right when he praises the novelette as “a strong
critical attack, direct or indirect, on the ways and values of American civilization”
(84).
At the exposition of the story, we immediately discern that the poor simple life of
Kino’s family is threatened by the scorpion which symbolizes the natural evil. Kino’s
son Coyotito is stung by the scorpion. Like his defenseless infant son, Kino is
seriously hurt and exploited by the town doctor who refuses to treat his son because
Kino is too poor to pay him. The town doctor is the epitome of evil of the civilized
world, a cruel, ignorant and avaricious monster. Armand Schwerner even criticizes
him as an “incorporation of a number of medieval deadly sins, avarice, gluttony, and
lechery” (52). As Kino finds the pearl of the world, the town doctor takes advantage
of the ignorance of poor Kino and cheats him. Although Coyotito gets nearly well, the
doctor forces the baby to take white powder and pretends to fight against the poison
of the scorpion. Kino is suspicious of the doctor and he “smells the breeze and he
listens for any foreign sound of secrecy or creeping, and his eyes search the darkness,
for the music of evil is sounding in his head and he is fierce and afraid” (494). Kino
encounters the evil and vices of the civilized and commercialized society first through
the town doctor then through the pearl buyer.
Kino has the illusion to sell the greatest pearl with the good price, and he
imagines the money will bring a better life for the family since his son Coyotito will

329
真理大學人文學報第七期

be able to receive education. However, the pearl buyer is malign and sophisticated. In
the world of pearl business, there exists a faked competitive system which exploits the
ignorance of the pearl divers. In Chapter IV of The Pearl, Steinbeck describes the
business practices of the pearl buyer vividly.

“It was supposed that the great buyers were individuals acting alone,
bidding against one another for the pearls the fishermen brought in.
And once it has been so. But this was a wasteful method. …Now there
was only one pearl buyer with many hands, and the men who sat in their
offices and waited for Kino knew what price they would offer, how high
they would bid, and what method each one would use” (497).

Compared with the natural enemy, the scorpion, which attacks Kino’s son, the
human enemies Kino encounters are much more dreadful because they can plot evils
whereas the natural enemy cannot. It is not surprising that Raymond M. Sargent
condemns the pearl buyers as “liars, cheater, and parasites living off the life’s blood of
the Indians” (218).

III. The Pearl as a Study on the Organism of the Group-man

As a social protest, The Pearl accuses the greed of the town doctor and criticizes
the obsessive craving for the material interest of the pearl buyer. The corruptions of
the society strongly defeat the young, simple and innocent pearl-diver Kino. In
addition to the sociological concerns, The Pearl also touches one of the often-repeated
themes Steinbeck was interested in, that is, the organic wholeness of the group-man.
In the novelette, there are two aspects of the group-man which are examined through
the fishing village and the town. Basically, Kino’s family is the fishing village in
miniature, the microcosm of the fishermen. The organism of the village, as Howard
Levant observes in The Novels of John Steinbeck: A Critical Study, lies in the
“common actions of the family’s life in the literal and symbolic unity its Song
implies”(188). The motif of the Song of the Family recurs throughout the novelette,
for example, in Chapter I, Steinbeck writes,

The Song of the family came now from behind Kino. And the rhythm
of the family song was the grinding stone where Juana worked the corn
for the morning cakes.. . . . Juana sang softly an ancient song that had

330
 A Thematic Study on John Steinbeck’s The Pearl

only three notes and yet endless variety of interval. And this was part
of the family song too. It was all part. Sometimes it rose to an aching
chord that caught the throat, saying this is safety, this is warmth, this is
the Whole (474-5).

Daily events of Kino’s family such as making cakes and caring the baby are not
simply revealed as their duties but are granted the ritualistic significance which
demonstrates the unity of Kino’s family. Furthermore, as Kino’s people have songs of
everything that has happened or existed and the songs are all in Kino and in his people,
it is evident that there is the same tune of The Song of the Family flowing deep in
each fisherman’s family. There inherent in the traditional and simple lifestyle of the
Indian fishermen lies the threat and the ache of darkness and evils. As Michael Jon
Meyer observes, although the Song of the family “signifies safety, warmth and
wholeness, it is significant that the song sometimes rises to an aching chord that
catches in the throat” (230). On one hand, Kino, his wife Juana and their son live in a
paradise-like world. On the other hand, they always feel threatened by the natural and
human evils. Kino’s family therefore is the microcosm of the unity of the organism of
the fishing village.
Just as Kino’s family is the microcosm of the fishing village, the town becomes
the microcosm of “the world.” Since the story of Kino is derived from the expeditions
of Sea of Cortez, it manifests Steinbeck’s great interest in biology more clearly than
his other novels in 1940s. The stone town is described as “a thing like a colonial
animal. A town has a nervous system and a head and shoulders and feet. . . . And a
town has a whole emotion” (485). Specifically, the town is animated as a living
animal with its own life. Through its nervous system, the news of Kino’s pearl travels
quickly and stirs the life of the town. Also, it reminds us of the beginning of the
novelette, when Juana wanted to bring Coyotito to the doctor, “the word was passed
out among the neighbors. . . . And they repeated among themselves, ‘Juana wants the
doctor’” (477). Words and news vibrate the quietism of the organism of the town. In
fact, Steinbeck’s own description of the relationship between each member-unit and
the whole town in Chapter IV serves as the best interpretation of the organism of the
town in The Pearl.

It is wonderful the way a little town keeps track of itself

and of all its units. If every single man and woman, and

331
真理大學人文學報第七期

child and baby, acts and conducts itself in a known pattern

and breaks no walls and differs with no one and experiments
in no way and is not sick and does not endanger the ease and
peace of mind or steady unbroken flow of the town, then
that unit can disappear and never be heard of. But let one
man step out of the regular thought or the known and trusted
pattern, and the nerves of the townspeople ring with
nervousness and communication travels over the nerve lines
of the town. Then every unit communicates to the whole (497).

The equilibrium between the fishing village and the town can be maintained only
under the ordinary conditions in which the fisherman family can enjoy the simple
poor contented life whereas the pearl buyer can always succeed in his exploitation.
Nonetheless, like the constant conflicts shown by the ecological truths of nature that
“out in the estuary a tight-woven school of small fishes glittered and broke water to
escape a school of great fishes that drove in to eat them.. . . And the night mice crept
about on the ground and the little night hawks hunted them silently” (492), the
conflicts between the fishing village and the town are easily aroused when one man
steps out the regular thought or the known and trusted pattern. Kino is the man who
violates the equilibrium because he is the only person who stands against the harmony
of the fishing village and the town; as a consequence, he becomes every man’s enemy.
The dramatic conflict arrives as Howard Levant points out “only when Kino
refuses to be handled as ‘a thing’ by the pearl buyers, when he insists on his manhood
by demanding true values for the pearl that he has found”(191). Kino challenges the
business practices of the purchase system of the pearl buyer and therefore the whole
structure of the pearl buying system is strongly defied and the town reveals its nature
as an enemy by bringing violence and murder to Kino‘s family. As a group-man with
its own nature and life, the town exposes the predatory power which is pervasive and
more powerful than the organic life of the village. Moreover, it implies that as the
extension of the town, ‘the world’ where Kino intends to go for a better price for his
pearl will exercise its corrupting power to exploit Kino as well.

IV. The Pearl as a Parable of Good and Evil

The themes in The Pearl of being a social protest and a study of the group-man

332
 A Thematic Study on John Steinbeck’s The Pearl

are presented in many of Steinbeck’s works in 1940s, yet they are still not the
dominating themes in this novelette. The Pearl in a broader sense is parabolic and
allegorical. In the essay “The Pearl: Realism and Allegory,” Harry Morris calls the
novelette as “a work of a professed parabolist” and asserted that “the fable is an art
form and that the fabulist as artist has never lacked insight” (152). Furthermore,
Morris not only affirms the exciting allusiveness of the most complex symbolism
carried by the allegory but also analyzes the method of Steinbeck in handling
successfully the modern parable with detailed symbolism. According to Morris,
Steinbeck overlaid “his primary media of parable and folklore with a coat of
realism. . . . His description of the natural world is so handled as to do double and
treble duty in enrichment of symbolism and allegory” (153). Other critics also share
the aspect of the parable of the novelette beyond the theme of realistic social protest
against the corruption of the town. Richard Astro views the novelette as “a parable
about the search for happiness and the nature of man’s need to choose between the
inherently benign natural life and the frantic, self-oriented modern world” (169).
Martha H. Cox also interprets the process of Kino’s discovery, defense and finally the
disposal of the greatest pearl as “a journey from innocence to awareness, both in the
sense of an intellectual experience and an actual excursion” (112).
In the preface of The Pearl, Steinbeck indicates that the story of the pearl “has
been told so often, it has taken root in every man’s mind. And, as with all retold tales
that are in people’s hearts, there are only good and bad things and black and white
things and good and evil things and no in-between anywhere” (473). However, Joseph
Fontenrose shows opposite view in his John Steinbeck: An Introduction and
Interpretation by saying, “On the contrary, everything in The Pearl is in-between. . . .
This is a non-teleological parable.” (114). Indeed, the ambiguity and various
dimensions of implications carried in the major symbols provide the novelette with
several levels of interpretation. Here, I will concentrate on Kino the protagonist and
the greatest pearl as the most important symbols to examine the parabolical concerns
in the novelette.
It is obvious that there are two pearls, one is the literal greatest pearl which Kino
discovers in the sea and the other is the symbolic pearl, Kino’s son Coyotito.
Interestingly, it is Coyotito’s need that “forces Kino to forgo the family’s needs and
values in nature and to obey the commands of ‘the world’” (Levant 192). At first,
Coyotito is stung by a scorpion and the accident compels Kino to hunt for the greatest

333
真理大學人文學報第七期

pearl in the ocean. Later, as the greatest pearl is found, Coyotito is used at once by the
town doctor as a means to obtain the greatest pearl. However, the most significant
dream Kino sees into the pearl is the aspiration to give his son an education.
Coyotito’s death is the death of hope. Kino is awakened by the death of his son and
eventually he returns to the fishing village and rejects the pearl by throwing it back
into the ocean. Hence, with the death of Coyotito, the literal pearl becomes
meaningless to Kino. In this sense, allegorically and symbolically, Coyotito is Kino’s
pearl of great values.
Needless to say, at the beginning the literal pearl is regarded as good by Kino as
he thinks of all pleasures he and his family can have by selling it. However, as the
attacks and hurts increase, Kino’ wife Juana is afraid of the pearl and she says to Kino,
“This thing is evil. . . . This pearl is like a sin! It will destroy us” (496). And Kino’s
brother agrees with Juana, “There is a devil in the pearl. You should have sold it and
passed on the devil” (511). Kino is so excited over the pearl as to dream a better life
for the family, yet as robbery, stealing and murder follow, the dream becomes
nightmares, and “the joy of good and beauty is slowly creeping out of Kino’s life. He
is being initiated into the evil of the world; his previous naivete is destroyed” (Meyer
245). As a parable of good and evil, Steinbeck tells us through the confrontations of
Kino that “life is neither black nor white but a shade in between. Everything in life is
relative, and the motive behind one’s choice determines the moral value of the act”
(Jain 88). The Pearl transcends the realistic social concerns into the philosophical
perspective of morality which becomes more and more important in the later fictional
works of John Steinbeck.
To present the complex parable of good and evil in such a brief and moving tale,
Steinbeck skillfully creates in The Pearl a style with the quality of simplicity and uses
a pattern of symbols to “draw the delicate complexity of the parable into a tight
design” (Gray 26). Thus the literal great pearl from the ocean serves as the major
symbol in the novelette. “The pearl usually signifies purity or innocence which man
loses and tries to find,” on the contrary, “Kino has innocence and purity which are
destroyed after he discovers the pearl” (Jain 92). In addition to the symbol of the pearl,
metaphors such as the great fishes preying on the small fishes and the struggling ants
that continue onward and other insect and animal imageries such as dog, hawk, mice,
rooster, scorpion, caged birds, horses, coyotes, etc., all reveal the symbolic
implications which “enforce the dehumanization process that occurs as the story

334
 A Thematic Study on John Steinbeck’s The Pearl

progresses, as well as the animal-like existence the family leads” (Cox 121).
Moreover, Steinbeck categorizes the emotions of the fishermen and their
psychological impacts on nature and the world as different songs, such as Song of the
Family, Song of Evil and Song of the Pearl. Also, the visual effects of lightness and
darkness are handled subtly throughout the novelette to show the misty, uncertain and
illusory quality of the whole story. Finally, the poetic imagery of the sea which serves
as the environment of the fishermen, “gives and takes away like a superbly indifferent
minister of destiny” (Gray 26).

V. The Pearl as the Quest for the Dignity of Man

While discussing Steinbeck’s common hero-figures, Martha H. Cox says that

“Steinbeck’s usual hero combines a few attributes. He has a detached awareness of the
impersonal and sometimes cruel processes of the natural world, he is a good
craftsman, he is compassionate, and he tends to be thin”(115). Yet, Kino shows
different attributes. He is a quite sensitive man with great strength and courage. He
fights fearlessly against the natural and human evils and protects for what he has
earned. Although the simple poor living of Kino is entirely altered when he finds the
greatest pearl in the world, his dream of material comforts is not related to any
egoistic pleasure of his own. A closer inspection of the dream reveals that it extends to
the racial significance which attempts “to liberate his race from its accustomed
surrender to the white man’s repression” (Prabhakar 161). Among those wishes which
Kino sees in the luster of his pearl, none is more important than his hope of
knowledge for Coyotito. He says, “My son will read and open the books, and my son
will write and will know writing. And my son will make numbers, and these things
will make us free because he will know—he will know and through him we will
know” (488). Kino’s dream extends for the benefit of his race.
In spite of the racial importance of the dream, Kino’s dream examined from
another different angle by Harry Morris becomes the symbol of Kino’s being
corrupted. According to Morris, “Kino’s wants are sophisticated; he sees in the pearl
not the objects that can be bought, but beyond. Coyotito’s education will make the
Indian free, a social, political, and economic sophistication; new clothes and a church
wedding will give Kino and Juana position and respectability, again a social
sophistication; the rifle will give Kino power, an intellectual sophistication” (155).

335
真理大學人文學報第七期

This interpretation showing Kino’s change from a simple good fisherman to a

sophisticated corrupted dreamer of successes of the world expounds Steinbeck’s
growing conviction of the every-increasing nature of man’s pursuit of wealth and
power in The Pearl.
As the story develops, Kino’s discovery of the fabulous pearl stirs “the dreams,
the speculations, the schemes, the plans, the futures, the wishes, the needs, the lusts,
the hungers, of everyone” (486). But it is Kino who stands in the way and becomes
“curiously everyman’s enemy” (486). Opposing the whole world, Kino feels trapped
by everybody, and turns out to be suspicious, cautious and afraid of everyone. No
wonder when Juana asks Kino, “Who do you fear?” Kino answers, “Everyone.” Soon
as Kino defies against the way of life in the world, he is forced to leave the world to
step into another world. With stubbornness, Kino searches for justice, dignity and
pride and by and large he becomes “one of Steinbeck’s ‘positive’ men inasmuch as he
does not give up his resistance easily” (Prabhakar 162). Gradually, almost like Ahab
in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick , who hurls his challenge in the teeth of Fate to seek
for the great whale Moby Dick, Kino ventures to go to the capital to sell the greatest
pearl. Likewise, since the great whale is enlarged as the soul of Ahab, the great pearl
as declared by Kino has become his soul. “This pearl has become my soul. . . If I give
it up, I shall lose my soul” (513). By making the pearl his soul, Kino determines to
search for his dignity as a man rather as a thing. Kino’s brave and stubborn defense of
his right at the expense of his soul foreshadows that only through the surrender of the
pearl can Kino regain his own true soul.
The journey of Kino from a “primitive” fisherman to a victim of the corrupted
society and finally a hurt but wiser man returning to his village realizes what Jain
observes in John Steinbeck’s Concept of Man. In the process of gaining and
renouncing the pearl, Kino experiences three parts of Steinbeck’s concept of man, that
is, “man as just an individual, man as group animal, and man as a ‘successful’
individual, or ideal man”(1). Kino attains his dignity and regains his soul. Viewed
from this aspect, Kino is similar to Santiago in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and
the Sea. They both set their goal and do their best to achieve it, yet fail to realize the
material rewards they expect; however, they lose with dignity. Like what Edward E.
Waldron notes, “These protagonists achieve stature that is worth all the marlins and
pearls in the ocean” (81).

336
 A Thematic Study on John Steinbeck’s The Pearl

VI. The Pearl as an Allegory of Everyman

Up to this point, when we reexamine the process from Kino’s discovery to his
defense for the pearl against all the attacks and threats, we notice that both Kino and
the greatest pearl have taken on allegorical meanings. Before finding the pearl, Kino,
in his primitive simplicity, is good. However, the pearl, which has been overburdened
with multiple symbolic equivalence “stands for greed, for beauty, for materialism, for
freedom from want, for evil, for good, for effete society, degenerate religion, and
unethical medicine, for the strength and virtue of primitive societies—the pearl, with
these words of Kino, stands for Kino’s soul” (Morris 159). During the course of
defending the pearl, Kino has suffered both spiritually and physically. Viewed from
the spiritual aspect, Kino is the representative of Everyman who stumbles in his
journey of the salvation of his soul. Confronting the civilized and commercialized
world which glitters with deceitful wealth and power, Kino faces the misfortunes and
“descends deeper and deeper into the dark night of the soul” (Morris 154). In the
meantime, physically, Kino is cheated, exploited and hurt while his hut is burned
down and his canoe is destroyed. Moreover, Kino himself becomes brutal as he once
strikes his wife and also kills the dark assailants when he is pursued. The sufferings
culminate when his son Coyotito is killed. Hence, all his dreams for the future,
ironically, are defeated. Struggling upon the route to defy the iniquities of the world
and to protest the pearl, Kino recognizes the vanity of human wishes and begins to see
the pearl as a gray and ulcerous thing rather than a promise of fortune and future.
At the end the disposal of the pearl for which Kino fights against all the
destructions reaches the climax of the story. The action of hurling the pearl back into
the sea symbolizes that it is necessary for human beings to choose “between the
inherently benign natural life and the frantic, self-oriented modern world,” that is,
“the choice between simplicity and luxury” (Astro 169). Having gone through the
bitterness, the pain and the agony by losing his home, his canoe, and his son along
with tolerating the dreadful night flight, his pursuit and desperate struggle in the
barren hinterland, Kino sees the pearl with a transformed meaning, “the pearl was
ugly; it was gray, like a malignant growth. And Kino heard the music of the pearl,
distorted and insane. . . . Kino drew back his arm and flung the pearl with all his
might” (527). And we notice that Juana, with comprehension and compassion, offers
Kino the opportunity to throw the pearl back to the ocean.

337
真理大學人文學報第七期

This final disposal of the pearl shows us three aspects of meaning. On the
realistic level, the irony of the novelette is complete. The pearl which should have
been the means of assisting Kino to achieve his dream of success has indeed been an
agent of disaster, producing merely despair, bitterness, agony and finally death.
Secondly, as a parable, Kino gains the knowledge about good and evil by
“confronting the forces of evil, recognizing them, and then consciously rejecting
them” (Marks 107). However, it is from the allegorical level that we notice Kino’s
journey from innocence to awareness is accomplished, that is to say, Kino is initiated
from a simple and innocent young man to a sophisticated “man”. Michael J. Meyer is
right when he points out that the final disposal of the pearl and then the return to the
fishing village show “a hint of catharsis and redemption, a return from the valley of
the shadow of death” (263). Kino’s journey completes in full circle and becomes a
primitive tribal rite of initiation.

VII. Conclusion

The Pearl embraces so many meanings. As a social critic, Steinbeck attacks on

human greed, materialism, and the corruptions of a commercialized world through the
characters like the doctor and the town in The Pearl. While as an enthusiast of marine
zoology, Steinbeck uses Kino’s family as an epitome of the fishing village and the
town as the microcosm of the world. Kino’s family and the town serve well for the
study of the communal units of the wholeness of the organism of the group-man.
Similar to Tortilla Flat, Of Mice and Men and Cannery Row, The Pearl continues the
recurring themes of the social protest and the study on the organism of the group-man
which Steinbeck has explored in his novels and short stories in the 1940s. By
expanding the social context and enriching the moral implications, Steinbeck changes
the original simple and primitive folklore into a complicated parable.
Retaining the frame as a social protest and as a study of the group-man, The
Pearl although shows its connection with the former short novels, yet the tone shifts
from gaiety to pathos. And through the parabolic and allegorical elements which
undergo and blend with the realistic elements, we perceive that The Pearl shows
obvious thematic changes. As a parable, the greatest pearl in The Pearl becomes a
symbol both of good and of evil. The paradox shows that which seems beautiful and
pure might be evil whereas that which appears simple and primitive might be
complicated. Similar to the symbol of the pearl, Kino is initiated from an innocent

338
 A Thematic Study on John Steinbeck’s The Pearl

Indian pearl diver to an experienced and sophisticated man. Kino discovers the pearl
but loses his soul and descends to the level as a beast. However when he finally
disposes the pearl, he regains his soul and returns to be a man of dignity. The Pearl
therefore becomes an allegorical journey as it touches an essential problem of
choosing between the simple benign natural world and the corrupted self-interested
modern world, and moreover, the choice between good and evil. As a parable of good
and evil and an allegory of everyman, The Pearl foreshadows the major thematic
concerns in Steinbeck’s masterpiece East of Eden.
The Pearl is abundant in meanings although it is simple and short. Readers of
different ages, races and genders could relate to the occurrences and struggles of the
protagonist Kino. It is no wonder that Jay Parini in his John Steinbeck: a Biography,
writes “the novella has become a set-piece of high-school literature courses and a
perennial favorite of young readers” (385). Like what the word “pearl” literally means
The Pearl is a piece of gem, worthwhile for the readers worldwide to keep and
cherish.

339
真理大學人文學報第七期

Works Cited

Astro, Richard. John Steinbeck and Edward F. Ricketts: The Shape of a Novelist.
Minneapolis: The Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1973.
Cox, Martha Heasley. “Steinbeck’s The Pearl” in A Study Guide to Steinbeck: A
Handbook to His Major Works. Ed. Tetsumaro Hayashi, Metuchen, N. J.: The
Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1974. 112-121.
Davis, Robert Murray. ed. Steinbeck: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood
Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972.
Fontenrose, Joseph. John Steinbeck: An Introduction and Interpretation. New York:
Holt, 1963.
Gray, James. John Steinbeck. Pamphlets on American Writers, Univ. of Minnesota,
1971.
Hayashi, Tetsumaro. ed. A Study Guide to Steinbeck: A Handbook to His Major Works.
Metuchen, N. J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.,1974.
---. A New Study Guide to Steinbeck’s Major Works, with Critical Explications.
Metuchen, N. J., & London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.,1993.
---. Steinbeck’s Literary Dimension: A Guide to Comparative Studies. Series II.
Metuchen, N. J., & London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1991.
Jain, Sunita Goel. John Steinbeck’s Concept of Man. Ann Arbor, MI: University
Microfilms International, 1972.
Levant, Howard. The Novels of John Steinbeck: A Critical Study. Columbia, Missouri:
Univ. of Missouri Press, 1974.
Marks, Lester J. Thematic Design in the Novels of John Steinbeck. The Hague:
Mouton, 1971.
Meyer, Michael Jon. Darkness Visible: The Moral Dilemma of Americans as
Portrayed in the Early Short Fiction and Later Novels of John Steinbeck. Ann
Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International, 1986.
Morris, Harry. “The Pearl: Realism and Allegory” in Steinbeck: A Collection of
Critical Essays. Ed. Davis, Robert Murray. Englewood Cliffs, N. J. :
Prentice-Hall Inc., 1972. 149-59.
Prabhaknar, S. S. John Steinbeck: A Study: Motifs of Dream and Disillusionment.
Hyderabad, India: Academic Publishers, 1976.
Parini, Jay. John Steinbeck: a Biography. London: Heinemann, 1994.

340
 A Thematic Study on John Steinbeck’s The Pearl

Sargent, Raymond Matthews. Social Criticism in the Fiction of John Steinbeck. Ann
Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International, 1981.
Schwerner, Armand. John Steinbeck’s The Red Pony and The Pearl. New York:
Monarch Press, Inc.,1965.
Steinbeck, John. The Short Novels of John Steinbeck. New York: The Viking Press,
1953.
Watt, Frank William. Steinbeck. Edinburgh: Olive and Boyd, 1972.
Waldron E. Edward. “The Pearl and The Old Man and the Sea: A Comparative
Analysis” in Steinbeck’s Literary Dimension: A Guide to Comparative Studies
Series II. Ed. Tetsumaro Hayashi, Metuchen, N. J.. & London, 1991. 80-90.

341