Другое : Steinbeck, John. The Pearl
Steinbeck, John. The Pearl
Steinbeck, John. The Pearl
The Plot:
The parable “The Pearl” deals with a
drasticincident in the life of Kino, a poor Indian fisherman, and his wife. The
storyis set in the little village “La Paz”, which is situated on thecoast of
the Gulf on California.
A new day begins and Kino awakens
next to his wife Juana intheir simple hut which is made of brush. The
couple sleeps on mats on the dirtяoor and their little son Coyotito sleeps in a
hanging box. Kino is happy andcontent with his life despite the family is very
poor. He watches the sunriseand listens to the sounds of the morning. During he
watches the sunrise hehearsthe Song of the Family in his mind. When Kino hears
the Song of the Family playing in his mind,it’s an indication, that all is
well. The Song of the Family or the Songof Evil, which occurs later in the
play, are songs who play in the mindsof theIndian people in this story. These
ancient songs have been passed fromgeneration to generation and they start to
play in the minds of the Indianpeople when good or evil things happen. But
suddenly a disaster happens, because apoisonousscorpion stings Coyotito. Juana
takes her child immediately and sucks out thepoison. Because of the screaming
of Coyotito the whole neighbourhood comes tothe hut of the family, including
Kino’s brother Juan Thomasand his wifeApolonia. Juana tells Kino to get the
doctor, but this is impossible, because ofthe class distinction between Indian
people and Spanish people. Kino also has nomoney, to pay the doctor for his
treatment. But Juana isn’t impressed bythat and decides to go to the doctor,
because she wants to do everything for herchild. When the neighbourhood gets to
know about their plan, they join Kino andJuana walking to the doctor. But as
supposed, the doctor denies to examineCoyotito, because he family owns no
money. Therefore Kino is in rage and heangrily punches the door. The next
morning, when Kino and Juana come down to thebeach, she makes a poultice of
seaweed and put it on Coyotito’s shoulder.This remedy is probably as good as
the treatment of the doctor, but the remedylacks his authority, because it is
simple and doesn’t cost anything. Thenthey push the canoe into the water and paddle together to the oyster
bed whereKino fishes and searches for pearls. Kino knows, that a great
pearl will bringhim a lot of money, but he doesn’t dare to hope for such a
great pearl,because it isn’t good to want too much. A short time after Kino started todive, he
finds a large oyster in which is a great and perfect pearl. NowKino’s
troubles seem to be over and he believes thatthe pearl will makehim rich and
that his son Coyotito can be cured and go to school some day. WhileKino he holds
the pearls in his hand, the swelling of Coyotito’s shoulderhas gone down. It
seems, that the poisonis leaving the body of the child. Kinois screams very loud, because he is so
happy now, and this loud screamingattracts the other fishers and divers and they
come to his canoe to look whathas happened. Because Kino is a rich man
now, the other people are enviousof him and he becomes an outsider. In the
following night he is even attacked bya thief, who wants to steal the great
pearl. And the people become interested inKino, because they want his money.
The priest comes, because he needs money forsome repairs of the church and even
the doctor claims now, that the son of thefamily, Coyotito, is a patient of
him. When the doctor comes to
Kino`s hut, Kinois filled with fear and rage, but he lets the doctor in when he
claims, thatthere can be a delayed reaction to the scorpion sting. The
doctor makes a greatshow and uses different remedies to “heal” Coyotito, who
alreadyseems very healthy. He
even visits Coyotito a second time and claims then, thathe won the fight
against the death.
Later in the night Kino is attacked
a second time by a thiefin their hut. Kino is wounded in the fight and Juana
begs Kino now to throw thepearl away, because she feels it is evil and it will
destroy the family. ButKino refuses, because he wants to realise his
dreams.
The next day Kino tries to sell the
pearl to pearl buyers inthetown, but they only offer him a very small amount of
money. They know, thatthe pearl is worth a lot, but they want to buy it
very cheap and pretend that itis no good. Kino is very angry about this and
says that he willsell his pearlin the capital, because he wants to get a fair
price. In the evening, Kino is attacked again, but he can chaseaway the
attacker. Juana believes, that the pearl is evil and wants Kino oncemore to
throw it away. Later inthe night, Juana removes quietly from hersleeping place
and goes out of the hut with something in her hand. She wants tothrow the pearl
away, but Kino stops her and beats her for this attempt. When hereturns to his
hut,Kino is attacked again, but this time by two men. He killsone of them and
the other one escapes. Kino knows that he must go away now,because he killed
someone. Before they can escape, their canoe is destroyed andtheirhut is
burned. They hide until the next night in the hut of Kino’sbrother, Juan
Thomas. In the following night the family start their journey to thecapital,
but soon they realise, that they are chased by a group of three people.The
family яee up the mountain and hide in a small cave and their pursuerspitch
their camp not far away from them. Kino knows that the only possibility
tosurvive is, to kill one person of the group, to take his riяe, and to kill
theother two, who are sleeping. When Kino starts to attack the man with the
riяe, suddenlyhis son Coyotito begins to cry and the man with the riяe shoots
in thisdirection. But then Kino overpowers the man and he also kills the other
two man.When Kino returns to the cave, he sees that his son Coyotito was killed
beforeby the shot of the man.
On the next day Kino and Juana
return to their town carryingtheir dead child and the riяe. They walk through the town
to the coast withoutspeaking to anyone and throw the pearl into the sea.
Main Characters:
Kino: He is an honest and
responsible man, who divesfor pearls to support his family. He works
very hard, but nevertheless he isvery poor. When his son Coyotito gets ill, he hopes to find a pearl to able topay
for his cure. He also hopes, that such a pearl provides him and his
familypeace and wealth in the future. Like most human beings, he wants to
getahead. But Kino is also very intelligent, because he knows that heand the
other Indians have been exploited by rich and powerful man. He alsorealises,
that he has become a new victim for the exploitation by powerful menafter he
had found the pearl. The doctor or the pearl buyers are the bestexample for
such men. But Kino becomes aware of this and in the end of the storyhe sees,
that the powerful and rich man would even kill him and his family, toget more
power and money. Juana: She is a very intelligent and responsiblepersonality,
but also a loving and devoted wife. At first it seems, that she iscompletely servile and that she would do
anything what Kino wants. But in courseof the play we see that she has a
great inner strength and will. For example atthe beginning, whenher son is
bitten by a scorpion, she acts in the right wayand tries to suck out the poison
out of Coyotito’s body. She also insiststhat they go to the doctor, although
the other people mean, that the doctorwon’t cure Coyotito. Juana has also a
strong instinct to save the life of herbaby. When the doctor refuses to cure
Coyotito, Kino punches angrily on the doorof the doctor, but his wife acts in
the right way and tries to heal Coyotito byputting a poultice of seaweed on the
shoulder of her son.
She also acts with the same strength
when she wants to throwthe pearl away, because she believes that this pearl
threatens her family, butin this case Kino has his way and is able to stop her.
The doctor:He is the typical rich
and powerfulinhabitant of “La Paz”. For him, money counts more than a
humanlife. Even when Kino and Juana comes to his house with their ill son
Coyotito,he refuses to cure him, becausehe wouldn’t get any money for
thetreatment. But when he hears that Kino found a pearl and is now a rich man,
heclaims that Coyotito is his patient and pretends to worry about the ill
baby.Therefore the doctor isa very materialistic character, who symbolises
thearrogance of powerful people towards poor people.
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