Dreams Gone and The Ending

In the back half of Stienbeck’s intriguing novel the Pearl we see Kino’s desperation for a better life destroy most of what he had. His wife tries to throw the pearl back into the ocean in order to save Kino from his paranoia. He follows her and throws her to the ground. He then tries to return home but is attacked by a man. He kills him and runs to flee with his family in his canoe. As he nears the ocean he finds his canoe broken and so he travels back to the village. Here he finds his house burned. He and his wife flee to Kino’s brother’s house for safety. Stienbeck’s dark turn only reinforces his anti-capitalistic views, showing readers how much better Kino’s life would have been without his dreams of the pearl.

In the end Kino’s acceptance of wealth’s evil is brought on by the loss of his son. The bitter sweet ending Stienbeck gives his audience only strengthens the tune he had played throughout the novel. That tune being that misfortune follows those dreaming of wealth. I also recognized Stienbeck’s condemnation towards Kino’s ancestors who had “dreamt of having more” by sending someone to the capitol to sell pearls for them. Stienbeck punishes Kino’s ancestors by writing that after two times of sending merchants to the capitol neither returned, after which the pearlers gave up their dreams. Stienbeck’s repeated situations that support his tune give structure to his somewhat communistic beliefs but in the end he blends morals with plot to create a wonderful book.