How Does Steinbeck Use Imagery In Of Mice And Men

The way people perceive things, can change how they react in different surroundings. Kino interprets that everyone is a threat to him and his family, so he always has his guard up, and is cautious around most people. On the other hand, his wife Juana is more laid-back and calm around other people because the way she sees things is different than Kino’s. Suspense is built around the way people see things, therefore the author builds more suspense with Kino in his scenes. Steinbeck uses a lot of description in his story, “The Pearl”, to build suspense throughout the text.

I also liked the way Steinbeck subtlety described Kino’s animalistic behavior He described Kino’s actions like going to higher elevations or drinking from a little pool of water to let

Throughout the book you see how the pearl causes Kino’s inner animal to take over which causes him to do irrational things. For example, in the book, it states,” Kino looked down at her and his teeth were bared.” (Steinbeck 59). When Kino bares his teeth it shows he is becoming more and more animal like. This shows that Kino is thinking more with emotions than logic and Steinbeck portrays him as a snarling animal. It continues in the next sentence when Steinbeck uses the simile ,”He hissed at her like a snake.” This shows that the pearl is taking away Kino’s and his family’s humanity.

The boat is a symbol for family, and now that the boat has been destroyed, the family is now being destroyed. Steinbeck used darkness for the villagers that burnt down Kino’s home. The determination that Kino has to keep the pearl is starting to become destruction. With everything that had happened to Kino and his family. Kino is ready to start a new life with his family. If the pearl could be sold, the money that they get from the pearl will help Coyotito go to school and have a good life. As Kino is starting his new life by escaping he hears the music of the pearl in his head. Steinbeck presents Kino as an animal because as the novel progress, Steinbeck presents Kino as a wild animal that is being hunted by the villagers.

This quote shows the greed in Kino is getting greater and greater. The reader can tell this because Kino is willing to hurt the person who he loves the most, and who loves him the most, just to keep his pearl safe.

His family was really close and they loved each other without money. His obsession with the pearl caused his son Coyotito to die. Kinos tends to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something he does not have but appreciating and recognizing what he does have. Throughout the pearl” Kino and his family learned this the hard way. The pearl demonstrates Kino was already making a hard skin for himself against the world”(29). Kino changes his character throughout the story by his thoughts and actions. In the first chapter of the novel kino is presented as a loving protect her husband who wants nothing more than support for his family. Furthermore to know was cruel to his wife after he found the pearl. Having a lot of money but not being happy is worse than being happy and not having money. Perhaps, people should learn the having a lot of money is not as important as

Throughout the story, Steinbeck displays Kino’s animalistic and childlike traits in various ways. An example would be Kino howling at the discovery of the pearl, similar to a wolf howling to the moon (pg.

When Kino is first introduced in the beginning, he is thrilled with the joy of the simple things in life. “And this was part of the family song too. It was all part. Sometimes it rose to an aching chord that caught his throat, saying this is safety, this is warmth, this is Whole. Kino was young and strong and his black hair hung over his brown forehead. His eyes were warm and fierce and bright and his mustache was thin and coarse.”(4). As described in the passage Kino is seen as a warm, cordial person in the beginning of the novella when he had not yet encountered the pearl. He shines bright with hope and love, feeling safe. With the song of the family beating loudly at heart, his only goal is to be with them. However, being caught in awe wondering if all of this is true, Kino starts to think maybe it was all too good to be true however he decides to forget his worries. Unfortunately his decision to forget his worries proves not to be a good choice when his luck of fate starts to change. “He hissed at her like a snake, and Juana stared at him with wide unfrightened eyes, like a sheep before the butcher. She knew there was murder in him, and it was all right; she had accepted it, and she would not

     Kino overall symbolizes clearly good and innocent. Kino is thought of as 'a wise, primitive man' who is hungry for fortune because of the great pearl, which he discovers and later in the story he becomes 'an angry, frightened, but resolute man, determined to keep what he has earned'. He is a young diver who lives in a small village on the coastline of

Kino and Juana hear the Song of the Family when they are at peace and trying to protect their family. Family is idolized by its warmth and safety throughout the novella. In the beginning of The Pearl, Kino protects his family above all else and does this in an animalistic way. Family is closely tied together to gender roles in the text, since the duty of the mother and father, husband and wife are an important part of identity. The narrator explained, "Kino heard the creak of the rope when Juana took Coyotito out of his hanging box and cleaned him and hammocked him in her shawl in a loop that placed him close to her breast. Kino could see these things without looking at them. Juana sang softly an ancient song that had only three notes and yet endlessly variety of interval. And this was part of the family song too...aching chord that caught the throat, saying this is safety, this is warmth, this is the Whole (Steinbeck 9). Juana's song has three notes to represent the three members of her and Kino's family. When Coyotito dies, the entire family is completely destroyed: what is left is no longer whole. While the pearl sparks greed in people's hearts the purity of the family is in danger. The love of family is real and not dependent on monetary value. The greed associated with the pearl blinds Kino's eyes to

“Kino’s ears the song of the family was fierce as a cry”(89). His ears started to fill with the family song again after Coyotito’s death. It brought him back to reality. The song of the family drove out evil “The family song was alive now and driving him down on the dark enemy”(89-90). The family started to come back together after Coyotito’s death.

“When you can no longer feel the life that you are, you are likely to try to fill up your life with things.” This quote from an unknown source explains that when a person receives something, they may think that it is the best thing they have ever found, but all it really does is make you do bad things which have major consequences. In the novella The Pearl by John Steinbeck, a poor fisherman named Kino finds the pearl of the world -- a pearl the size of a seagull's egg that is the biggest pearl anyone has ever found, only for it to destroy him and his family. Kino, having found a great pearl, is determined to get money and buy a rifle. He also wants to put Coyotito, his son, in school to get a good education.

In The Pearl, greed played a major role in how the story developed and in Kino, the main character. John Steinbeck, the author of The Pearl, uses many literary devices such as characterization, symbolism, and foreshadowing to make a fantastic novel and a great story. Kino was consumed by the pearl, and together became one soul. He was so full of greed that the pearl became his life, and in the end it destroyed him, Juana, and Coyotito completely. This story is a prime example of how greed can not only corrupt and change one person but in the process affect multiple people’s lives.

Kino is beginning to realize how at first the pearl seemed to have brought fortune and good to his family, but it really had only brought evil to the family. By the end of the story, Kino and Juana have lost their son, Coyotito, and they wish things were back to the way they were before they found the pearl. Kino then throws the pearl back out into the ocean where he had found it: “And the music of the pearl drifted to a whisper and disappeared” (90). The music disappearing as the pearl sink back into the ocean symbolizes the evil leaving the family: now that the pearl has left, so has the evil. Kino now understands that their “wealth” has brought nothing but evil and has destroyed both himself as well as his family. Not only does Steinbeck use the motif of music to express the theme that good fortune, wealth, and prosperity steer even the most innocent of people towards a path of evil and corruption, but he also uses the motif of light and dark imagery.

For Kino, the ‘pearl of great price’ initially manifests itself as the opulent catalyst to his elaborate fantasies including new clothes for his family and a proper education for his son. Eventually, these dreams extend to the possession of a rifle as ‘humans are never satisfied’. ‘And the music of the pearl rose like a chorus of trumpets in his ears … It was the wildest day-dreaming.’ Simile associates the pearl’s wealth and its accompanying anthem with victory; the victory of achieving his dreams; of being able to protect and sustain his family. However, the unsuccessful reality of Kino’s ownership of the pearl leads him to alter his reality substantially. ‘For his dream of the future was real and never to be destroyed.’ Confronted by his selfless dreams being greedily denied by others and the pearl’s music exposed to be ‘interwoven with the music of evil’, Kino becomes barbaric and violent. ‘He was an animal now, for hiding, for attacking, and he lived only to preserve himself and his family.’ Metaphor elucidates Kino’s transition to inhumanity due to the overwhelming failure of his family-focussed dreams. The only dream Kino fulfils is his possession of a rifle which he gains through the act of murder. ‘Kino was a terrible machine now. He grasped the rifle even as he wrenched free his knife.’ Depicted as apathetic automaton through metaphor, Kino’s descent into callousness and cruelty by his ambition is further displayed. Steinbeck’s ‘The Pearl’ conveys the psychological consequences that arise from dreams that are within