John Steinbeck Figurative Language Essay

The Pearl, a book written by John Steinbeck, teaches a lesson about how a person can be swayed by greed. In the story, John Steinbeck uses three literary devices to help the reader understand the story better. Through foreshadowing, John Steinbeck explains how others are swayed by greed. For example, Kino himself, the villagers, and the pearl buyers are mesmerized by the pearl. Lastly, symbolism is used in the story, such as the pearl being evil luck. The author shows how Kino is overcome with greed, using characterization. Through characterization, foreshadowing, and symbolism, John Steinbeck explains how people can be affected by greed.

In this novella, I developed a thesis statement, which is: The pearl kept Kino moving forward because it represented hope during a period in his life. I chose this thesis statement because one of the aspects that makes this story move forward is Kino’s hope and greed; even if this greed is based on his hope. Steinbeck quotes: “Every man suddenly became related to Kino’s pearl, the schemes, the plans, the futures, the wishes, the needs, the lusts, the hungers of everyone, and only one person stood in the way and that was Kino, so he became curiously everyman’s enemy” (Steinbeck, 27).

Primarily, John Steinbeck, use many techniques such as repetition, word choice, and figurative language in order to change the mood of the novel, The Pearl. For example, John Steinbeck starts the book off with a setting that is peaceful and beautiful by using a tranquil word choice. However, the chapter suddenly becomes sorrowful once the baby is attacked by a scorpion. During this scene, the tone of the author’s text allowed the readers to feel the fear as if we were really there. This is one example in the story, in which a change in the mood occurs. In addition, John Steinbeck tends to add many metaphors throughout the book, which get the reader intrigued about what the metaphor symbolizes and continues to add onto the mood. According

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.

I’m going to tell you how Steinbeck rhetorically uses figurative language in his novella The Pearl.. Steinbeck is using figurative language to explain how Kino lose his humanity. For example, After kino finds out he has a whole in his canoe and house burns down Steinbeck states, “He was an animal now….”(62). The quote is showing the connotations of wild and uncontrollable to describe kino. The pearl is changing kino into a violent person just because it's not changing his life it's changing his humanity. In addition, After Kino struck Juana in the face the Steinbeck says, “He hissed at her like a snake….”(59).

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.

Kino poses the characteristic of self-pride, which eventually brings him and his family down. ". . . I will fight this thing. I will win over it. We will have our chance. His fist pounded the sleeping mat. No one shall take our good fortune from us. . ." Kino has letten the pearl take control over his life, which is indeed tragic because this beautiful and perfect rounded pearl destroys the most valuable thing that kino owns which is his family, however, as kino has let the pearl take over his life, he no longer sees his family as his most valuable posecion, but the pearl.

However, Kino was enraged with anger at Juana for trying to throw away his pearl. The pearl had changed him for the worse, it had become part of him he loved the pearl. Kino would do anything to make sure that nothing would happen to it, even if it meant beating up his wife in order to save his pearl.

In this quote, Steinbeck shows that human desire can be never satisfied, they continue to want more as greed overpowers them, one of man's greatest quality, a selfish desire that continues to grow. In the novel, Steinbeck shows that every person must deal with the struggle of good and evil. In the Pearl, evil is introduced in many different forms. It is shown in nature, such as the scorpion and shown in man, which takes form of overriding greed. In the novel, when Kino found the pearl, “every man suddenly became related to Kino's pearl, and Kino's pearl went into the dreams, the speculations, the schemes, the plans, the futures, the wishes, the needs, the lusts, the hungers, of everyone, and only one person stood in the way and that was Kino, so that he became curiously every man's enemy.” This quote shows the evil and greed in society and foreshadows the danger that the pearl creates, which will soon threaten Kino and his family. As the novel progresses the perspective of the pearl

In the end, the pearl destroys Kino’s family. Throughout the story John Steinbeck incorporates the theme that materialism and greed can lead to immoral and violent acts. He develops his theme through a sequence of unfortunate events that are peppered throughout the story, each event shows how evil and strong the feelings of greed over the pearl are.

While Kino is showing man like behaviors he is loving towards his family and tries his hardest to provide for them. “Then, without warning, he struck the gate a crushing blow with his fist.” (pg. 16) Kino was feeling frustrated and discontent and as a man the only way he knew how to deal with those feelings was to hit the fence. “Then Kino’s fist closed over the pearl and his emotion broke over him. He put back his head and howled.” (pg. 26) Emotion breaks over Kino after he finds the pearl that can help him and his family. To Kino the pearl is the best thing that

“...and his brain was red with anger” (Steinbeck 58) shows that Kino was too defensive in guarding his pearl. His animalistic behaviour is revealed when, “He struck in her the face with his clenched fist and she fell among the boulders, and he kicked her in the side” (Steinbeck 59). Kino soon realized that “life is a simple choice between greed and fear” (“Psychology”) when his son, Coyotito is murdered. Kino’s animalistic behaviour reaches the climax when “Kino was in mid-leap when the gun crashed and the barrel-flash made a picture on his eyes” (Steinbeck

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.

    The pearl plays a big part in the story. It brings down the family, changes Kinos way of thinking, and his priorities. When Kino first find the pearl it brings him hope which is shown through the quote “In the surface of the great pearl he could see dream forms.” (Steinbeck 19) this shows how his hope that things will get better for his family. The hope that he has is also shown when he is talking to everyone. He starts to talk about his dreams and there are four of them “We will be married- in the church. He spoke softly.” (24) This is the first of his hopes. The second

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