Deception In "The Pearl"

As the large bird of prey swooped down to grab the lizard, it suddenly disappears from sight, blending in with its environment in perfect deception. The Pearl would appear at first to be the account of a young, happy couple with a healthy newborn. The two, Juana and Kino, are poor, but satisfied with the life they live. Not only that, but those that live in the village care deeply about each other, and the entire community seems to function as a family. But, might we have been deceived by John Steinbeck in his writing of The Pearl? Might Kino have been deceived in trusting and caring for those that he did? It may very well be so, because try as we might to see things for what the truly are, we are very often deceived and left vulnerable by our own good nature.

In the first chapter, the author sets up a false sense of security in which Juana and Kino reside. Their village seems to be composed of natives that are considerate of the whole town in every move that they make, and that care for each other deeply. However, this all changes as soon as an abnormally desirable object is brought into the picture. John Steinbeck writes, "...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. The news stirred up something infinitely black and evil in the town," and later, "The poison sacs of the town began to manufacture venom, and the town swelled and puffed with the pressure of it." And so, as you can see, Kino had been deceived, for he had been led to believe that the people of the town would be happy for him, because those were the kind of people he had thought he was surrounded by. The deeds shown previously, for instance, the way that the whole village had accompanied Kino on his way to fetch the doctor, had probably led him to think that they truly did want was best for him. Perhaps, I think, the village had been filled with a sick curiosity as so many of us succumb to on a regular basis, as opposed to really caring for Kino, Juana, and baby Coyotito.

Close to the village of the natives lay the stable cement buildings which housed the more successful residents of the village, and in these were the pearl buyers, who were also out to deceive Kino. And also, this was the part of the town that housed the doctor, who had impatiently turned Kino down when he had first requested help for his son. As the news traveled throughout the town that Kino had found the Pearl of the World, the doctor began to boast that he was the one treating Coyotito, the son of the finder of the great pearl. The doctor went to see Kino, and when he did he saw that the baby had healed on its own, without his help.

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