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The Pearl Greed Quotes

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Greed has been a common theme throughout the novel, The Pearl. Literary devices such as foreshadowing, characterization, and symbolism were also used throughout the novel to describe what events occurred and how the characters dealt with their emotions. Greed affected many people living in the town including the doctor, Juana, Coyotito, and the pearl buyers. However, the person that was affected the most by greed was Kino. Greed changed Kino’s attitude, make him hurt those he loved, and created evil in the environment around his family. Kino’s attitude was drastically changed throughout The Pearl. The pearl became Kino’s whole life after he realized how much money it was worth.“This pearl has become my soul,” said Kino.”If I give it up I shall lose my soul” (Steinbeck, 65.) Foreshadowing was a huge part in the pearl because it showed us that Kino would do anything to keep the pearl. In the beginning of the book, Kino was happy with his family and his life. This was changed toward the middle of the book when Kino acted differently around his family. He started to sleep with a knife by his side, he murdered many people, and he went to many more extreme measures to keep the pearl. …show more content…
In the final chapters of the essay, Juana recognized the evil of the pearl and tried to throw it in the ocean while Kino was sleeping. After Kino saw this, he kicked and struck Juana. “He struck her in the face with his clenched fist and she fell among the boulders.” (Steinbeck, 57) The author included this to show us that Kino was changing and would do anything to keep the pearl. This is part of the literary device characterization because it showed that Kino’s personality changed throughout the book. Kino killed four men, but the pain that Kino put his family through was much more pain that anyone could have been put

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