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The Pearl

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Submitted By jasminaamolinaa
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One simple action can cause a chain reaction. In the novella, “The Pearl”, by John Steinbeck, the two main characters Kino and Juana go through many life changing moments. From the scorpion bite to their child, to the destroyed canoe, every event in this book leads to another. The three main events that this story is based on are the scorpion bite, the finding of the pearl and Kino murdering the mysterious man in the night. If one of these events had been modified the story would have been completely different. The first main event that had a great impact on the story is the bite of the scorpion to baby Coyotito. when the baby is bitten by the poisonous scorpion Juana starts pray for the babies safety while Kino run to get a doctor to help with the baby. When Kino finally gets a hold of the doctor he refuses to help them because they had no money to pay him for his services. So Kino and Juana had to take the ill baby out to sea to search for pearl to receive money to pay for a doctor. Which leads us to the next event. The second main event is the finding of the pearl. Kino got to the place where the oysters lived went underwater and reached for the biggest oyster he could set his eyes on. When he got back to the canoe to open the oysters he collected he opened the biggest on first. The oyster finally cracked open and Kino and Juana were amazing my the size. The pearl was huge, it also did a strange thing! It seemed to have healed the baby of the scorpion bite. The family returned back to their home and the news of the pearl spread like wildfire. They invited their friends and family to share the joyous moment with them. Then the doctor appeared and insisted to see the baby, when Kino told him the Coyotito was all better the doctor claimed that the bite had gotten worse and he would die in a matter of hours. Kino and Juana didn’t hesitate to show the baby to the doctor who gave the baby a pill that would make him better in an hour, but instead of healing the baby it made him even more sick. The night came and Kino stayed up to protect his family and the pearl. The next day came, Kino and Juana went to sell the pearl but none of the pearlers would give him the amount he wanted. So he refused to sell the pearl. The refusal to sell the pearl caused my upcoming problems and misfortunes. The third main event was caused because Kino refused to sell the pearl. So a mob of men tried to steal the pearl in the night and Kino accidentally murdered of of them. Because of the murder Kino and his family had to flee La Paz. The fear of being prosecuted scared Kino and Juana so they fled the town to avoid the prosecution. But when they realized that they were being follower they hid in a cave. When two of the followers were asleep, Kino was going to at attack the one that was awake so he could be able to kill the others in their sleep. Kino was ready to attack when Coyotito let out a loud cry waking the other two men up, they thought it was a wolf and decided to shoot one time in the direction of the cry. That one shot hit the baby and unfortunately killed him. Kino then went on a rampage and killed the three men. He went back to the cave and realized him son was dead, he and Juana the started to walk back home. When they got there, they went out to sea and let the pearl into the ocean to sink.
Kino saw all his misfortunes and all of his lose in the evil pearl. He realized that the pearl had caused him to be greedy and selfish. He was glad to let the evil go. The Law of Karma is also known as the Law of Cause and Effect. See if Kino had sold the pearl the story would be very different. Kino would have never killed the mobber, therefore he wouldn’t have to run away and the baby would have never gotten killed. But since Kino didn’t sell the pearl the three main events were the scorpion bitting the baby, the finding of the pearl and murder of the mysterious man in the night.

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