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The Pearl

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• ESSAY: Analyse the setting of “The Pearl”: Is it of major or minor importance? What effects has it on the characters?

The analysis of the setting of any story poses a question: Is this setting significant to the story? In the case of “The Pearl”, it is decisive as well as constructing due to the fact that it provides us with the perfect background to understand the vital messages the story conveys. Firstly, concerning place, on the one hand, the Mexican Indian village (La Paz) where the story is set, adequately represents human desires, plans, and motives to form civilization. On the other hand, the time, possibly late nineteenth or early twentieth century, illustrates the scene of that time: colonial society’s oppression of native cultures. Secondly, it is not random the fact that the writer chooses a specific landscape: the natural world, which makes the setting more suitable for the story as for its role to parallel the human world. This reflects both the natural world’s innocence (Kino’s innocence at the beginning of the novella) and the natural world’s darker qualities (the struggle Kino experiences at the end). Apart from that, the descriptions of the sea exemplify the fact that life is a battle for survival from which only the strongest remain alive. Thirdly, the setting undoubtedly exerts considerably influence on the characters selected, especially the main ones. In the first place, Kino’s belonging to a native tribe, which after the Spanish colonization of Mexico is still subjugated to the Spanish colonial authorities, highlights the forces of colonization and the destructive effect these have on native cultures. As a part of this native tribe, Kino is a simple character, motivated by basic drives, such as his family and loyalty to the traditions of his village. In addition, the disillusionment Kino undergoes with the pearl,

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