Theme of Valuable Items in The Pearl by John Steinbeck Essay Example

In the story The Pearl by John Steinbeck, Kino and Juana experience conflicts demonstrating that a valuable item can produce dangerous events. Valuable items can produce dangerous events is shown with the pearl. In the quote a gun is fired and Kino is mid leap when it blows past his face and hits coyotito who ends up dying. This event occurs when Kino and his family are hiding from the people hunting them trying to get their pearl. A shot was fired and hit coyotito when,

“Kino was mid-leap when the gun crashed and the barrel-flash made a picture on his eyes” (Steinbeck 86). When the narrator says in the quote “the gun crashed” it is shown that a gun is being fired and in this case hitting coyotito. The conflict of Coyotito dying is one that changes the story completely from then on. Kino was jumping and almost took the shot instead of it hitting coyotito but he was to late. Kino and Juana end up getting rid of the pearl and now their son is dead.  Therefore my claim of valuable items can produce dangerous events, ties into this quote because the death of Coyotito happens after they get the pearl. 

Valuable items can produce dangerous events is once again shown in this quote. Kino is running back to his house after he sees a flame. When he arrived at his house, it was on fire and everything he had was gone. This takes place after he has lost the pearl and went to go find it, but his canoe was gone. Than he saw that his house was on fire. Kino arrived at the house and saw, “Smoke of the first fires seeped out through the walls of the brush houses, and the first smell of cooking corncakes was in the air” (Steinbeck 72). When the narrator says in the quote “smoke of the first fires” described that the house was gone. From then on the fire would just spread and burn down the entire class. It was later revealed that Juan Tomas burned down the house, betraying Kino and his family. This is a great misfortune and costs them everything your have. This continues to show the theme of valuable items can produce dangerous events because their house burns down after they still have the pearl. The theme of Valuable items can produce dangerous events is shown in The Pearl by John Steinbeck.