The pearl by John Steinbeck is a novella how explors man's nature as well as greed and evil.

The story begins with a young strong and poor Mexican-Indian pearl diver how loves in a small town with his wife Juana and his baby son,Coyotito.When Coyotito is stung by a scorpion, Kino must find a way to pay the town doctor, an extremely prejudiced white man, to cure Kino's son. When Kino discovers an enormous pearl, he is ready to sell it for money to pay the doctor. But other forces work against Kino.Nearly as soon as Kino returns from sea, the whole town knows of the pearl. Nicknamed "the pearl of the world," many people begin to crave it.Soon after the pearl is found, Kino is attacked in his own home and he decided to take it to the pearl buyers in the town and tries to receive a good price.When the pearl buyers refuse to give him the amount of money that Kino wants, he decides to go to the capital to find a better price. However, Juana, seeing that the pearl is causing darkness and greed, sneaks out of the house late at night to throw the pearl back into the ocean. When Kino catches her, furious, he drives her to the ground and leaves her on the beach. Returning to the house,Kino is attacked by several unknown men, one who is killed by Kino and one who knocks Kino down and tries to find the pearl. When it is not found, the attacker leaves, but Juana, recovered, finds it again and gives it to Kino.When they go back to the town, their home is found burning down. Kino and Juana spend the day in the shadows of Juan Toms (Kino's brother)'s house, hiding from the townspeople and gathering their strength to find the capital city. Only then can they hope to sell the pearl for a decent price. When the family travels away, they realize that they are being tracked by men who are hired to hunt them.When Kino, Juana, and Coyotito hide, Kino realizes that he must get rid of the trackers if they are to survive the trek to the capital. Desperately, Kino hides at night near the trackers' camp, ready to attack, but the men hear the cry of baby Coyotito. One of the men cock a rifle to shoot in the direction of the cry, where Juana and Coyotito lie, and as Kino leaps to stop him, the man shoots. Kino tackles the man down and kills the remaining tracker.Kino and Juana then return to La Paz, no longer wanting the pearl, with Coyotito's dead body. At the end, Kino throws the pearl back into the ocean himself realising that the pearl has caused nothing but pain,greed and evil