The Pearl

The Pearl is a great book about tragedy and loss, but in the end the main character,

Kino, does learn something. Well, if you have not figured out the lesson yet, or just haven’t

read the book, just by reading this essay you will learn them as I have. There are tons of morals

in The Pearl, but here are some of the ones that really stood out to me, they include: “Don’t let

material possessions get the better of you”, ”Ignorance can be your greatest weakness”, and

”With power comes responsibility”.

The first one, “Don’t let material possessions get the better o you”, is a pretty basic

concept and is a little self-explanatory. If you give into wealth of something such as money or

land, or in Kino’s case, a pearl, it might just change your life. The pearl made Kino very violent,

as the book shows he killed men and beat his wife just to stay in possession of it. It also made

him go to great lengths and take unspeakable risks to keep hold of the pearl. You could say that

Coyotito’s death was partly Kino’s fault, because I was Kino’s responsibility for the pearl and his

son got killed for it. So you should make sure you are in control of items in your life, and that

they are not in control of you.

“Ignorance can be your greatest weakness”, what I mean by that is, if you’re ignorant

like Kino was, you could be tricked all around, and not even know it. Kino was tricked by the

doctor because he poisoned Coyotito, but blamed it on the scorpion. Kino prayed for his

ignorance and the doctor. The priest got him thinking, he needed an official wedding, Kino

would’ve have spent a lot of money on something he doesn’t really need. The pearl buyers also

tricked Kino when they got him thinking that his pearl was nearly worthless. As a result he
traveled to the capital to sell his pearl there. So as you can see ignorance is not always bliss, if

you are ignorant you may just be the one getting fooled.

Everyone knows the old saying “With power comes responsibility”. It’s true, if you don’t

believe me you can just see what happened to Kino. He couldn’t handle the responsibility that

came with the pearl and so he lost Coyotito. After Kino got the pearl all his neighbors looked

upon him with jealousy, for they did not own a pearl so glamorous. Some of his neighbors tried

to steal the pearl, but all attempts failed. The pearl not only changed Kino’s virtues, it also

changed his perspectives on the world. It made him think everyone was out to get his pearl, so

he ran away.

All in all, the pearl brought a lot of pain and suffering to Kino’s life, but he learns from it

all, like the old saying “What doesn’t kill you, can only make you stronger”. Thanks to Kino, we

learn from his sacrifice. We learn that objects and control your life, so be very careful with your

priorities. Ignorance is not always bliss, so learn what you can, so you can’t be fooled. Kino

also shows us too much power can be very dangerous. So now you have learned from Kino’s

mistakes.