Discussion Topic
Steinbeck's Contrast of Sea and Land Life in "The Pearl"
Summary:
In "The Pearl," Steinbeck contrasts life under the sea and on land to explore themes of survival and human ambition. The sea represents a mysterious, life-giving force, rich with natural potential, yet it is also a realm of uncertainty. On land, life is depicted through detailed descriptions of Kino's and Juana's modest existence, highlighting social and racial divisions. Steinbeck uses these contrasts to underscore the balance between nature and human greed, as well as the cultural and economic disparities in their community.
How does Steinbeck contrast life under the sea with life on land in The Pearl?
In The Pearl, the land is generally the realm of concrete fact and the undersea a world of possibility. On land, John Steinbeck describes many settings in detail, which gives the reader a solid sense of such things as Kino’s and Juana’s living situation. With small details, such as Kino watching the ants dig traps and fall into them, the author both gives an impression of how Kino approaches life and offers metaphors for the human condition. Outside their home as well, specific items fill out the image of their world, such as the domestic chickens contrasted to the wild doves. This type of detail is used in describing the town as they walk through it and the doctor’s much fancier house.
Under the sea, the author also provides details, but the atmosphere is different because only natural things are described. There is an aura of mystery and uncertainty,...
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accompanied by Kino’s hopes and anxiety that are expressed through his song. While diving, Kino always hears “the Song of the Pearl That Might Be, for every shell thrown in the basket might contain a pearl.”
How does Steinbeck contrast life under the sea with life on land in The Pearl?
According to Steinbeck's description, the sea is the source of life. It is "rich with crawling and swimming and growing things". The people on the land depend on the sea for their survival; if a man has a boat with which to navigate the sea, he can "guarantee a woman that she will eat something. For those on the land, a boat provides access to the sea, and acts as "a bulwark against starvation". Steinbeck indicates that life on the land is old, having gone back "for generations", but the sea, the natural world, is older still. The sea exists in harmony with nature, and has the potential to support those who live on the land, but those on the land upset the natural balance.
The people on the land know that they depend on the sea. They make songs "to the fishes, to the sea in anger and to the sea in calm...the beat of the song (is their) pounding heart as it (eats) the oxygen from (their) held breath, and the melody of the song (is) the gray-green water and the little scuttling animals and the clouds of fish that (flit) by and (are) gone". Yet the people do not understand clearly their relationship to the sea. The sea willingly provides all they need, yet they want more, their desires colored by greed. Thus, the poultice Juana makes for the wound on Coyotito's shoulder actually cures him, making "the swelling...(go) out of the baby's shoulder, the poison...(recede) from his body". The baby, having been cured by the poultice of seaweed, the gift of the sea, does not need the doctor, but Juana does not fully appreciate the power of the sea, and hopes for a pearl so that they can pay the doctor to treat him. To satisfy their misguided understanding of what is best for their child and for their family, Kino violently cuts into the flesh of the oyster, making its "lip-like flesh...(writhe) and...subside)", and takes the pearl, in his ignorance and greed destroying the natural order between the land and the sea (Chapter 2).
How does Steinbeck incorporate living conditions, customs, and traditions into "The Pearl"?
In The Pearl, John Steinbeck combines the realism that had characterized his earlier fiction with an allegorical orientation in which the story and the characters symbolize larger, spiritual issues. Steinbeck had gained much of his knowledge of California and Mexican environments through his own work, travels, and, especially, reporting. For example, in The Harvest Gypsies, he went to migrant labor camps and interviewed the kinds of families he would later fictionalize in The Grapes of Wrath. In The Pearl, while he portrays the social world of La Paz, a small Mexican town, faithfully in terms of social and racial divisions. Steinbeck is not striving for a fully realistic treatment. His selective presentation of details and ambiance helps him drive home his points.
The simple home in which Kino, Juana, and Coyotito live is one example. He sketches the “brush house” with a few key details, such as the grinding stone on which Juana made the corncake meal, the shawl in which she “hammocked” the baby, and the braids she ties with a “thin green ribbon.” He mentions the pigs, chickens, and roosters in the year. Kino drinks “pulque” with his corn-cake breakfast. Summing up the meal, Steinbeck conveys both their Mexican identity and their poverty: “That was the only breakfast he had ever known outside of feast days….”
After the scorpion stings the baby, and they decide they need the doctor, the neighbors are sure he will not come. Through a brief description of the doctor’s patient’s house, Steinbeck also conveys some major differences between the parts of town. The doctor has ample work, just “to take care of the rich people who lived in the stone and plaster houses of the town.” Then to emphasize the contrast, he describes more fully the lushness of that neighborhood.
[There] the city of stone and plaster began, the city of harsh outer walls and inner cool gardens where a little water played and the bougainvillaea crusted the walls with purple and brick-red and white. They heard from the secret gardens the singing of caged birds and heard the splash of cooling water on hot flagstones.
Then they reached the doctor’s house.
They could hear the splashing water and the singing of caged birds and the sweep of the long brooms on the flagstones. And they could smell the frying of good bacon from the doctor's house.
In the second part, by repeating the description and adding the “good bacon,” Steinbeck nails down the contrast of poor and rich. Throughout the novella, by choosing a few features to emphasize and a small amount of description, or piling on ample verbiage, Steinbeck conveys the important characteristics of lifestyles and social status, and the vast gulf that separates Kino and Juana from “the race which for nearly four hundred years had beaten and starved and robbed and despised Kino's race, and frightened it too….”
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