The Life-Long Homework

 

           Adam and Eve were living in the garden of Eden where flowers blossomed everyday, fruits were always ripe and animals danced. However, they were expelled from the garden for eternity because they had disobeyed the God’s order. From then, people had to worry from what to eat, where to sleep to what to buy and what to choose. There were no ‘garden of Eden’ anymore; people had to find the most effective way to balance the limited resources with their endless greed. Not all the people succeed in doing so, and many writers, artists, composers and etc have portrayed people who destroyed themselves due to their endless greediness. Steinbeck was one of the authors who did so in his novella ‘The Pearl.'

          ‘The Pearl’ written by John Steinbeck is a story of a Mexican Pearl diver, Kino, who finds the pearl of the world. Kino was relieved that he would be able to cure his son, Coyotito, who was stung by a scorpion and furthermore, educate him with the money he would be able to make by selling the pearl. However, his simple and peaceful hope was ruined when the news that Kino had found the pearl spread. The townspeople came by to steal the pearl or to harm Kino. Kino had to run away from them in order to protect his family and his pearl. In the end, however, Kino ended up killing people and hitting his wife because of his ambition and greediness. Realizing what the pearl had done to his family and life, he threw away the pearl into the sea.

The story takes place in Mexico’s rural area during the time of colonization. Due to the background settings, there were many scenes which showed how the European people oppressed the natives. Europeans generally considered the natives as inferior and uneducated. They didn’t make the attempt to understand the natives, which may have been the reason why the doctor hadn’t even bothered to take a look at Coyotito. Steinbeck reflects the colonial societies’ pressure on the natives in the story. There may be many themes which we can infer from the story itself, but how avarice can lead to destruction is the main theme of this story. When comparing before and after Kino had found the pearl, Kino’s life got more hectic and devastating. One example in the book is how Kino responds to animal cries. Before, he was rather relieved by the animal sounds, but after he found the pearl, he was frightened and considered it annoying. Also, he hit his beloved wife Juana when Juana tried to throw away the pearl naming it the origin of evil Finding of the pearl and pursuing never-ending ambition and greed might have made Kino’s life more abundant, but it sure destroyed all of the things that he adored; his life, family, and love towards nature.

While I was reading the story, it reminded me of several other stories with similar themes. One is a traditional Korean folktale about two caring brothers finding a big gold nugget. They were once known to be loving and trusting each other, but because of the gold nugget, they almost killed each other. Noticing how they had changed, the brothers decided to throw the gold nugget into the river. Another story is a Korean novel written by 계용묵(Gye Young-Mook) titled ‘백치 아다다’(Mute Adada). This is about a mute named Adada, who was abandoned from his husband because of money. She marries again to an old man, and they run away to an island to start a new life. They were having a happy life until the old man had gathered enough money to buy land. Adada, being afraid that she would be abandoned again, sneaked out at night and threw all the money into the sea. When the old man caught her, he was outraged and beat Adada to death. All of the three stories have similar themes, even though they differ a little bit in back ground and endings. Upon the basic theme that human greediness can be destructive, ‘The Pearl’ focuses on the materialism itself. Also, I think the Korean folktale focuses more on the brotherhood itself. I think the gold nugget works as a impetus for the brothers to realize how important each other is. For ‘백치 아다다’, since the reason was conflict was specified into money, I think it tries to criticize the capitalist society Korean people were favorable towards.

The theme and the plot of the story wasn’t a shocking or unpredictable, since I had read several other stories with similar themes. However, the fact that stories with similar lessons and themes and been written around the world for a long time was quite surprising. I believe the idea that human greediness is endless and poisonous is apparent in every culture and every country, It is up to one-selves to get infected by the poison or not. Maybe learning how to wisely control our avidity is our life-long homework.