The Pearl Essays -- Literary Analysis, John Steinbeck

In history there are a variety of tragic events that influence everything that surrounds them, such as World War II. World War II changed societies, recast intellectual assumption, altered racial and gender relations, and more. (Lee 5) Because of World War II, it helped the author John Steinbeck into writing the novel The Pearl. In the novel the main setting of the story took place in Mexico, as well as the Gulf of California. This setting was chosen by the author because â€Å"Indians of Mexico had been under the domination of people of Spanish decent† (Barron’s14). In the story you can see the different styles of living compared to rich and poor. Kino and his family didn’t have much money and were established at the bottom of the social class. Kino lived where â€Å"across the brush fence were other brush houses, and the smoke came from them too, and the sound of breakfast† (Steinbeck 2). On the other hand the upper class live a different lifestyle compared to Kino. Where the doctor lived he had money and was located â€Å"where the brush houses stopped and the city of stone and plaster began, the city of harsh outer walls and inner cool gardens† (Steinbeck 5). The reader can clearly see the two different styles of living in the novel. In the novel the characters are div ided into different social classes depending on how much money they have. Steinbeck created characters that fit the setting. In order for Steinbeck to figure out what kind of characters he wanted in his story he was an â€Å"observer of human nature† (Barron’s 1). The majority of Steinbeck’s characters were â€Å"down and out, isolated and oppressed† (Barron’s 1). The author wanted to show the struggle between the rich and the poor. By keeping this theme Steinbeck created the charac... ...any money. I, I alone in the world supposed to work for nothing† (Steinbeck 7). This shows the doctors greed for money. All the doctor cares about is if his patients have the money to pay for his work, otherwise he doesn’t have any sympathy for anybody especially Kino’s race. The doctor grew up as â€Å"a race which for nearly a hundred years had beaten and starved and robbed and despised Kino’s race† (Steinbeck 6). Cleary the doctor is similar to the Americans and how they treat other ethnicities because of their differences. Kino was treated the same way the Mexicans were. They both were judge for who they were and their own beliefs. Clearly there was a similarity to what happened in World War II and The Pearl, Kino and the Mexicans were mistreated throughout and had to face the hardships in life struggling to survive with their families.