Entry 2: The Pearl

            When I read the second half of the book there was one thing in particular that bothered me. This was when Kino hit Juana and Juana was not even mad at Kino. If someone had hit me, especially someone I loved, I would be very upset about it. The reason she gave for not being upset was that Kino said “I am a man”. This is the stupidest reason I have heard for not getting man at someone. It also concerned me that Juana said that she could not live without a man. This is redicicolus because Juana would have been better off without her husband. Juana had the original idea to throw the pearl away. If Kino had listened to this idea none of this trouble would have been brought to his family. His son would have still been alive and he would have still had his house and canoe.

            A symbol that I found in the book was the mountain. I feel like the level of greed goes up as the altitude goes up. When Kino is in the village he is somewhat greedy, not thinking of spreading his wealth with others when he receives his payout and always being skeptical of others. But, when Kino decides to go up the mountain he has reached a whole new level of greed. He is willing to but his wife and sons life in danger to get more money for the pearl. This is putting money over the people that you love and in my opinion that is as greedy as a person can get.

            A motif in the book was music. Music appeared many times in the book in many different situations to describe what kind of mood the characters were in or what they were feeling. The “type” of music changed as the book went along. At the begging of the book the music was mostly about family. This slowly changed to music about evil and danger. During the transition Kino heard evil music with family music in the background. This shows how Kino’s greed was creating evil and taking over his family. Another example of how Kino was being taken over by the evil and greed is when Kino was hearing the music of evil and his heart was beating along with it, showing how the two combined.