The Pearl by John Steinbeck tells the story of a pearl diver named Kino. Kino lives a simple life and adores his family. At the beginning of the story Steinbeck shows how happy Kino's family is. Everything seems to be going perfectly for Kino and his family until the discovery of the most wonderful pearl in the world changes his life forever. As the story progresses, Kino's newborn baby Coyotito is bitten by a scorpion. Kino's wife, Juana, insists that they take Coyotito to the town doctor. Inevitably the doctor refuses to help Coyotito because Kino is unable to make a payment. Kino, Juana, and Coyotito return to the beach and paddle out to an oyster bed, where he begins searching for the pearl. As Kino continues to search, Juana takes matters into her own hands after being rejected by the doctor and sucks the poison from Coyotito and then puts seaweed on the wound, unknowingly healing him. Meanwhile Kino collects several small oysters but suddenly comes across a particularly large oyster. He picks up the oyster and returns to the surface. When Kino opens the oyster he discovers the pearl. Word that the pearl has been discovered travels quickly through the city. The people in the city have become jealous of Kino and his family, which ultimately leads to a lot of damage. When the doctor hears that Kino has found the pearl, he quickly rushes to their house to take care of Coyotito after first driving them away. The doctor decides to help Coyotito because he realizes that they can now afford to pay him, which makes him start to remember the luxurious life he once lived in Paris. This shows that the doctor is not interested in helping Coyotito; he is simply interested in getting paid so he can live like he used to. The doctor is a good example... middle of paper... the root of all evil, and that the true root of all evil is actually greed. The reason this could be considered true is because money is essentially an object created by people. It is not the money that can be seen as evil, it is the greed that people possess to obtain money. Even if money didn't exist, greed would still exist, it just wouldn't be fueled by money. But in this particular context the evil is actually money. Furthermore, Steinbeck shows how love money can be positive in some cases, but it also has a downside. Money creates a sense of jealousy, immoral and, in extreme terms, simply evil. Kino's discovery of the pearl could have brought him an infinite amount of wealth and happiness, but instead it led to the death of his son and allowed him to kill a man unjustly. Works Cited Steinbeck, John. The Pearl. New York: Penguin, 1992. Print.