The Pearl

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For the diver Kino, finding a magnificent pearl means the promise of better life for his impoverished family. His dream blinds him to the greed and suspicions the pearl arouses in him and his neighbors, and even his loving wife cannot temper his obsession or stem the events leading to tragedy. For Steinbeck, as Linda Wagner-Martin writes in her introduction, Kino and his wife illustrate the fall from innocence of people who believe that wealth erases all problems.