Humans have continued to evolve since the beginning of time. From that evolution, they have created many things that have been both harmful and beneficial to our species. Some of their establishments were made to regulate them and prevent chaos. Although these establishments were made to organize them, it could also harm others. In the novel, “The Pearl”, Steinbeck briefly showed the readers an example of how these establishments could be beneficial to a race, and unreasonable to the other. The social structure in which Kino and everybody in the novel obeys, seemed to be unjustifiable to Kino’s race, to women, and to people. The social structure established had negative effects in society. This negativity could change the position or function of genders, interrupt the balance within races, and it could change people because of how they could not tolerate the unjustifiable aspects that happen.
One of the negative factors of the social structure is that they condone an aspect where the roles of both men and women is very different. Men took a bigger part in the social structure than women because people think they were more intelligent than women. Even though men played a huge role in the social structure, women also had roles too. During supper, “Kino squatted by the fire and rolled a hot corncake and dipped it in sauce and ate it. And he drank a little pulque and that was his breakfast.” This meant that no one else but Kino could eat supper first. The first person that eats is usually the leader, women don’t eat first because society thinks they are not capable enough to be a leader and are usually looked as substandard individuals. When Coyotito got stung by a scorpion, Juana moved swiftly and “put her lips down over the puncture and sucked hard and spat and sucked again while Coyotito screamed. Kino hovered; he was helpless; he was in the way.” It showed that even though society looked upon women as substandard individuals, they also had roles. One role would be to care for the child when he/she is hurt, a unique role in which men could not execute. When society decided that men should play a bigger role than women, this made women inferior to the eyes of different individuals nevertheless, this torment did not stop them from contributing to society.
Chauvinism is not the only aspect that made things unfair to Kino’s race, it is also racial discrimination. Kino’s race has been repetitively disparaged over the years and that they could never do anything about it. When Kino and his family asked the doctor for help, the doctor responded to the servant by saying, “Have I nothing better to do than cure insect bites for ‘little Indians’? I am a doctor, not a veterinary.” This means that the doctor criticized Kino’s race by referring Kino and his family to animals by saying he is not a veterinary. Before Kino and his family asked the doctor for help, Kino thought to himself why he is asking for help from someone who “was of a race which for nearly four hundred years had beaten, and starved, and robbed, and despised Kino’s race, and frightened it too.” It is a sign of racism because the doctor’s race has been repetitively discriminating Kino’s race. Kino’s people is not a powerful one, but the complete opposite because the social structure decided that they should be at the bottom and the doctor’s race on top. The social structure in which Kino and everybody followed allowed the doctor and his race to turn into unreasonable people who causes pain over and over to Kino’s race for absolutely no reason.
When things are unfair to some people, they turn that jealousy into greed, and greed attracts catastrophe. There were many people who were jealous of Kino’s pearl, and many turned it into greed. This was a disastrous trait for anyone to have. The social structure allowed them to nurture this trait. How? In Kino’s era, there were doctors who have medicine that cures people, and pearl buyers who calculate the value of any pearl, and servants who spend their time serving their masters. If they have these types of people in this era, they most certainly had to have a group that would control a situation out of hand. In one scene where Kino goes back to the house after taking the pearl from Juana by force, a dark figure came and attacked Kino. “Greedy fingers went through his clothes, frantic fingers searched him, and the pearl, knocked from his hand, lay winking behind a little stone in the pathway.” People were consumed by greed, and this greed draws disaster out in the open. Laws were made to restrain individuals of certain aspects such as this. When they are broken, the authority comes and solves this predicament, but they never did for Kino. When Kino’s pearl “went into the dreams of people, only one person stood in the way and that was Kino, so that he became curiously every man’s enemy.” The author implied that everyone except Kino and his family became his worst adversary because of the hunger for the pearl’s value.
When hierarchies are distributed, it always has a bright side, and also a dark side. This dark side could affect people in many ways. It could unjustifiably change the roles of both men and women, it could impede the connection between races, and it could negatively alter people because they could not condone the inexcusable events that occur. Although this social structure is heavily corrupted with its negativity, it could be solved somehow. When roles of both genders have been unfairly modified, it could have solved by giving each the same amount of rights. When people turn their jealousy into greed, prevent them from nurturing it. When the connection between races is unbalanced, try to undo the mistakes that led to this predicament. Everything has a dark side. Whether it is a social structure, an empire, or a person. Nobody could erase it instead; they try to hide it. Although this is true, people shouldn’t just focus on it every time, there is also a bright side that people could look at. A social structure is like a shadow under the sun. It is bright on top, but it is dark beneath.
Be First to Comment