How far do the values of Kino Essay Example for Free

How far do the values of Kino Essay A. The Novelette, The Pearl was written by John Steinbeck in 1944. Steinbeck is a magnificent author who uses dramatic, narrative and musical themes all together . e. g. the song of evil and the song of family to convey his idea effectively. He is able to attain an effect on the reader without lengthy details on emotions, places etc. All his novels are set in Salinas Valley and the main themes of his novels are on man versus nature and how man abuses it. Drama, visual effects and music all blend together in Steinbecks novel making it an all time classic. The Pearl is the story about Kino (Main character Mexican pearl diver) who is the leader of his tribe. In the story he goes on to finding a pearl, which affects him greatly. The pearl of the world gives him dreams of wealth and prosperity but all this changes when things dont turn out the way he planned them to. The pearl gives him suffering and brings out the evil in man. At the beginning of the novel we see the Mexicans oneness with nature as they made songs about it which brought them happiness. The fisherfolks lives were very simple as they lived in poverty and yet they enjoyed the fruits of nature. They lived in brush houses and ate simple food like hot corn-cake. Their sense of unity in the family is shown as they hardly communicate through words because they know what and how one another thinks. (Page 10)- They had spoken once, but there is not need for speech if it is only a habit anyway. Songs were important in their culture as they linked everything to music. The tribe was so closely united and were always ready to help each other. We see this when all the neighbors assist Kino when he takes Coyotito to the doctor for the scorpion bite as a child was a most important thing in life. Another example of closeness is when the tribe goes with Kino to sell the pearl as it a historic event as one of their members are going to get a lot of money. This all shows the loyalty of the neighbors. The tribe is superstitious and at the same time religious, as it is shown to us when Juana prays and chants magic at the same time when seeing the scorpion. They had experience in treating the dangers of nature . e. g. scorpion bites. Both Kino and Juana are superstitious and this is evident when they find the pearl of the world, they hid excitement and the pageant Gods were angry at them. The only thing that made the tribe unhappy was the whites treatment towards them which they thought was unjust. The whites brought fear and distrust . e. g. the way the doctor looks after and treats the rich rather than the poor. The poor lived in brush houses while the rich lived in stone and plaster houses. The whites poison the minds of the tribe as they are victims of ignorance and illiteracy. They were made to believe that their remedies were inferior to those of the white when in most cases they were not. The corrupted values of the whites are seen when the doctor misuses his skills and knowledge to make the baby sick instead of curing him. There is also ill-treatment of the beggars; we see this when they dont help Kino in finding a doctor and they feel it is a source of entertainment when a fisherman comes for help in the city. Eg:(When Kino wants to find a doctor for his son as he got bitten by a scorpion, and instead of the beggars helping Kino finding one, they made fun of him) The irony is that the beggars have no dignity compared to the fishermen who work for a living. When the tribe found the pearl they never thought of riches, only things that will help them where as compared to the whites they only thought of riches and themselves e. g. the doctor was fond of rich silk and expensive clothes compared to the fisher folks who just wore rags. Here a sense of irony is shown as the fisher folks are the whites main source of income and despite this, they still feel disgusted by the fisher folks. The priest was also a disgrace to religion as he too only thought about himself and riches as they wanted materialistic things. We also see how the whites treat their culture as to be very inferior and at the same time exploit them because the tribe is illiterate. Kino represents all the men in the tribe, he was the head of the family and showed the superiority of men e. g. when he eats first in his family and makes decisions. He is a protective father. This is evident when we see him confront the three trackers and when he tries to save his son from the scorpion bite. We see how the pearl changes him from a dependable, hard working man to a man who wants power. The main thing of a man is to have a canoe, as it was a sign of life. The tribe was of fishermen and they depend on canoe to fish in. Here we see Kinos loyalty to the family and family possessions as we see how he valued his canoe which he got from his grandfather-(Kinos grandfather had brought it from Nayarit, and he had given it to Kinos father, and so it had come to Kino) This is how the canoe is passed down from generation to generation.. A canoe was passed down from ancestors and without one they wouldnt be able to get married as it would be hard to support a family. The canoe was a symbol of livelihood, prosperity, independence and survival. Many things were passed down from generations such as Pearl diving, fishing and use of seaweed for remedies. Kinos life is focused on his family whom he loved a lot. His love for Juana is shown when he wants the pearl to help them in getting married. The closeness and the sense of brotherly unity between Kino and his brother Tomas, they gain from the values of their forefathers, as we see how Tomas advises him about the pearl and also helps Kino when the pearl brings bad luck to him. Kino shows his care for the races when he wants the pearl to bring prosperity to the tribe rather than to himself alone we see how he wants education for his son as with education they wouldnt be victims to the whites, he wants his son to spread knowledge and understanding to his tribe in the future through the things he learned. Kino is a skilled fighter where his response to danger is fierce and quick. It is a primitive instinct of the tribe. He is known as a noble savage; he is uncorrupted by a false coating of civilization that we see through the behavior and character of the doctor, priest and the pearl trader. The primitive violent reaction is shown when he attacks the thief that comes and robs him and when he murders one of the attackers in self-defense. When Kino finds a big hole in his canoe there is anger and deep sorrow as without a canoe a man is helpless. He is like a machine when he flees from the attacker to high ground like an instinct of an animal. There is stubborn courage in Kino; he displays a tragic courage for he is a man opposing all the forces against him. We see Kino is a man constant struggle against any prison that binds him. We see at the end of the story Kinos emotion when he loses his son and everything he owns because of the evil pearl and so a result he throws the pearl where it belongs. The situation of Kino could have happened to anyone in the tribe as all he imagined was that everyone would share his joy, but he was wrong. Juana represents all the females in the tribe as a womans character was obedient and respected. Her femininity was shown when she waits for Kino to finish eating and then she would start eating. She respected her husband by making him choose decisions. Juana is an ideal partner for Kino like her instincts when she wants to throw the pearl, and by showing unquestionable loyalty by wanting to stay with Kino and refuses to leave him even though it meant life or death for her and her baby. She shows strength when Kino is weakened by the evil of the pearl. Because of this action Kino draws strength to her loyalty. When Kino said to Juana I am a man he meant that he was half insane and half god and she knew in her womans soul that the forces of nature and society would crush him in the end, yet she needed such a man. Sometimes the female makes decisions for the men as a desperate measure like when she tells Kino to throw away the pearl. Both Kino and Juana were superstitious when finding the pearl and hence both of them suffered from the evil it brought as their simplicity and gullibility made them unaware about the pearls poison and the pain it brought as they suffered a terrible loss and were neglected by society. The dream Kino conjured from its shiny surface was to bring sorrow and death, as too much good luck gave them something bad at the end. But at last he had learnt his lesson and throws the pearl back into the sea where it belongs. There is always a limit to which you can make use of something. Once you begin to abuse it you pay the consequences and this is what happened. Culture is a very important aspect of life as not only is it a symbol/identity but it is also something which no body can take away from you as it becomes part of you. Every culture has its own occasions, celebrations, beliefs, dress etc. In The Pearl John Steinbeck used Kino and Juana very specifically to portray the importance of culture and the way things go about in a particular culture. Eg: the way the canoe was passed down from generation to generation etc.

Gideon’s Freedom in Doris Lessing’s No Witchcraft For Sale Essay examp

Gideon’s Freedom in   Doris Lessing’s No Witchcraft For Sale Dr. Gosby’s Comments: This student did an excellent job of applying the ideas we discussed in class relating to the obedience to authority When Europeans moved into the bush of Southern Africa and realized that they were hopelessly outnumbered, they had to develop ways to create and maintain their authority over the native population. They had tremendous advantages in the obvious areas, as author Jared Diamond writes in his Pulitzer Prize winning book: The proximate reasons behind the outcome of Africa’s collision with Europe are clear. Just as in their encounter with Native Americans, Europeans entering Africa enjoyed the triple advantage of guns and other technology, widespread literacy, and the political organization necessary to sustain expensive programs of exploration and conquest. (398) The African natives, in this crippled state, had little choice but to submit to European authority. Many Africans lived a life of indentured servitude. Parts of their culture were mixed with that of their oppressors, and over time, so were their bloodlines. Some of their indigenous culture did survive, however. Shamanism, the practice of physical and spiritual healing by a medicine man that occurs in practically every hunting and gathering society, continued to thrive in Africa despite the oppression by European settlers. The concoctions and methods of this practice were well-guarded secrets, known only to certain African natives. The European medicine of the day was basically a version of our contemporary Western medicine in its infancy, and its doctors’ methods shared little, if anything, in common with the methods of the African medicine m... ...ignity. Noted philosopher Erich Fromm comments, "A person can become free through acts of disobedience by learning to say no to power"(380). Gideon's disobedience is his freedom.    Works Cited Anti, Kenneth Kojo. Women in African Traditional Religions. May 1996. http://cehd.ewu/cehd/feculty/ntodd/GhanaUDLP/KKAntiAfricanWomenReligion.html Diamond, Jared. Guns. Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1999. Fromm, Erich. "Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem." Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Eds. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. New York: Longman, 2000. Getahun, Amare. Some Common Medicinal and Poisonous Plants Used in Ethiopian Folk Medicine.March 1976. . Lessing, Doris. African Stories. New York: Random House, 1980.

Christmas Carol and household words Essay

What view of his own society does dickens show in a Christmas Carol and Household words? In 1845 Dickens wrote a Christmas Carol and Household word in 1856. He wrote them to demonstrate the conditions in which the poor had to have to live with in the Victorian age. Dickens wrote household words to show the well off people what the conditions were really like. He wrote Christmas Carol to entertain but also to show that things could get better. He shows many aspects of his own society in both texts The conditions for the poor were very hard and cruel. The rest of society did not treat them very well and they were ordered about. There was no care for the ill and slightly poor. Only the people that were destitute were given help and a place to stay for the night. In the morning they were given a piece of bread to last for the day. There was not that many that would get in. The destitute were forced to live in the gutters of the streets. â€Å"And if they get in, they would only have a roof for the night and a bit of bread in the morning,† this is a quote from household words spoken by a working class man that Dickens was talking to. The destitute people were the ones who had nothing of their own to live on. There were laws that stated that help must be given to these people. The more well off people were not that charitable towards these laws as shown in Christmas Carol when Scrooge told the two people who were collecting for charity to go away and to leave him alone. The poor were pushed to the side by the better off people. They had no choice but to accept blasi. Which means they had to get used to the conditions that they had to live their lives around. They had no choice. The poor were really miserable and depressed because there was never much room for them to stay. The poor were treated unfairly compared to the well off people. They were not treated like equals. The well off people employed the poorer people as they were cheaper to employ and they were able to boss them around. They had power over the poor because the poor were not in any persition to argue with the well off. If they did they would have lost their job on the spot. The less unfortunate people could not help that they were placed in a poor society, they were just unlucky The well off people were not charitable because they wanted to keep the money for themselves. They did this because if any thing was to happen to them in the future they would still have enough money to live on as nobody wanted to end up in the work houses. People like Timothy Winters were not cared for because he was not considederded to be that poor as he had a roof over his head and his father had a job working for Scrooge. Timothy was disabled. The working class man that Dickens was talking to in household words was one of a few that cared about the lower class but there was nothing that he could do about it. He blamed the society for what the lower class had to put up with. â€Å"This is an awful sight sir, in a Christian country†. In this quote the man was saying that you should treat others as you want to be treated yourself by others. This quote is telling the readers that the society that Dickens lived in is a Christian society. Christians are taught to respect others. The above quote surgest that the people in London were not respecting others. If they did respect others there may not have been so many well off people ignoring the poorer ones. The wells off people were not aware what the life was like for the poor. As they were not aware of how the poor lived they did not respect them. Scrooge was stingy with his money; he tried to save all the money that he could. Scrooge took the saving of money to the extreme. He was very stingy he would not share anything with anyone. He was not happy when his worker Mr Winters (Timothy Winter’s father) asked to have half the day off as it was Christmas day. He said I be paying you a full days pay but you will only be working for half the day. Scrooge does not believe in Christmas and good will, this is why he is not happy about letting his worker go home early. He knows that the work will not get done. This was so that he had money for the future. In the Victorian age there was no such thing as insurance or welfare. This meant that if you lost your business you would lose every thing and you would have nobody to turn to. For example if you had a fire and lost all off the contents of your business you would end up with no money to live on. You would then end up living in the workhouses, which were not very pleasant places to be in. nobody wanted to end up in a workhouse. But if you had saved money over the years you would still be able to live quite a happy life. This is why the richer people never gave much to the less fortunate. Most of the society was like this. You did get a few people that wanted to share what little they had with the ones who had nothing. In Dickens times every body was only thought about themselves. They would put themselves first and other last. Dickens is demonstrating in both texts that family is important In Dickens time there was three different classes of people, the upper, the working and the lower class. In both text dickens only describes the working and the lower. He talks about how the upper class treats the lower and the working classes.

Jehovahs Witnesses Essay - 1240 Words

Jehovahs Witnesses You may have heard them talked about, in a derogatory way most probably. They may even have visited you once or twice, but does anyone really know who Jehovahs Witnesses are? In the early 1870s an inconspicuous bible study group began in Pennsylvania, USA, now known as Jehovahs Witnesses. I was intrigued to learn that Jehovah is Gods personal name. Yahweh, translated as Jehovah appears almost seven thousand times in the original Hebrew Scriptures, however most Bibles today substitute God or Lord for it. A book of the Psalms presented to all year seven students at my school contained a passage referring to Jehovah. This was literally crossed out and written†¦show more content†¦The meetings involved discussions on topics relevant to todays society. A copy of the Bible lay on each lap, constantly in use as every piece of advice and every opinion were backed up by reference to the Scriptures. In addition what continued to surprise me were the people I had the pleasure of meeting, each showing genuine warmth to friends and strangers alike. The Jehovahs Witnesses seemed to me to be happy, something rare among the dissatisfied population in the present day. I began by learning a number of unexpected facts, which before I had simply accepted without question, and I wondered how there could possibly be so many inaccuracies in Christianity today. Not being a particularly religious person it was purely the realization of peoples propensity to accept the words of bishops, vicars, priests and popes rather than the inspired word of God, the Bible. Much of the religion has originated from pagan festivals. Nowhere in the Bible does it give a date as to the birth of Jesus Christ. How did the Roman church fix upon the date of 25th December? Long before the Christian era itself a festival was celebrated among the heathen, at that precise time of year in honour of the Babylonian son of the queen of the heaven.Show MoreRelatedEssay on Jehovahs Witnesses 1579 Words   |  7 PagesJehovahs Witnesses Their numbers are relatively small. They constitute less than 1% of those who indicate some religious preference. They rank 24th on the list of the 25 largest denominations in the United States. Despite these low numbers, there is no denomination in this country or in the world, which spends more time proselytizing. They are the Jehovah’s Witnesses. According to the Public Affairs Office of Jehovah’s Witnesses, last year their members spent over one billionRead MoreJehovahs Witnesses Essay1117 Words   |  5 PagesMany studies about Jehovah Witnesses state that they are the strictest religion out there. They have rules that should be followed or the person ends up condemned. 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