Oppression in the Pearl

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Every character in The Pearl abuses his or her power over someone weaker. At the beginning of the novella, Kino is essentially content with his life. However, two seemingly chance occurrences Coyotito scorpion sting and Kino discovery of the pearl open Kino eyes to a larger world. As Kino begins to covet material wealth and education for his son, his simple existence becomes increasingly complicated by greed, conflict, and violence. The doctor takes advantage of his position of power over Kino. In this novel, it seems as though power has a positive correlation with evil. "'hold the light' the doctor said, and when the servant held the lantern high, the doctor looked for a moment at the wound on the baby's shoulder. He was thoughtful for a moment and then he rolled back the baby's eyelid and looked at the eyeball. He nodded his head while Coyotito struggled against him. 'It is as I thought,' he said. 'The poison has gone inward and will strike soon. Come look!' He held the eyelid down. 'See it is blue.' And Kino, looking anxiously, saw that indeed it was a little blue." (Chapter 3, page 31) This is evidence that the doctor is deceiving and a liar; he is helping them now that they possess money. The doctor is using Kino's ignorance against him; because Kino knows not 'what is in the books' Kino will always be blinded and cheated by those who do know 'what is in the books'. The pearl buyers hold power over Kino, but they themselves are held in subjugation to the financiers, the men whose money they manipulate. 'It was supposed that the pearl buyers were individuals acting alone, bidding against one another for the pearls the fishermen brought in. And once it had been so. But this was a wasteful method, for often, in the excitement of bidding for a fine pearl, too great a price had been paid to the fishermen. This was extravagant and not to be countenanced. Now
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