John_Steinbeck's_Originality

  Plagiarism is defined as stealing and passing off the ideas or words of another as one's own. The purpose of my paper is to prove that Steinbeck’s The Pearl was written as an original story, although it may have some similarities to Flight. My paper is going to show the reader that The Pearl was written as an original, well thought out story. While also showing the reader that although the stories do sound alike, Steinbeck could have easily just liked for his stories to connect in theme. The story Flight, which was written eight years earlier, and The Pearl have a lot in common. The most important similarity is the development in themes. Both stories have similar historical background, similar plot, setting and ending tragedy. Both young men are pursued by trackers because of the fact that they had to protect themselves and in doing so they both killed men. The first similarity we see is that both stories’ main characters are young Indian men who have to deal with leading a not so fruitful life. They were both extremely poor and were basically ranked at the bottom of the society. In the Flight Pepe lives in a shack, and in The Pearl Kino also lives in a shabby brush house. They both lead a very poor but simple way of life. Next similarity is that both main characters loose the most important things in a consecutive matter. In the “Flight” the man loses his knife, hat, horse and his gun. In The Pearl Kino becomes infuriated when he loses his canoe because it has a hole at the bottom. Also both stories occur within a five day period. In the stories both Pepe and Kino are obligated to leave their hometowns because they cannot explain themselves and what they have done. Because they can’t explain themselves both men decide to flee to the mountains. Another similarity is that their trip on the mountains is surrounded by images of death and by that experience they reach another level of awareness. As the scholar Timmerman said “the mountains represent self-discovery and death” I personally think that there may be some similarities in the stories but the stories are not completely alike, there is some difference. The Pearl and the Flight do have similarities but I do not think it is to the extreme to say that one author plagiarized the other authors work. They both loose important things in their life but what they lose have no comparison. The wife in The Pearl, Juana, wants the husband not to die, to be a fighter but the mom in the Flight wants Pepe to die proudly. In the Flight one can predict what will happen but in The Pearl one cannot predict what will happen next. In the Flight the suspense grows as the story goes on and the suspense reaches its peak at the ending. The reader of the Flight is almost certain of Pepe’s death toward the end, as to where the reader of The Pearl cannot predict what will happen to Kino and his family until the end of the story. One main difference is that one of the protagonists is married and has a family. And the other protagonist is single. In The Pearl Kino has his wife Juana to look after him. Juana supports and leads Kino in the right path when necessary. In the Flight Pepe only has his mom. Juana is the one giving Kino the courage and the power to fight against the enemy. Juana knows that the Pearl will bring bad luck to the family that is why she asks him to throw it away a couple of times. But when Kino kills a man she knew that he was defying the world and that he would “drive his strength against a mountain and plunge his strength against the sea. Juana in her woman soul knew that the mountain would stand while the man drowned in it. Pepe only has his mom and his mom wanted Pepe to die proudly. Another difference is that Pepe, unlike Kino, accepts his destiny and never dreams of fighting against his enemy. Kino has attempted to escape the humiliating situation in which his people have been imprisoned for such a long time. While on the other hand Pepe is not concerned about social injustices, Kino becomes aware of it and becomes infuriated when he is insulted and cheated by the doctor and the pearl buyers. When Kino finds out that the pearl buyers tried to cheat him, his reaction is as follow “Some deep outrage is here. My son must have a chance”. Also when he sees that they had made a whole at the bottom of the canoe that he had gotten from his father, he becomes infuriated because the canoe was one of his prized possessions and it was also his family’s pride his attitude quickly changes to this: “a searing rage came to him and gave him strength” The Pearl sad to say ends in a tragedy but unlike Flight it leaves some hope to the reader. Steinbeck as the author implies that there is no other way for Pepe to achieve manhood but to die courageously as to which in The Pearl Kino refuses to be killed, humiliated and exploited. Both main characters loose very valuable possessions, one after the other but Kino does not loose everything because his wife, Juana is still with him. Another difference to point out is that when Pepe’s mom sends him away she knows he will be killed sometime. Steinbeck describes Pepe as destined to die as he comes back home after killing the man. In the book it says “Before Pepe had gone a hundred yards, the outlines of his figure were misty; and log before he entered the canyon he had become a gray, indefinite shadow” And his mom was fully aware of his impending death. Unlike The Pearl one does not know if little Coyotito is going to die or not. One thinks he was going to survive because they had cured his bite but one did not expect for little Coyotito to die the way he did. Although they do have similarities, I think that there is no plagiarism here. Stories may sound alike, the plot, the eight of days in which the stories are told, and the sense of suspense that builds up to the ending. The most important similarity is the development of themes that both stories share. It does not mean the author plagiarized the work it could have been mere coincidences for the stories to have a couple similarities. I personally believe that the stories have more differences than similarities. The reasons stated above are the reason why I truly believe that Steinbeck did write The Pearl as an original story. Or Steinbeck just simply liked for all of his stories to connect in some kind of way. Unfortunately no one will ever know Steinbeck’s intentions but himself.