Material Greed and Human Suffering in John Steinbeck's The Pearl

Abstract

Taking the insight from ecocriticism , this research examines how John Steinbeck's The Pearl raises the issue of ecoconsciousness. This research analyses how anthropocentric worldview relies on technology and consider it to be the culture. Anthropocentric worldview has made human beings internalize essence withdrawing them from the natural world. Human beings are like a cog in machine and their separation from nature has caused the downfall of human beings and their values. In The Pearl Kino's family experiences the bliss of human life while co-existing with nature and their lives turn to worse as his family distances from nature and ties relationship with modern anthropocentric, mechanistic world.