Materialism in John Steinbeck's novel The Pearl

ABSTRACT

Literature is the result of human creation through emotional and imaginative language, and it usually describes the condition of life. The study of literature can be divided into four kinds: novel, prose, poetry, and drama. In studying literature, every single person has a different comprehension, interpretation, and impression after reading a literary work. The reason for choosing this topic is from reading the novel which not only tells about the condition of the characters' lives in the story but also the social phenomena in society which has been dominated by a materialistic system, and it needs to be analyzed deeply.

A novel entitled *The Pearl* by John Steinbeck tells about a materialism system which dominates the characters' lives and their surroundings and influences some sides of life in the story indirectly. So, "Materialism in John Steinbeck's Novel *The Pearl*" is chosen to be the writer's thesis title to show and analyze why materialism influences Kino's family life and his surroundings and what the effects of materialism are on social life in the context of the story.

Descriptive qualitative research is applied by explaining the research methodology and exploring the concept of materialism in detail, in order that the materialism approach used in this research is suitable. The finding discussion is presented to show the result of the analysis, which found that Steinbeck tries to criticize the materialistic condition in society as a warning that materialism has given negative effects in social life. Materialism has influenced Kino's family life, his surroundings, and some aspects of his social life such as the economic system, religion, and education by making *The Pearl* the title of his novel. Finally, the domination of materialism is seen clearly through the existing class struggle which is done by Kino to maintain his family life in a materialistic society. After presenting the findings and discussion, some conclusions are presented briefly as a suggestion so that future researchers will conduct similar studies with more complete data and discussion.