The Pearl by John Steinbeck

So the artist probes the central mystery of life as he sees it, the paradox of how evil comes out of good, the tear at the heart of laughter, the dream doomed to disappointment in the moment of dreaming, despair conjoined with hope, with which humanity, if it is wise, must learn to live. (Page 129, The Pearl by John Steinbeck.)

The characters in John Steinbeck's novel The Pearl (Kino and Juana) quite clearly live through this paradox when Kino finds his amazing pearl in the local oyster bed. The pearl, which at first offers a chance at wealth and a way out of the poverty in which the family lives, actually becomes the root of all the misery the characters suffer through. Kino begins dreaming of all the things he will be able to buy after he sells the pearl, but once he has said them aloud he becomes stubbornly determined to make them happen. I think the turning point where the pearl becomes truly evil is when Kino steps out of his hut, is attacked by someone trying to steal the pearl and ends up killing the man. Something terribly wrong has come out of what appeared to be good, and things only get worse from there.

Based on a rereading of pages 120 - 122, I think the couple have learned that they must live with this paradox, if not exactly how. I think Juana had always had a deeper understanding of it than Kino, but now she knows just how important that is. Kino, I think, has learned that if he's going to live with it at all, he needs Juana to help him. They have to stand together.

Finally, I think there are a few connections to be drawn between The Pearl and the novel study topic. You can look at it from Kino's point of view: he wants to sell the pearl to get enough money to give his family a better standard of living, and is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that that happens. But I think the stronger argument is from Juana's point of view. She knows the pearl has become evil and that it will only bring sorrow to Kino, yet she agrees to go with him to sell it in the capital. Several times Kino begs her to take the baby and hide someplace safer, but each time Juana refuses because she knows there is a chance she can help Kino and a certainty that he will need her support. Even though in the end Juana loses her child, she stays by her husband and forgives him. I think she can act so selflessly because she understands the paradox mentioned above: evil will come out of good. The only way for her to live with that is to accept it and love her family regardless, so that her small bit of virtue can counteract the evil in the rest of the world.

Anthem by Ayn Rand

"Man—every man—is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own  happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life."

This ideal from Ayn Rand is realized in her novel Anthem through the story of Equality 7-2521. The character breaks out of the collective society in which the story is set and begins pursuing his own happiness through his work. For a while, the work becomes his highest purpose in life. He stops sacrificing his life and mind for others, but neither do his actions cause trouble for anyone else. He knows he's breaking the rules, but he does it anyway because it makes him happy. The character realizes for himself that he should not be a means to the ends of others, and that enables him to start living the life he longs for.

Secondly, if selflessly  is changed to selfishly  in the idea that when a character acts selfishly against the prevailing vices of the dominant social order, true virtue exhibits itself, this can still make sense in a way. It is said that the dominant characteristic of a hero is self-sacrifice. But Rand describes sacrifice  as:

A sacrifice is the surrender of a value. Full sacrifice is full surrender of all values. If you wish to achieve full virtue, you must seek no gratitude in return for your sacrifice, no praise, no love, no admiration, no self-esteem, not even the pride of being virtuous; the faintest trace of any gain dilutes your virtue. If you pursue a course of action that does not taint your life by any joy, that brings you no value in matter, no value in spirit, no gain, no profit, no reward—if you achieve this state of total zero, you have achieved the ideal of moral perfection.

She also defines it as:

 If a man dies fighting for his own freedom, it is not a sacrifice: he is not willing to live as a slave; but it is a sacrifice to the kind of man who’s willing.

By looking at sacrifice this way, it can be argued that a hero does not make a sacrifice because he does whatever it is he does because he believes it's right or because he does it for the people he loves or because of some other value he cherishes. No matter how virtuous he may appear to others, he has selfish reasons for his actions. But usually the fallout from those actions has good effects, so in the eyes of others the hero has exhibited true virtue.

This can also be seen in the story of Equality 7-2521. He acts selfishly early in the novel when his begins sneaking away to work in the subway tunnel, but what comes of that is his rediscovery of electricity. He immediately decides to show his discovery to the world. Not only will it be useful, but he thinks it will be enough to make the Council overlook his faults. He also believes he will become famous and be allowed to live the life he dreams of. Two out of three of these reasons are selfish, but because an observer would not be able to share Equality 7-2521's thoughts, his actions would appear as virtuous. Later, at the end of the story, Prometheus (as he now calls himself) says he will go back to the City and rescue his friends. This is also both virtuous ( he wants to save his friends from 'suffering under the yoke of their brothers') and selfish (he wants to save them because they're his friends and he loves them). So in this way the connection between selflessness and virtue can be twisted into a connection between selfishness and virtue and still, in a way, make sense.

To read more about Ayn Rand and her philosophy of objectivism, visit the Ayn Rand lexicon at aynrandlexicon.com or go right to the page about sacrifice at http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/sacrifice.html.