Marty Supreme and the cost of ‘dreaming big’

This article contains spoilers for Marty Supreme and The Pearl.

In John Steinbeck’s 1947 novella The Pearl, we follow Kino, an indigenous man in California, who wants life to be different for his family, and especially for his infant son, Coyotito. One day, he finds a pearl with the potential to transform his life: to provide his son with the education he never received and to bestow respect on his family. But hishellip;