PÉÀRL

THE PEARL
BY JOHN STEINBECK
Study Guide
(A way to understanding MSCE English Literature)
Compiled and edited By Kumbuakani Kayaman Mulenga
1 kayaromin@yahoo.com
*Introduction*
This study guide has been created to provide a clear understanding of the novel ‘The Pearl’ by John
Steinbeck. It has been thoroughly analysed as a way modelling learners into the art of literally analysis.
On the other hand, this summary has also been designed to act as a useful resource for English literature
teachers striving to have the story well told to learners. This guide can further pose as a useful resource to
all those reading the novel for pressure, to have a clear understanding of the novel. However, all
secondary school users are encouraged to read the actual so that they have broader understanding of the
whole story and perhaps develop their own further analysis. That, is true learning.
About the editor

Kumbukani Kayaman Mulenga comes from Lufita village T/A Mwabulambya in Chitipa. He is
currently a holder of a BAE degree obtained from Mzuzu University. He has served in various schools as
an English and History teacher, and he is currently teaching at Phwezi Boys Private Secondary School.
ELEMENTS OF FICTION
It is important that users of this study guide should understand the elements of fiction (Novel and Short
story) so that they are well informed about the nature of the work they are about to study. Therefore, the
first a few pages below have been included to serve that very purpose.
Novel/Short Stories: General
Short Story: A fictional tale of a length that is too short to publish in a single volume like a novel.
Short stories are usually between five and sixty pages; as a result, they can be read in a single sitting.
Usually, short stories concentrate on a single event with only one or two characters.
The short story has three elements: plot, characterization, and setting. In addition, short
stories also contain other devices/features including: theme, conflict, point of view,
suspense, foreshadowing, flashback, and in medias res (starting from the middle).
Theme is so vital to the short story, however, that some critics consider it the fourth
element, rather than a device or feature.
Short Story Elements

A. Plot*: The events of the story or the series of actions that make up the story are referred to as the
plot. Basically, the plot is what happens in the story. Traditionally, it is divided into five parts.
1. Introduction: The reader meets the characters and discovers the setting. Reader interest is aroused
here. The conflict that drives the story’s action is discovered at the end of the introduction, with the
initiating incident.
2. Rising action*: Builds up the story (the longest part)— a series of steps that lead to the climax. You
get more information about conflict and character here.
3. Climax*: Here, the reader finds out what happens to the conflict, or how the conflict might be
resolved. The story may not yet be finished, but the reader now has a good understanding of what way it
is going to go.
4. Falling Action*: The plot begins to wrap up in this section of the story, which
is usually brief.
5. Denouement/Conclusion/Resolution*: This part follows quickly after the climax and provides the last
pieces of information for the reader. “Denouement” is French for “unknotting”; you may therefore think of
denouement as the “unknotting” or “untangling” of the plot. Other words for denouement are conclusion
or resolution (think about it as the resolution of the climax). However, not all conclusions provide
resolution.
Note: (I) There are four types of conclusions (all NTs) and they have a variety of names:
1. Expository Happy: All loose ends are tied up and explained and the ending is happy.
2. Expository Sad: All loose ends are tied up and explained and the ending is sad.
3. Surprise or Twist: Something happens that the reader does not expect at all.
4. Unresolved/Indeterminate/Cliff hanger: The reader is left with questions and has to, in part, supply
the ending him or herself. Some loose ends are left to dangle.
Note: (II) Anti-Climax: A dull or disappointing ending to something after increasing excitement. For
example: After the weeks of preparation, the concert itself was a bit of an anticlimax. In connection to a
story or novel, it means an ending that doesn’t measure up to the plot events that precede it (the ending is
anti-climactic). (NT)
Plot Diagram: Also known as Freytag’s Pyramid, the story diagram or plot diagram, was invented in
1864 by Gustav Freytag to visually represent the five plot parts and their relationship with one another.
Modern stories may or may not tidily fit Freytag’s Pyramid.
B. Characterization: The collection of characters, or people, in a short story is called its

characterization. A character*, of course, is usually a person in a story, but it can also be an animal
(Mchere in Zeleza’s Smouldering Charcoal is a character while Napoleon (the pig) in Orwell’s Animal
Farm is a character as well)
Character Types
Protagonist*: The main character in the story. The protagonist is usually, but not always, a “good guy.”
Antagonist*: The force against the protagonist. The antagonist is usually another character, but not
always, especially if the conflict is “person against self.” The antagonist is usually described as “the bad
guy”, although that description doesn’t work if the conflict is person against self or person against
environment.
Flat*: This is a minor character with one or maybe two sides to the personality. These characters might
not seem very realistic or life-like because so little is known about them.
Round*: These characters are believable and complex people with several sides to their personality.
They are lifelike and behave like real people would, if real people were in those same situations.
Dynamic*: Also known as a kinetic character, a dynamic character changes in some important way
because of plot events. For example: a cruel old man might see the error of his ways and become generous
and kind, or a gentle girl becomes vicious and angry because her parent’s divorce.
Static*: These characters are the opposite of dynamic characters. These people don’t change through the
course of a story. They have the same personality throughout.
Stereotypical*: Also known as stock, these characters are people who are easily recognized as “types”.
It wouldn’t matter in which story they appear, they are always the same. For example, the old witch-like
woman, the geeky scientist, the airhead, and the dumb jock characters are all stereotypical, or stock,
characters. In this sense, they are also clichés* (NT). (A cliché is an over-used expression, like “light as a
feather,” or an over-used idea, like the stereotypical characters just discussed.)
Character Foil*: A character foil, or simply “foil”, occurs when two characters balance each other in
some way; they are almost like two halves of a whole person. This is when a character is portrayed as
opposite of another character in a particular way. By putting the two characters next to each other, the
different characteristic is emphasized. This helps readers recognize particular characteristics. A good
person might be a foil for an evil person, for example. (NT)
Character Analysis: The author may choose any of six ways to reveal a character to the reader. The
reader must therefore be prepared to watch for "clues" about each character in these same six ways:
1. physical appearance
2. things the character says
3. things the character does (actions)
4. things the character thinks
5. things other characters say about the character
6. author information
Character Sketch: A character sketch is a description of a character's moral and personality qualities,
written in paragraph form with specific examples from the story in question. Usually, the character terms
(see above) are used in the course of the description. Physical appearance and dress (if showing something
about personality) are sometimes described as well.
C. Setting*: The author may choose to state the setting clearly or leave it to the reader to infer from
textual clues (such as weather). There are two parts to a complete setting: emotional and physical. The
mood* (or atmosphere*) of a story is the emotional setting, so readers need to concentrate on words that
evoke feeling and emotion. The time, place, and season comprise the physical setting, so readers need
to concentrate on words that describe physical details.
Novel/Short Story Devices and Features
A. Theme*: The message of the story, stated in one or two complete sentences. When a person describes
a story’s theme, the person is describing what can be learned about life and/or people from the story.
Theme is so important, it is often described as the fourth element of the short story. Sometimes theme is
confused with “the moral” of the story.
B. Conflict*: Conflict drives the plot forward. The reader discovers the conflict by the end of the
introduction with the initiating incident, which is an event that demonstrates the conflict to the reader and
begins the rising action. Either internal or external conflict can be the main conflict of a story and
therefore the primary driver of the plot:
Internal Conflict*: When the conflict is inside a character in a short story novel as an internal struggle.
Usually characters, like real people, have conflicting fears and goals that cause them to behave in certain
ways. These secret conflicts (secret from the other characters in the text) represent the character’s internal
conflict. The reader, of course, is aware of the internal conflict because he/she can see the character’s
thoughts.
External Conflict*: When the conflict is outside a character in a short story/novel. External conflict is
the opposite of internal conflict, in that the conflict is obvious to all the other characters in the story, as
well as the reader. External conflict is best described as the adversities faced by the character during the
plot.
Additionally, there are four different categories of conflict:
 Person versus person

 Person versus self
 Person versus environment
 Person versus the supernatural/machine
C. Point of View*: The writer selects the point of view from which to tell the story
that best suits his/her intentions as a writer
First Person*: “I” is the central character and tells his or her own story.
Second Person: The story is told about “you”; for example, “You could see the anger in her eyes.”
Third Person where the point of view can be one of:
o Omniscient*: Characters are referred to as “he” and “she”, and the reader knows what is going on in
their heads. All characters’ thoughts are made clear in the text.
o Limited Omniscient*: Characters are referred to as “he” and “she”, and the reader knows what is going
on in some of their heads. The remaining characters are treated in the objective fashion.
o Objective*: The story is about “he” or “she”, and the author records action objectively, as a movie
camera would. The reader does not see any of the character’s thoughts (doesn’t get inside their heads).
D. Deus ex Machina: From the Latin "god out of the machine." This device refers to any artificial device
that is not a natural extension of the plot that allows for an easy–and unbelievable—resolution of conflict.
Deus ex machina is an improbable plot event.
E. In Medias Res: Beginning in the middle of the action. A sample beginning to such a story: “I saw the
punch coming but couldn't duck in time. I collapsed to the floor, nose gushing red, clotted blood.”
F. Flashback*: When a character thinks back to an event that occurred before the story began. Sometimes
flashbacks are written as separate “interrupter” sections within a novel. Flashbacks are also used in short
stories.
G. Foreshadowing*: A hint of events to come. Also used extensively in both novels and short stories.
H. Suspense*: Anxiety or apprehension resulting from an uncertain, undecided, or mysterious situation.
Suspense is when the writer creates excited anticipation of an approaching climax in the reader.
Novels
Many of the terms associated with short stories are also used in novels, particularly setting,
characterization, plot, and theme. The difference between a novel and a short story is in the length and
complexity of the narrative. Novels are longer and more complex than short stories; therefore, they take
several sittings to read in their entirety. Novels, like short stories, can be written in different style
categories or sub-genres*. The different sub-genres include mystery, science fiction, fantasy, romance,
history, and contemporary, to name a few.
Style*: Writers use many, many different techniques to attract reader interest and attention or to
accomplish their literary purpose in short stories, novels, poems and plays. Several such stylistic
techniques follow here:
Antithesis: The use of contrast, or opposition, for effect. In creative writing, antithesis is a rhetorical
device where a sentence or two contains a balanced contrast of ideas, so either the two halves of a single
sentence, or the two sentences placed side-by-side, show complete contrast for powerful effect. For
example, “Give me liberty or give me death!”
Chronological Order*: Writers often choose to describe plot events in chronological order, meaning
the events happen one after another and are not told in a mixed-up way. With a chronological approach,
first things first, second things second, and so on…
Diction*: An author’s choice and arrangement of words in a literary work. Diction varies according to
the ends a writer wishes to achieve as well as to the nature of the literary form, the subject, and the style of
the day. The ornate style of much eighteenth-century prose, therefore, was considered elegant in its time
but would be deemed wordy in a contemporary essay.
Direct Presentation*: Writers who provide information directly to their readers are using direct
presentation. Readers can locate specific information about a character, for example, by finding it right in
the text.
Indirect Presentation*: Writers often choose indirect presentation in order to inform their readers about
their characters or other story elements. Indirect presentation of information requires readers to use their
inference skills, as the specific information is shown rather than told to the reader.
Irony*: There are three different kinds of irony.
o Verbal irony occurs when the opposite of what is said is actually meant (sarcasm is an extreme form of
verbal irony).
o Situational irony occurs when an event occurs that is the opposite of what was expected by the
character and/or reader.
o Dramatic irony is when a character says something, but the audience/reader knows more than the
character does about other characters or events, so the statement comes across with a double meaning that
the audience/reader “gets” and the character doesn’t.
Narration*: Something that is narrated—an account, a story, a novel–is a narration. Actually telling the
story via the process of narrating is also narration, so “narration” is a verb as well as a noun.
Narrator*: The teller of the story or the person speaking in the story.
Paradox*: A statement, person, or situation that seems to be contradictory or opposed to common
sense; it is an unusual pairing of non-matching (incongruous) ideas. Authors use paradox to provoke
insight, so while a paradoxical statement appears to contradict itself, it often, on closer examination,
reveals a truth. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, for example, Juliet paradoxically refers to Romeo as
her “only love, sprung from [her] only hate.” “The child is the father of the man” (William Wordsworth)
is also a paradoxical statement.
Satire*: A style of writing that has the goal of mocking or scorning an individual, an institution, or
society as a whole. Angry and bitter satire is called Juvenalian satire while gentle mockery is called
Horatian satire.
Sarcasm*: When a character (or person) uses verbal irony to express bitter or angry feelings about
something. The reverse of what is meant is said. For example, a person might say, “That’s an act of
genius!” when he really means it is the act of a fool.
Symbol*: A symbol has two levels of meaning: a literal level and a figurative level. Objects, characters,
events and settings can all be symbolic in that they represent something else beyond themselves. E.g. the
dove is literally a bird, but it has become a universal symbol of peace. The collection of symbols in a
novel or short story is called symbolism*.
THE PEARL PLOT SUMMARY
Kino, a young pearl diver in La Paz, enjoys his simple life until the day his son, Coyotito, is stung by a
scorpion. The wealthy town doctor will not treat the baby because Kino cannot pay the doctor's fee, so
Kino and his wife, Juana, are left only to hope their child is saved. That day Kino goes diving, and finds a
great pearl, the Pearl of the World, and knows he is suddenly a wealthy man. The word travels quickly
about the pearl and many in the town begin to plot ways to steal it.
While the townspeople plot against Kino, he dreams of marrying Juana in a church, buying a rifle, and
sending Coyotito to school so that he can learn to read. Kino believes that an education will free his son
from the poverty and ignorance that have oppressed their people for more than four hundred years.
The doctor comes to treat Coyotito once he learns of Kino's pearl, and although the baby is healed by
Juana's remedy, the doctor takes advantage of Kino's ignorance. He convinces Kino that the child is still ill
and will die without the care of a doctor. The doctor then manipulates Kino into unwittingly revealing
where he has hidden the great pearl. Kino moves the pearl when the doctor leaves. That night, an intruder
comes into Kino's hut and roots around near the spot where Kino had first buried the pearl.
The next day, Kino tries to sell the pearl in town. The pearl buyers have already planned to convince Kino
that the great pearl he has found is worth very little because it is too large. This way they can purchase the
pearl for a low price. But when the buyers try to cheat Kino, he refuses to sell the pearl and plans to travel
to another city to sell at a fair price. His brother, Tom Juan, feels Kino's plan is foolish because it defies
his entire way of life and puts his family in danger. Kino is now on his own, although he doesn't know it
yet.
Juana warns Kino that the pearl is evil and will destroy his family, but he refuses to throw it away because
it is his one chance to provide a different life for his family. That night, Juana takes the pearl and tries to
throw it into the sea, but Kino stops her and beats her. On his way back to their hut, Kino is attacked and
he kills the man in self-defence. Juana goes to gather their things and escape and finds the floor of their
hut completely dug up. While she's inside the hut getting the baby, someone lights it on fire.
Kino, Juana, and Coyotito hide with Kino's brother for a day before embarking on their journey to a new
city under the cover of darkness. While they are resting during the day, Kino discovers that there are
trackers following them. He knows that they will steal the pearl and kill his family if they catch them. To
escape, Kino and Juana take the baby and run to the mountains where they hide in a cave at nightfall. The
trackers camp just below the ridge where they are hiding. Kino sneaks down in the night to kill the
trackers, but before he can attack them, Coyotito cries out. The trackers, thinking it's a coyote, shoot at the
dark cave where Juana and Coyotito are hiding. As the shot is fired, Kino springs on the trackers and kills
them all. Unfortunately, Coyotito was killed by the first gunshot, and Kino's journey with the pearl ends in
tragedy.
Realizing that the pearl is cursed and has destroyed his family (as Juana forewarned), Kino and Juana
return to La Paz and throw the cursed pearl into the sea.
THE PEARL MAJOR CHARACTERS
KINO: Kino is a young pearl diver who feels his obligation to his family very strongly. He knows his
place as the provider and works hard to supply for his family's needs. He finds The Pearl of the World and
expects to use it to pay for his son, Coyotito's, education. He also dreams that with the pearl he can buy his
family new clothes and a rifle for himself, but the pearl only brings him trouble. His neighbours turn on
him and try to steal the pearl from him and he has to leave his home after killing an attacker. Although it
was self-defence, he knows that his family is in danger. He and Juana run away with Coyotito, but trackers
follow them. He knows that they are after the pearl and that they will catch his family, so he sneaks into
their camp and kills them all. In the shooting that goes on in the camp, a stray bullet kills his son. He and
Juana return to La Paz with their dead child and they throw the pearl into the sea.
JUANA: Juana is Kino's strong, quiet wife who takes care of her family. The rhythm of her motions is the
Song of Family for Kino. She obeys her husband in most instances, but when she realizes that the pearl is
only bringing trouble to her family, she urges him to throw it away. He refuses, and while he sleeps, she
takes the pearl to the beach and is about to throw it in, when Kino catches her and beats her for taking the
pearl. She accompanies her husband out of La Paz and urges him again to get rid of the cursed pearl, but
he won't until their son, Coyotito, is accidentally shot by a tracker's rifle. After the tragedy, Kino and
Juana walk side by side back to La Paz and throw the pearl into the sea together.
COYOTITO: Coyotito is Kino and Juana's first-born child who is stung by a scorpion and needs medical
treatment. Unfortunately, the local doctor will not treat the baby because Kino has no money. When the
doctor hears about Kino's pearl, he comes to treat Coyotito. Kino expects that the pearl will purchase great
things for his family, the greatest being an education for his son so that they cannot be cheated by the
merchants and the other upper class citizens of La Paz who have taken advantage of Kino's people for four
hundred years. But that great dream is destroyed when Coyotito is killed by a gunshot while Kino is
killing the trackers who are following them. Kino kills them to protect his family and the pearl and the
dream of the future that the pearl provides, but his dream and his family are destroyed when Coyotito dies.
Kino and Juana return to La Paz with Coyotito's small body and throw the pearl into the sea.
MINOR CHARACTERS
JUAN TOMAS: Juan Tomas is Kino's older brother. Juan gives Kino advice about selling the pearl. He
walks beside Kino when they travel to the pearl buyers. Later, he warns his brother that by refusing to sell
his pearl to the buyers, Kino is defying their way of life and putting his family in danger. When Kino
seeks refuge with Juan Tomas, he is granted it. Juan gathers supplies that Kino and Juana will need on
their journey and protects his brother's family until they depart.
APOLONIA: Apolonia is Juan Tomas' wife. She follows her husband as he escorts Kino into town to sell
the pearl, and she raises a formal mourning when Kino's hut burns and no sign of them is found.
DOCTOR: The doctor is wealthier than the peasants of La Paz, and he scoffs at natives, like Kino and
Juana, who seek his treatment without money. When Kino and Juana brings Coyotito to the doctor to heal
the scorpion sting, he refuses them. Later, when he hears that Kino have found the Pearl of the World, he
comes to their hut to treat the baby. He pretends not to know that Kino has found a great pearl, so that
when Kino talks about it, he can watch to see if his eyes go to the spot where it is buried in the hut. Sure
enough, Kino gives its location away and that night someone comes to his hut to dig out the pearl, but
Kino has since moved it. Kino stabs at the intruder, but does not make a fatal swing and the intruder
(possibly the doctor) hits him in the head and then escapes.
TRACKERS: Two trackers and a man with a rifle follow Kino and Juana out of La Paz. Kino sees them
coming while Juana hide in the woods. When Kino realizes that they are tracking him, he and Juana
hurries up to the smooth rocks of the mountains so that they will be harder to follow. When night falls, the
trackers are just below the cave in which Kino, Juana, and Coyotito are hiding. Kino sneaks down the
sheer face of the mountain and into their camp and kills them all. In the chaos, Coyotito is shot and killed.
THE PRIEST: The priest is the local religious authority, and when he learns of Kino's pearl, he hopes
that he can convince Kino to use his wealth for the good of the church. He makes a visit to Kino's hut that
night to talk to him about his duty to give part of his wealth to God, who has ultimately created the pearl.
THE BUYERS: The pearl buyers of the town act as if they work for themselves, but they are actually all
controlled by one man. The pretence of competition among the pearl buyers makes it easier to cheat the
Indians out of their pearls. By putting on a show of competing over the best price, the man in charge and
the buyers are adept at ripping off the natives. When they tell Kino that his great pearl is worth only a
thousand pesos, he gets angry and leaves to take the pearl to the capital. That night, Kino's family is
attacked in their home, and he believes that the buyers are responsible for it.
THE PEARL OBJECTS/PLACES
Scorpion: The scorpion introduces the Song of Evil for Kino because it threatens the safety of his family.
When the scorpion stings Coyotito before Kino can get to it, it introduces pain and panic.
Song of Family: The Song of Family is the rhythm that Kino hears in the life of his family, and in their
routines. It's the music of their life together and reflects their peaceful interaction with one another, even
in silence.
Song of Evil: The Song of Evil is the thundering that he hears whenever something threatens his family.
The Song of Evil plays when the scorpion threatens his son and the thieves attack his family.
Song of the Pearl that Might Be: The Song of the Pearl that Might Be is what Kino hears when he is
diving for pearls. This is the sound of his own hope that he will find a great pearl that will provide his
family with luxury and peace.
The Pearl of the World: Kino finds a great and beautiful pearl, The Pearl of the World, and it created its
own music in his life. He hopes to use the pearl to buy his family new clothes and a rifle for himself. He
also wants to send Coyotito to school so that he could learn to read and become educated. Coyotito can
then know what is in the great books, and can no longer be cheated by wealthy, educated people. Despite
the high hopes Kino has for his family after finding the pearl, it brings them only grief. Neighbors begin
trying to steal it in the night and Kino kills a villager who attacks him for the pearl. To protect his family,
Kino is forced to escape the village. Trackers, lusting after the pearl, follow Kino and his family. Kino,
knowing the trackers will kill him and his family, attacked. During the fight, Coyotito is shot by the
tracker's rifle. The pearl that once promised peace and prosperity brings Kino and Juana only tragedy.
They return to La Paz and throw it back into the sea.
Kino's Canoe: Kino's canoe is the one thing of value he owns until he finds the pearl. He inherits the
canoe from his father and grandfather and takes excellent care of it. Kino uses the boat to provide for his
family. After he finds the pearl, someone puts a hole in the bottom of his canoe, forcing Kino and Juana to
escape La Paz on foot. Kino is sad at the loss of his boat because it is a part of his heritage.
Prologue
The story of Kino and the great pearl is one that all of the villagers know by heart.
"And, as with all retold tales that are in people's hearts, there are only good and bad things and black and
white things and good and evil things and no in-between. If this story is a parable, perhaps everyone takes
his own meaning from it and reads his own life into it."
The Pearl Chapter 1
Summary & Analysis
Kino awakes in the early morning and looks around him to see his son still asleep in the hanging box, and
his wife lying next to him with her eyes open, as though she’d been watching him as he slept. In the very
opening scene, we get a layout of the family hut, and a sense of the caring relationship between Kino and
Juana.
He hears in his head the “Song of the Family,” like the songs of his ancestors before him, and then steps
outside of his brush house to watch the sun rise. Juana, meanwhile, begins to make a fire in the pit and to
grind corn for morning corn cakes. Juana and Kino begin what appears to be their daily morning routine.
Nature and Kino’s ancestors are introduced as significant background characters.
Kino watches a crowd of industrious ants and coaxes a shy dog that has wandered over to their hut, as
Juana makes the cakes and sings to Coyotito. It is a morning like all others, safe and whole. The crowd of
ants, quietly working together, resemble Kino’s family and the town at large. A tone of safety, quiet,
gentleness, and mutual care is established.
Breakfast sounds come from neighbouring huts. Two roosters look to be about to fight. Kino and Juana’s
routine is echoed by that of their neighbours. Kino goes back into the hut and eats his corncake with
Juana, both of them silent because they need not speak, as sun streams in through the hut’s crevices. The
couple’s relationship is so strong that words are superfluous. Their hut is permeated by natural sunlight.
Suddenly, Kino and Juana freeze as they see a movement from Coyotito’s hanging box and turn their
heads to determine its source: a scorpion is climbing slowly down the rope of the hanging box, toward
Coyotito. While nature so far (the ocean, sun, ants) has been a source of peace and quiet, here it becomes a
source of danger, in the form of a poisonous creature.
Kino gets a determined look in his eyes and begins to approach the hanging box, the “Song of Evil”
playing in his ears. Kino steps up as protector of the family as he seeks to take on the scorpion.
As the scorpion moves further down the rope, Juana prays in a whisper, an ancient prayer as well as a Hail
Mary. Juana’s spiritual invocation combines the faiths of their ancestors and colonizers.
Kino is reaching for the scorpion when it freezes in place and flicks its tail.
Coyotito then laughs and shakes the hanging box’s rope, causing the scorpion to fall on him and sting his
shoulder, despite Kino’s attempts to grab it in the air. Coyotito, naïve to the forces of evil, doesn’t realize
the animal’s danger; Kino, who does, still cannot prevent the injury. The scorpion’s sting precipitates the
rest of the action in the story.
From Coyotito’s shoulder, Kino takes the scorpion and squashes it angrily. Juana, meanwhile, tries to suck
the poison out of Coyotito’s shoulder. Kino stands by, feeling helpless. The family was powerless to the
attack of evil; all they can do now is try to cure its effects.
All the neighbours flock to the brush house at the sound of the baby’s cries. They all know that a scorpion
bite can easily kill a baby, if sufficient poison has seeped in. This scene is the first to reveal the unity and
proximity of the community surrounding Kino’s hut.
Just as Kino is admiring her fortitude, Juana demands that the doctor be gotten. Kino respects his wife’s
strength and authority.
Her request, both wonderful and surprising (because the doctor never visits their neighbourhood), spreads
quickly through the neighbours. When word gets back that the doctor will not come, Juana decides that the
family will go to the doctor themselves. That her request is considered wonderful, because rarely fulfilled,
reveals just how marginalized the brush-house community is from the city. It also illustrates Juana's
remarkable dedication to her family.
The neighbours follow at the heels of Kino and Juana as they walk to and arrive at the city, replete with
plaster, stone, and fancy gardens. Again, the community’s chorus-like quality is illustrated. So, too, is the
economic inequality between the city and Kino’s brush-house town.
Beggars in front of the church there, who know everything about the town—the sins of its inhabitants, the
bad ways of the doctor —pin Kino and Juana down as “poverty people,” and look on to see what will
come of their visit. The beggars—a new kind of community—give the reader an outside perspective on
Kino and Juana. That the beggars see Kino and Juana as poor truly highlights just how poor and powerless
they must be.
At the doctor’s gate, Kino hesitates, recalling that the doctor’s people had historically oppressed his own
people. Finally, still enraged by the recollection, he knocks the iron ring against the gate and reports
Coyotito’s sting to the servant who opens it, speaking in the old language because the servant is of his
race. The servant does not reply in the old language, and heads inside to call on the doctor. Kino’s
ancestral history of oppression weighs heavily on him. He groups the doctor together with all the white
colonizers that have come before him. The servant is an example of someone whose native traditions and
language have been replaced by those of the colonizers.
The Doctor, fleshy and stout, is in his bed, drinking chocolate in a Parisian dressing gown and dreaming of
returning to France. Religious pictures, including a photograph of his dead wife, line his walls. Kino’s
suspicions about the doctor’s evil are confirmed by the doctor's rich, luxurious, selfish lifestyle.
When the servant tells the doctor about Kino and Juana, and Coyotito’s scorpion bite, the doctor becomes
angry, insulted by the notion that he would deign to “cure insect bites for ‘little Indians’” for no money.
He says, derogatorily, “I am a doctor, not a veterinary.” The doctor—whose job it is to care for people—
now vocalizes his great racial prejudice. He refers to Kino and Juana as though they are animals and not
worthy of his time and attention.
The Doctor asks if Kino has any money, so the servant returns to the gate and asks how Kino planned to
pay. When Kino pulls out eight ugly, flat pearls, the servant reports that the doctor had to rush out and
would not be able to see them. In the city, a person is only worth as much as his money, especially if that
person is not white. Kino’s worthless pearls here foreshadow the perfect, though still value-less, pearl that
he will find later on.
Shame settles over the group of neighbours and beggars that has followed Kino and Juana; they disperse
to save Kino from the humiliation. The neighbourhood procession can only follow Kino and Juana
passively. The most they can do when misfortune strikes is to leave the scene.
Kino stands for a while at the gate, before putting back on his hat. In a sudden lash, he punches the gate,
and then looks down at his bloody knuckles in wonderment. After remaining quiet and collected, and then
submissive, throughout this stressful first chapter, Kino lets his frustration show in an uncharacteristic
strike of rage. This foreshadows how his further encounters with the values and individuals of the
oppressors will drive and corrupt him to violence.
CHARACTER AND CHARACTERISATION
I. Kino
i. Curious and meditative
Soon after he wakes up, looks around his house, at his wife and his son. He quickly pays attention to both
the environment outside his house and in his mind; he pays attention to the industrious ants which are
quietly working together and pays close attention to the song of the family he hears in his mind by closing
his eyes. This shows meditation.
ii. Protective
When he sees a scorpion about to sting his son Koyotito, he does not hesitate but launch an attack on the
enemy with his bare hand. Much as he does not manage to eliminate the danger on his son, it should be
appreciated that all his intentions are to protect his family.
iii. Emotional
He angrily squashes the scorpion for stinging his son though the scorpion is just an insect with no sense of
emotion to feel his anger. He also portrays this character when the doctor refuses to attend to his son’s
sickness by punching the gate at the doctor’s compound.
iv. Resentful
Much as he wants the doctor’s services, he however inwardly resents him for being one of the race that
had colonised and ill-treated Kino’s ancestors.
II. Juana
i. Caring and responsible
She wakes up very early to prepare food for the family; she also sing for Coyotito to soothe him. She is a
caring mother.
ii. Superstitious/Polytheist/Uncertain
When the scorpion is about to sting Coyotito, she plays to both her ancestors prayer and a Hail Mary. By
praying an ancient prayer to save Coyotito from the scorpion, she is being superstitious while by
subscribing to two religious beliefs at the same time, she is a polytheist, and finally, by praying to two
gods (the Christian and the ancestral one), Juana is being uncertain, she does not know which god is going
to answer her prayers.
iii. Creative/improvising
She decides to suck on a puncture on Coyotito’s arm when a scorpion stings him. This is her way of
saving her child from the venom of the scorpion where there is no doctor.
iv. Influential/authoritative/daring
When Coyotito is stung by bees, Juana suggests that the doctor be gotten much as everyone knows that the
doctor does not visit the brush-houses. She is asking for something that seems impossible in the eyes of
everyone around hence she is daring. When she makes such a suggestion, Kino who already respects and
admires her fortitude, has no say but to follow her orders. This shows that Juana is authoritative or
influential.
v. Dedicated and reasonable
She demands that the family should go and see the doctor because she knows that the doctor may not
come to their house, and that in trying to wait for the doctor, they might end up wasting their time while
Ciyotito’s health deteriorates.
III. Coyotito
i. Naïve
Much as he is a little child, he causes harm upon himself by laughing and shaking when a scorpion climbs
a string of the basket where he is lying. He could have remained silent to allow his father kill the enemy.
IV. The Doctor

i. Segregative/Pompous/insensitive/greedy for money
He does not visit the brush-house community whenever they are sick since they are from an inferior race
and are poor with nothing to offer him. He openly manifests his characters when Kino and Juana brings
Coyotito to his house for treatment, He responds by saying that he is not a veterinarian (a doctor for
animals) who treats “insect bites for ‘little Indians’.” In that way, he is likening Kino and his people to
animals. This shows that indeed the doctor is a racist.
ii. Nostalgic
He misses his home France and keeps on dreaming about it.
iii. Dishonest
He does not say the truth when Kino brings Coyotito to the doctor’s house for treatment. He lies through
his servant that he has gone out while he is in the house.
V. The Doctor’s servant

i. Alienated and brainwashed
He does not want to speak his own language with Kino though both are of the same race and originally
speak the same language. He rather opts for his master’s language. This shows that he has been
brainwashed into thinking that his own language is inferior to his master’s.
VI. The Brush house Community

i. Empathetic
When Coyotito is stung by bees, the Brush-house community take pains to follow Kino and Juana to the
city to see the doctor even when it is not their own child who is sick. This means that they are able to put
themselves into the shoes of others.
VII. Church beggars

i. Knowledgeable/experienced and curious
They know everything about town life i.e. the sins of its inhabitants and the bad ways of the doctor. When
they see Kino and his people going to see the doctor, they, being knowledgeable, expect nothing but
embarrassment for Kino as he is a poor person. Therefore, they follow the group to see what is going to
happen to Kino and his group. This shows them as curious people.
ii. Analytical
From the way they look and Kino, Juana and other member’s from the brush-house community, they conclude that
these new comers in the city are poorer than they (the beggars) are just by looking at their dressing. After all, the
author marks them as experts when it comes to analysis.
THEMES
a. Evil
Evil is introduced in the form of the scorpion that stings Coyotito. Until that moment, Kino's home is
peaceful, filled with the Song of Family. But when he spots the scorpion dangling above Coyotito's bed,
Kino recognizes the strains of the Song of Evil that recur throughout the story. The Song of Evil comes
when anything threatens the family, and Kino does all that he can to destroy the evil and hush the sinister
melody of the Song of Evil so that the Song of Family can return.
Kino hears the Song of Evil again when he and Juana stand at the gates of the doctor's house. Kino knows
that the doctor is of the race that has abused Kino's own people for four hundred years; despite the fact
that they need the doctor's help, Kino knows that the doctor is still the enemy. He will try to cheat them or
abuse them as his people have always done to Kino's own race.
b. Family
Kino hears the Song of Family in each routine of his life. Although their life is simple, the rhythm of their
habits and the sounds of each part of their lives make up a song that is important to Kino. It fills his ears
and he is content with the safe and sturdy song. Kino will protect this song and the family it represents
because it is all he has and he loves it.
c. Superstition
When Coyotito is in danger of being stung by the scorpion, Juana mutters an ancient magic incantation
and then some Hail Marys to protect her son. The ancient, superstitious religion of the peasantry has been
mixed with the Catholicism of the Western upper class. Juana appeals to native gods and the Western
God, uncertain of which holds the true power. This mingling of a polytheistic religion with Roman
Catholicism is common in native countries that are colonized. The natives combine the gods of their own
religion with the figures of Catholicism. Elements of their original faith remain, such as incantations like
the one Juana mutters.
d. Nature/Two faces of Nature
Nature has been portrayed as an aspect that is both safe/good and dangerous/unsafe at the same time.
When Kino wakes up, he hears a little morning splash of waves which feels good. However, it is the same
nature represented by the scorpion in the first chapter, which ends up stinging Koyotito. This therefore
shows that nature is a source of goodness but at the same time a source of danger.
e. Routine
The first chapter opens with the display of some usual activities that Kino and Juana do every morning.
Juana has to grind corn, make fire and prepare cakes for breakfast for the family while Kino usually wakes
up to see the surrounding and appreciate it. When it is time for breakfast in Kino’s brush house, it is the
same in all other brush houses. This shows routine.
f. Man is powerless before the power of evil
When Kino and Juana sees the scorpion about to attack their son, Kino tries his best to remove the danger
physically, on the other hand, Juana tries to invoke spiritual intervention by praying an ancient prayer and
a Hail Mary but all in vain. This shows that man is powerless in the face of evil.
g. Communal life
The first chapter of this novel portrays communal life in Kino’s community in the way that when the
neighbours hear Coyotito’s cry after being stung by the scorpion, they all rush to Kino’s house to see what
has happened. On top of that, when Kino and Juana decide to take their son to the doctor, the whole
neighbourhood follow them to the city where the doctor lives.
h. Poverty
Juana and Kino cannot access the doctor’s services for their child because they are poor. The presence of
the church beggars in the city also shows that there is gross poverty in the city just as it is among Kino’s
people living in the brush-houses.
i. Racial Segregation
From the way the doctor considers Kino and his people, it is clear that there is racial segregation between
the white race of the doctor and the Red Indian race of Kino. It is also stated in the chapter that one’s
worth is measured by how much he/she has and race of that person.
j. The Impact of colonialism
Much as Kino and Juana are no longer colonised, Juana still subscribe to the coloniser’s religion
(Christianity) i.e. when she recites a Hail Mary in her prayers despite reciting her ancestral prayer. This
shows how colonialism can lead to loss of identity in a community.
k. Shame and frustration
This theme has been portrayed by the Kino’s neighbours and the beggars who follow Kino to the doctor’s
house where they go to seek for treatment for Coyotito. When Kino is denied the doctor’s services,
everyone feels the shame and departs to save Kino from humiliation. Kino who remains at the gate for
some time, failing to understand what has happened, punches the gate with his brow to express not only
his anger but also his frustration.
CHAPTER 2
Summary and Analysis
The narrator describes the town, located on an estuary. Canoes line the beach, constructed according to an
old, secret method. Sea animals and algae populate the floor of the ocean, and dogs stalk its shore.
Passages like this emphasize the town’s sense of unity between past and present, between humans and
nature, and between humans and animals.
An “uncertain air” hangs over the Gulf. Its haziness, the narrator suggests, might account for the Gulf
peoples’ trust in imagination. The natural setting of the Gulf is an important character throughout the
novel. Here it’s suggested that it even has the power to subtly determine the mind-set of its residents.
Kino and Juana walk to the beach, in the direction of their canoe. Kino had inherited the canoe from his
father, who inherited it from his own father. It keeps the family from starving, and is described as Kino’s
only valuable possession. The canoe, which is more valuable than it might appear, foreshadows the arrival
of another possession that turns out to be less valuable than it appears.
On Kino’s blanket, Juana sets down Coyotito, who’s calmed but still swollen. Juana treats his sting with
seaweed, which is effective but not as authoritative as a doctor’s treatment. That the doctor’s treatment is
considered superior for its “authority” reveals that Kino and Juana have become subtly dependent upon
and convinced by the powerful persons who oppress them.
The narrator notes that Juana has directed her prayers not toward Coyotito’s survival, but toward Kino’s
finding a pearl with which to pay a doctor, because her mind is “as unsubstantial as the mirage of the
Gulf.” Here, as elsewhere in the novel, the narrator steps back and judge Kino’s people, suggesting their
simplicity and ignorance.
Kino and Juana take off in the canoe, and look down at the oyster bed, which, it’s suggested, funded the
power and wars of the King of Spain. Kino and Juana are entering the very system of wealth and
evaluation that historically allowed for the Europeans to displace their own people. This to a larger extent
is ironical because Kino is tapping from the very system that displaced his people to displace himself
when we consider the misfortunes the pearl brings upon Kino’s life.
The narrator describes that a pearl is created through an “accident,” when a grain of sand irritates an
oyster’s flesh, and that to find one is to be in God’s favour. The value of a pearl is arbitrary. Created
accidentally, it’s nothing but cement-coated sand. Only God’s will, and not the seeker’s, can assure that
the seeker will find one.
Kino dives into the water with his basket. Filling it with oysters, he hears in his head the song of his
ancestors and, quieter, the Song of the Pearl that Might Be. The mingling of the ancient song with the
song of the pearl represents the larger mingling at work, between Kino’s traditional values and the values
of the white Europeans.
Young and able, Kino stays for a long time underwater, carefully selecting the largest and most promising
oysters. Kino’s own qualities—his strength and fitness— do have some impact on his success in this
pearl-seeking venture.
He finds one oyster lying alone, with a partly opened shell, revealing a gleam within. Kino’s heart beats
excitedly and he hears loudly the Song of the Pearl. The great consequence of this pearl is immediately
tangible.
Kino reaches the water’s surface and places that final oyster at the bottom of the canoe. Both Kino and
Juana try not to get too attached or dwell on Kino’s apparent excitement. Kino opens all the small oysters
first, saving the hopeful one for last. Kino and Juana understand one another without vocalized expression.
They can both feel something great but, superstitiously, don’t want to ruin it by acknowledging it.
When it comes time to open the promising oyster, Kino hesitates, afraid its glint was an illusion, but Juana
encourages him. Kino’s fear that the pearl’s been an illusion confirms the narrator’s description of the
Gulf people’s (sometimes deceptive) trust in imagination.
Finally he pries the shell apart, revealing inside a perfect pearl, moon-like—“the greatest pearl in the
world.” In this moment, the pearl is appreciated for its pure, visual beauty. It’s not yet complicated by
external assessments of value.
Kino hears the Song of the Pearl that Might Be resonant and warm and sees dream forms in his lucky find.
Juana comes to look at the pearl, which Kino holds in the hand with which he had punched the doctor’s
gate. Now Kino imagines all that the pearl might bring their family—it reflects his hopes and dreams. The
pearl’s location in Kino’s injured hand draws attention to the contrast between Kino’s previous sense of
powerlessness and his newly gained sense of power.
Juana goes over to check on Coyotito and finds that the swelling of his shoulder has gone down. Kino
clenches the pearl and howls. Kino and Juana’s situation seems to be in a trend of improvement: they’ve
found a great pearl, and Coyotito appears to be healing. Men in neighbouring canoes paddle quickly
toward Kino’s. The neighbours are never far away.
I. Kino
i. Young, strong, energetic, able and determined
The author himself describes Kino’s physical appearance in the like manner. We can also learn about this
when we consider Kino sinking underwater and staying a bit longer underwater selecting bigger oysters.
ii. Superstitious/reluctant
When Kino finds the large shell, he is reluctant to open it first because he doesn't want to show the gods or
God that he wants the pearl so much. He believes that if he wants it too much, it won't happen, and so he
waits to open the shell. (This theme refers to Juana as well).
II. Juana
i. Improvising
She uses improvised medicine (weeds) to cure Coyotito because the doctor has refused to administer his
treatment on the patient.
ii. Unstable/unfocused
At one point she makes prayers for the survival of Coyotito from the poisonous bite of a scorpion but as
soon as Kino starts to search for the pearl, her focus of prayers shifts to her husband’s success in finding
the pearl.
iii. Encouraging
She is the one who encourages Kino to open the largest oyster when her husband is reluctant to do so.
THEMES
a. Family/inheritance
Kino inherited his canoe, his only thing of value, from his father and grandfather, and it makes him proud.
It is his legacy and he takes great care of it because it is the tool he uses to provide for his family. The
canoe is the only inheritance he has beyond the songs of his people, and Kino loves his canoe. It obvious
that when Kino dies, his son has to inherit the canoe. This also shows that Kino’s society is a patrilineal
one whereby inheritance goes through the male line of the family.
b. Superstition
Juana prays that Kino will find a pearl so that they can have Coyotito's scorpion sting treated by the
doctor. She prays in an attempt to force from the gods the luck she and Kino need to take care of Coyotito.
Finding a pearl of value is strictly luck. Pearls themselves are accidental, and finding a pearl is considered
a gift from the gods or God.
When Kino finds the large shell, he is reluctant to open it first because he doesn't want to show the gods or
God that he wants the pearl so much. He believes that if he wants it too much, it won't happen, and so he
waits to open the shell.
c. Prejudice/biasness
Juana uses traditional medicine to treat Coyotito’s sting. The medicine seems to work as Coyotito now is
calm. However, the doctor’s treatment is still considered superior and authoritative.
d. Unity
Kino and Juana work hand in hand in their effort to find a pearl. This shows unity in their house where a
husband and a wife can work together for a common good.
e. Mystery
Beginning from the creation of the pearl, it is a mystery. The narrator describes that a pearl is created
through an “accident,” when a grain of sand irritates an oyster’s flesh, and that to find one is to be in
God’s favour. The value of a pearl is arbitrary. Created accidentally, it’s nothing but cement-coated sand.
Only God’s will, and not the seeker’s, can assure that the seeker will find one. The whole thing is a
mystery.
f. Hope
The Song of the Pearl that might be heard by Kino is nothing but a gleam of hope he has that he is going
to find the pearl.
g. Good luck
Kino finds the Pearl of the World at the time when his family needs it the most due to the sickness of
Coyotito. This is out of sheer good luck and not one’s own making as there are many who search for
pearls but have never found such a peal.
h. Mutual understanding
There is mutual understanding between Kino and Juana. The can communicate their excitement even
without vocalising it. This symbolize an advanced mode of communication that exists only
between/among individuals that have internalised each other very well.
i. Empowerment
When Kino finds the pearl he gets empowered by the new found wealth, unlike when he was a poor
person not even able to pay for hospital bills for his son. Now he can see hope and make plans for a
brighter future. This is complimented by Coyotito’s improving health.
j. Communal life/Neighbourliness
This has been portrayed by men in the neighbouring canoes who paddle quickly towards Kino canoe to
see what he has found. Just from the beginning this rhythm of neighbourliness has always been the same
beginning from when Coyotito is stung by the scorpion up to the doctor’s house; now the neighbours are
around Kino once again, and this is going to be the trend throughout the story.
CHAPTER 3
The narrator describes the town as a “colonial animal”: it works as a unit, separate from all other towns,
and circulates a uniform emotion. News travels through the town at an inexplicably rapid pace. It takes,
therefore, no time at all for everyone in the town to learn that Kino has found " the Pearl of the World." It
has already become apparent that the town functions as an intimate unit, but this passage foreshadows the
downside of this intimacy, which will become apparent in the rest of this chapter.
When the doctor hears of Kino’s pearl, he openly declares that Kino is his client and that he is treating
Kino’s son. He then luxuriates in dreams of Paris. The doctor cares not for the people that he treats, but for
their money. All he wants is more wealth and to return to Paris.
The beggars at the foot of the church are also pleased by the news, hopeful for alms. While before they
looked at Kino as a “poverty” person, now the beggars see him otherwise. Everyone thinks of how they
can profit from Kino’s wealth.
The pearl-dealers sit at their desks, waiting for the pearls to come in. The dealers always assess at the
lowest feasible price before there is danger of the pearl-owner giving his treasure somewhere else (once a
fisherman, deterred by the low price, donated his pearls to the church). While it appears that each buyer is
working as an individual buyer, there is, in fact, only one buyer who stages the dealers separately in order
to create the illusion of competition. The pearl dealers prevent anyone who isn’t already wealthy or
powerful from becoming wealthy or powerful. Their assessments have nothing to do with the pearls
themselves. The dealers therefore epitomize a society in which those in power remain in power and deny
anyone the opportunity for social mobility.
When the pearl-dealers hear of Kino ’s pearl , their fingers burn with anticipation, scheming of how they
might become more powerful than their boss, "the patron", or use the wealth for themselves to leave the
trade altogether. Even the dealers reside under the control of a higher power (their patron) and the pearl
inspires them, too, to hope for a chance to escape a system of oppression.
People in the town begin associating the pearl with their own dreams and desires. Kino, who stands in the
way as the pearl’s true owner, becomes the obstacle to the satisfaction of these desires. The town swells
with something “black and evil.” As always, the town shares a common emotion, but now their unity
works for the worse, creating a communal sense of envy and greed. Everyone sees the pearl as something
that can help them, change their lives, and that separates the townspeople from each other.
Kino and Juana, unaware of the envy that surrounds them, assume that everyone feels the joy that they
feel, as Juan Tomas and Apolonia do. In the afternoon, neighbours gather in their brush house and stare in
awe at the beautiful pearl, and consider Kino’s luck in finding it. There are still some, like close family
members, who feel happy for Kino and Juana to have found the pearl, but most do not. Kino and Juana at
this point to do not realize the extent of the town’s envy and malice.
The music of the family and the music of the pearl combine, each making the other more beautiful. Kino
relishes in a moment of peace, at which the family and pearl exist harmoniously. When Kino still thinks
the pearl will help him, he sees beautiful things in its reflection.
When Juan Tomas asks Kino what he will do as a rich man, Juana covers her excitement with her shawl
and Kino quietly states that he and Juana will be married in a church. He sees visions of their marriage in
the pearl —Juana in a new skirt and shoes, he in a new felt hat, Coyotito in an American sailor outfit—and
adds that they will have new clothes. The pearl sparks many dreams that Kino had not dared to consider
before he had the financial means. Many of the things he desires are Western—a Christian marriage, a felt
hat, a sailor outfit—which suggests that he associates riches with American and European culture, rather
than his own.
Kino continues to look into the pearl, seeing new desirable forms in its translucent surface. He sees a
harpoon, and then a carbine, and finally says aloud that he will also, perhaps, have a rifle. Kino’s desire
for a rifle, which is the greatest impossibility of all, breaks down the floodgates to whole new territories of
desire. Kino has become like all other humans, never satisfied and always wanting more. The rifle
surpasses everything else that Kino has mentioned he wants. The most infeasible of all, it opens the door
to a limitless realm of infeasible desires. The rifle, too, is like an upgraded and westernized version of the
canoe, Kino’s most valuable possession, in that it helps with daily work and hunting. But unlike the canoe
it also carries with it the threat of violence, showing the connection between wealth and power and
violence.
The neighbours echo that Kino will have a rifle. The neighbours are always there, at the ready to echo and
spread the word.
Juana looks admiringly at Kino while he sees in the pearl visions of ever-grander dreams. He pictures
Coyotito at a desk and says aloud that his son will go to school. Juana is startled by this and looks to Kino
to see if he means it. Kino aspires not only for material objects, but also for his son’s intellectual
elevation. With wealth, one can learn. And with knowledge, one can think for oneself and not depend
upon the wisdom of the colonizers. At the same time, the desire for education is the desire to escape one's
current situation, one's current culture.
Kino continues to prophesy, declaring that his son will read and write and make numbers, and that he and
Juana will know things through him. Never having spoken so much in his life, Kino stops, afraid of what
he has spoken unknowingly. Kino is used to listening and being told what to do. It is unusual for him to
have declared so much without knowing whether it will come to pass.
The neighbours acknowledge the marvelousness of this moment and imagine how it will be remembered
in years to come. If Kino accomplishes these things, they muse, it will be recalled as a moment of
empowerment; if he fails to, it will be recalled as a moment of foolishness. It is clear that this moment is
significant for Kino’s family, whether or not Kino’s prophesies are realized. His speech is a turning point,
either to brilliant success or to devastating failure. He has made his dreams known; that is something he
can't take back.
Kino looks down to see that his knuckles are scabbing. Kino’s healing hand reflects that he is overcoming
the powerlessness he felt at the door of the doctor’s.
Juana begins to make a fire and the neighbours remain. Word comes that the priest is coming to the brush
house. The Father, who treats the villagers like children, enters, and reminds Kino that he is named after a
“great man.” The priest represents the colonial influence of evangelism (preaching with the intention of
converting natives to Christianity). Now that Kino is wealthy, the priest seems to want him even more to
remember Christianity. Perhaps he hopes for a donation?
Kino begins to hear the song of evil, but knows not what brought it on. Greed and danger begin to
surround the family, without a single identifiable source. It seems that everyone wants something from
him.
The priest tells Kino that he’s heard of the pearl, and that he hopes that Kino will thank God for it and
pray to Him for guidance. Kino nods obediently and Juana reports that they plan to be married. The priest
blesses them approvingly and leaves. Kino and Juana perform their obedience to the Father and to his
Christian values, like good native subjects.
The neighbours leave to go to their own houses, and Kino stands outside, feeling alone and unprotected
though hearing the Song of the Family from behind him. Now that he has made plans for his family’s
future, he begins to steel himself against the attacks that will surely come to prevent him from realizing
these plans. Kino is no longer ignorant of the town’s envy or of the possibility that others might get in the
way of his realizing his plans for the betterment of his family. He recognizes that even his fellow
townsmen have become possible sources of harm.
The doctor arrives at the brush house, proclaiming his intention to see the baby, with his servant in tow.
Kino’s eyes burn with hatred for the years of subjugation that the doctor represents. The doctor is already
shown to be untrustworthy, as he falsely pretends that he always wanted to treat Coyotito and that he
hasn’t been motivated by the pearl. Kino feels this too, and yet he feels powerless in the face of the
doctor's knowledge.
Kino replies that Coyotito is almost all better, but the doctor retorts that there often appears an
improvement before a worsening. He shows his doctor’s bag, confident that Kino’s people trust the tools
of medicine. The doctor knows his power over Kino’s people, and the ease with which he can gain their
trust in his expertise. He is manipulative, always looking for ways to assure Kino that he knows how to
treat a scorpion sting.
Kino feels trapped between rage and fear, but finally lets the doctor enter. The doctor goes to Coyotito and
points to the blueness of Coyotito’s wound, as though an indication that the poison has seeped into the
body. Kino can see the blue, and feels he must trust that the doctor knows what it means and that it means
anything. Kino does not want to submit to the white doctor as his ancestors had, but he also does not want
to deny his son the proper treatment that the doctor might provide. He opts for giving in to the doctor,
because how can he deny his son care? But the story implies that the doctor may be manipulating Kino
and Juana.
The doctor feeds Coyotito a capsule with white powder and gelatine, predicts that the poison will attack
before an hour is over, and promises to return then. Like Kino and Juana, the reader is left uncertain about
the doctor’s treatment. Is the doctor healing Coyotito, or is Coyotito already healed and the doctor is
poisoning him just to be able to take credit for later saving him?
When the doctor has gone, Kino wraps the pearl in a rag and hides it in the floor in the corner of the
house. The pearl is too dangerous, too valuable to keep exposed.
The neighbours speak of the events of the day. A school of fish glitter in the estuary. The shy dog watches
the brush house. Things outside the brush house go on as normal—the neighbours gossip, the fish swim—
but meanwhile Kino’s life is becoming complicated now that he has the pearl.
Juana calls to Kino to show him Coyotito’s stomach spasms and flushed face, which convince the couple
that the doctor knew what he was talking about. The neighbours gather when they hear of the sickness.
The reader is left unsure about whether Coyotito’s new symptoms are indeed the delayed effect of the
scorpion poison, or if they were brought on by what the doctor administered.
The doctor returns and declares that he is able to defeat the effect of the poison. He feeds Coyotito
ammonia as Kino watches the doctor and his doctor’s bag carefully. The doctor claims that the baby will
improve and Juana looks at him admiringly. The doctor at this point has won Juana’s admiration and the
family’s trust in his medicinal expertise, while the reader remains sceptical.
Kino says that he will pay the doctor once he’s sold his pearl. The doctor feigns to not have heard about
the pearl, and offers to secure it in his safe. When Kino refuses, the doctor looks closely at Kino’s eyes to
see if they might dart to the pearl’s location. The doctor pretends that he has come to treat Coyotito out of
professional duty and care—as a doctor should—but his true intentions are revealed by his attention to
Kino’s eyes—he wants the pearl.
When everyone has left, Kino listens to the sounds of the night and then reburies the pearl in a hole under
his sleeping mat. To Juana’s inquiry about who Kino fears, he responds, “everyone.” Kino has become
fully awakened to the danger of the circumstance of owning such a valuable item. He know sees that it
makes them a target to all others, who want it for themselves.
As Kino and Juana try to fall asleep, Kino’s mind continues to work, dreaming of a learned Coyotito and
hearing the music of evil. Then he hears a small sound from the corner of the house, which he recognizes
as the sound of feet and fingers. He is taken with fear and grabs the knife from his neck and springs for the
source of the sounds. He strikes and misses and then strikes successfully, when he feels explosive pain in
his head and blood stream down his face. Kino's dreams, symbolized by his hopes for Coyotito, once so
pure, are now mixed with a sense of danger and foreboding (the song of evil). Kino’s predictions about
future attacks now begin to be realized. He was right to have been fearful. This fight sets Kino against
everyone else that covets the pearl and therefore isolates Kino and Juana from the rest of the town.
Kino assures Juana that he is alright, and Juana begins to make a fire and clean Kino’s head wound. She
decries the pearl as evil, a sin, and begs Kino to throw it into the sea before it destroys them. Kino refuses,
prizing the pearl as their only chance. This is the first time that the pearl itself is acknowledged as a source
of evil. Kino wishes to keep it despite the bad things it’s wrought because it also promises hope and the
potential for greatness. Now that he has a chance at a "better" life, he does not want to give it up.
Kino cleans his knife by plunging it into the earth. Morning sounds enter the house and Kino pulls out the
pearl to admire it, full of promise and comfort. Kino and Juana smile together, as one, and greet the
morning full of hope. Kino and Juana return momentarily to the rhythm with which the book opened,
grounded in the earth and aware of the nature around them. They try to feel hopeful.
I. The Doctor
i. Opportunistic and money hungry/greedy
As soon as he hears of Kino’s pearl, he openly declares that Kino is his client and that he is treating
Coyotito. What motivates him to cure Coyotito’s illness are not his medical ethics but his hunger for
money. He does not care that he is already richer that the likes of Kino, he still wants more worth even
from the poor.
ii. Pretentious_
He feigns to not have heard about the pearl, and offers to secure it in his safe.
iii. Cunning
The doctor looks closely into Kino's eyes to see if he might dart to the pearl's location.
iv. Evil
When he comes to Kino's house, he finds Coyotito almost healed. However, he lies to Kino's family that Kino is not
healed. To make sure his argument is valid, he gives some dangerous drugs to the child and he becomes sicker. He
is evil in the way that he tampers with someone's life in order to satisfy his greed.
II. Beggars at the foot of the church

i. Opportunistic
When they hear that Kino has found the pearl of the world, they become happy because they have
expectations that Kino is going to share them part of his wealth.
III. Juana
i. Superstitious
She describes the pearl as evil and a sin. She therefore begs Kino to throw it away before it
destroys them. However, much as she takes the pearl in spiritual terms, the fact is that indeed
the pearl is an evil thing among them because eventually it leads to the destruction of their
lives. When they finally decide to throw it away, it has already destroyed their lives.
IV. The pearl dealers

i. Cunning/dishonest/jealousy
When they hear of Kino’s pearl their fingers burn with anticipation. They start in advance to devise ways
on how they can deceive Kino and buy his pearl at a price as lower as possible. They have the power to
make the owner of the pearl to start thinking that his pearl is worthless while it is actually precious.
V. Kino and Juana

i. Naïve
They quickly assume that everyone around is happy with what they have found while in real sense people
envy them. The reality is that some people are not happy with what they have found, they want the pearl
for themselves.
VI. Kino
i. Over ambitious
When he mentions about his plans to buy a riffle, some of his people think is being over ambitious
because no one has ever had a gun in his society. This shows that Kino like any other human being, cannot
stop ambitions which have no boundaries. Kino feels like he can own everything in the world with the
pearl now in his custody.
ii. Foolish
He foolishly makes his plans known in public without knowing that he is putting himself in a position to
be assessed by the same people in future whether those dreams will be achieved or not. The risk is that if
he will not manage to achieve those dreams then he will be a subject of public shame.
iii. Instinctive
Through intuition, Kino hears the song of evil and wonders where it is coming from. When the priest
comes, he feels the song of evil. Actually the priest has come with no Godly intentions but his on greed
which is evil. Kino feels that everyone is envious of him; the priest and all his neighbours, a thing which
to a larger extent is very true.
iv. Realistic
Since he has made his dreams known publicly, he realises that he has also created several enemies who
will be striving to make his dreams unachievable. The therefore starts coming up with mechanisms to
protect his family and the pearl. He realises that the town people and his own neighbours are his enemies.
v. Suspicious/fearful
He does not trust the doctor when he asks to keep his pearl for safety. When he looks into his eyes, he
realises that what the doctor wants in his house is not to cure Coyotito but to get the pearl. No wonder,
when Juana asks him about who he fears, he answers that he fears everyone.
vi. Stubborn
It is stubbornness that prevents Kino from throwing away the pearl although it poses as a threat to their lives.
VII. The Doctor
i. Opportunistic, insensitive and proud
He visits the brush house simply because he hears that Kino has found the great pearl of the world; obviously, he
wants a share. He treats villagers like children though they are responsible old people. This shows that he is
insensitive.
ii. Flattering
He reminds Kino that he derives his name from a great man. However, this is just another way of making Kino
persuaded to share him his benefits from the pearl.
iii. Frank/candid
He openly tells Kino that he has heard of the pearl and that he hopes that Kino will thank God for it. He is not like
the doctor who pretends to not have heard about the pearl while he is fully aware of it.
THEMES
a. Evil
The buyers are out to take advantage of Kino and his pearl. Their goal is to cheat him and ruin his plans of
happiness and peace for his family. The doctor comes to take advantage of Kino's ignorance by making
Coyotito sick and pretending that his illness is the result of the scorpion sting. Because Kino and Juana are
uneducated, they are afraid to doubt the doctor's word, and he uses it to profit from their newfound wealth.
He pretends as if he doesn't know of Kino's pearl, yet the only reason he has condescended to treat an
Indian baby was to try and seek out where Kino might be hiding it. The pearl brings evil in the form of
greed: many seek to take advantage of Kino's newfound wealth.
b. Family
Kino cannot take a chance that the doctor is lying to him about Coyotito's health because he doesn't want
his child to suffer. The doctor takes advantage of a parent's concern for his child to turn a profit. He knows
that Kino will trust enough in the doctor's knowledge to allow him to treat Coyotito because Kino is
unsure that the baby is healed.
c. Superstition
Kino worries that the gods will get revenge against him if he finds success. He knows that the gods hate
when men plan for success, and now that Kino is making plans, he fears that something will come and rob
him of this opportunity.
Juana believes that the pearl is cursed because it has brought an intruder into their home. She warns Kino
that it will destroy them all, including their son, if they don't throw it back into the sea, but Kino won't
listen. His desire to use the pearl to educate his son and make a better life for his family is too strong. He
ignores Juana's warning and keeps the pearl.
a. Rumours spread faster
It does not take much time for the whole town to know that Kino has found the pearl of the world.
b. Opportunism
This has been portrayed by the doctor whom, when he hears of Kino's pearl, he openly declares that Kino
is his client and that he is treating Coyotito. His claims has nothing to do with his willingness to help but
his desire to share with Kino his newly found worth in the name of the Pearl. Such opportunistic motives
have also been portrayed by the beggars at the church, the fishers, pearl buyers, town's people etc. All
have desires to benefit from Kino's pearl, they hope to change their lives through Kino's pearl.
c. Change of mind set/paradigm shift
The beggars who at saw Kino to be poorer than they are, now they see him to be better off than they are.
They now look at him as someone who can offer them some assistance. This shows change of mind-set.
d. Dishonesty/Jealousy
This has been portrayed by the pearl dealers who deliberately set lower prices for pearls by deceiving the
sellers into believing that their pearls are worthless. It should also be noted that the conduct by the pearl
dealers portrays the theme of jealousy; they prevent everyone who is not already rich or powerful from
becoming rich or powerful.
e. Envy and greed
This has been portrayed by people in town who become envious of Kino for finding the pearl. Even those
who already have more than enough such as the doctor, what a share from Kino's wealth.
f. Ambition and optimism
Kino becomes so ambitious and optimistic when he finds the pearl. He thinks the pearl will elevate his
family and bring a lot of good things such as enabling them to stage a church wedding, buying new
clothes and educating Coyotito.
g. The concept of wealth
It is very clear that Kino and Juana consider that being wealthy is equal to being westernised. When one
considers their ambitions, all things they plan to do or buy are western. These include: a Christian
wedding which is western, western clothing and western education for Coyotito.
h. Hallucination/Imagination
Time and again Kino sees various things when he looks at the pearl even when those things are not
physically existing but only in his mind. The neighbours also imagine how their moment will be
remembered i.e. if Kino manages to fulfil his plans or fails: if he succeeds it will be remembers as a
moment of empowerment but if he fails it be remembered as a moment of foolishness.
i. Communal life
This theme has been portrayed several times in this chapter. For example, when Kino finds the pearl of the
world, everyone from the brush house community gathers around in his house to admire as well as to envy
his pearl. This is also shown when the neighbours hear of Coyotito's sickness (i.e. after the doctor's visit),
they all gather around him to cheer Kino and Juana up.
j. Empowerment
Kino believes that for Coyotito to be truly empowered in order to face his world, he needs modern
education. He needs to know how to read and write so that he can easily understand the affairs of his
world.
k. Vain talk
When Kino voices out his plans concerning what he is going to do after selling the pearl, it sounds good
and yet empty. The fact is that he has just found the pearl but has not yet figured out whether the pearl will
really give him fortune or misfortune. It is too early for him to start making such plans when he has not
yet sold out his pearl.
l. Sacrifice/submission
This has been portrayed by Kino who although he does not fully understand the art of the doctor, he does
not say no to the insistence of the doctor to cure Coyotito. He submits simply because he wants his son to
be healed.
m. Change versus adaptation or confusion
Any sudden change usually brings two possible reactions to any subject: these are either adaptation or
confusion. In the case of Kino, the pearl has brought drastic change in his life but instead of adopting it, he
has become so confused by it. His sense of security is gone and now he thinks everyone is against him.
n. Uncertainty
The reader is left uncertain as to whether the relapse of Coyotito's disease is due to the scorpion's venom
or the doctor's drug.
o. Admiration
Juana looks at the doctor admiringly as he administers his medication on Coyotito. The family trusts he's
medical expertise much as the reader remains sceptical.
p. Betrayal and isolation
The presence of the Pearl in Kino's house is more of a danger than a blessing. Instead of blessing them, it
betrays them and put their live in danger. It has also isolated Kino and Juana apart from the whole group,
they have become the hunted and everyone around as the hunter.
q. Bravery
This has been portrayed by Kino who after being attacked by an unknown person at night, he assures
Juana that he is alright though his head aches from the cut he sustains in the process. These words are said
out of bravery associated with the feeling of being a man and not the reality on the ground.
r. Conflict
The Pearl has brought conflict in the house of Kino and Juana where Kino wants to keep it while
Juana wants it thrown away.
s. The two faces of fortune (the pearl)
The peal as a fortune for Kino has to faces (implications): it poses as a source of destruction when we consider
Juana's point of view. However, it is a source of hope and prosperity when we considered Kino's point of view.
CHAPTER 4
The narrator remarks on the marvel of the little town’s interconnectedness, how it keeps track of
everything within it. A regular pattern has developed in the town, and whenever one person disturbs this
pattern, everyone hears about it. So, it’s quickly known by all that Kino intends to sell his pearl. Kino has
disturbed the natural flow of the town by finding such an inordinate treasure. He becomes, therefore, the
subject of attention throughout the town.
The pearl dealers have heard word of Kino’s intention and they sit in their offices and fantasize. All under
the control of a single buyer, they all know ahead of time what they’ll offer and how much they’ll bid.
Though they will not earn more than their regular wages, they are still excited for the pure thrill of the task
of bidding down a worthy seller. While Kino and Juana’s trip into the town is a momentous, once- in-a-
lifetime occasion, for the pearl dealers, it is their day job, which they always go about in the same way,
with no surprises, and with the sole intention of cheating the seller.
The air is yellow and thick, but through it, a tall mountain two hundred miles away can be seen. In the
midst of commerce and economic valuation, nature beckons. The thick yellow air may symbolize the
"pollution" of the corruption of the town, while the mountain symbolizes Kino's hopes.
The fishermen will not look for fish today. All the neighbours talk of the pearl and what they would do if
they’d found it. Most of them fantasize about religious deeds and donations, and they hope that the pearl
will not do bad things to Kino and his family. The selling of the pearl is an event not only for the family
but for everyone in the town. It occupies everyone’s days and thoughts. All the town people sense that the
pearl might bring great joy, but could also lead to great sadness.
The importance of this day for Kino and Juana is felt very strongly. Juana dreams of a baptism for
Coyotito. That Juana dreams of baptism represents how thoroughly she’s internalized a Christian vision of
wealth and happiness.
All the neighbours go, as expected, to follow Kino and Juana to the pearl dealers. Again, the neighbours
follow the family in a supportive procession, just as they did to the doctor's.
Juana and Kino prepare to go with Coyotito, Kino tilting his hat forward to convey his serious intentions.
The pearl lies in a leather bag in Kino’s pocket. The family gets ready to face what they expect to be a
very important day.
Juan Tomas walks next to Kino, warning his brother that the dealers might cheat him, because Kino
doesn’t know what buyers in other places would offer for the same. He tells him that there was a time
when there was only one agent who collected all the dealers’ pearls and brought them to the capital, but
that the system was changed back when one such agent kept all the pearls for himself. Juan Tomas
demonstrates his wisdom, warning Kino against the very thing that will come to pass. He describes the
current pearl- dealing system, with all dealers operating under one buyer, but as though it existed in the
past. He does not realize that the pearl dealers have simply become more sophisticated in hiding their
corruption.
Kino posits that that old system was a good idea, but that it went against the priest's sermons, which
dictate for every man to act faithfully and like a soldier for God. Kino doesn’t realize that while he follows
the ideals preached by the priest, the white men who brought the priest in feel no such compunction, and
simply hide their non-Christian activity. Kino has internalized the Father’s values as his own, indicating
his increasingly Christian convictions.
The brothers resemble their ancestors and Kino uses his only defence—a stolid facial expression. Without
power or wealth, Kino has learned to gain respect with his face, the only possession that cannot be taken
from him.
The procession moves slowly, under the weight of the significant event to come, and townspeople look on.
The pearl dealers prepare their offices. Suspense grows as the procession savours the significance of this
journey.
Kino goes in to one particular dealer, a “jolly man” capable of laughter and sorrow. He is rolling a coin
over his knuckles, performing a swift and mindless visual trick. When Kino walks in the man hides the
coin. The dealer’s facility with the coin symbolizes his general smoothness, quickness, and trickiness,
which he can presumably use in his trade to cheat clients.
The dealer continues to play with the coin behind his desk as he speaks to Kino, asks to see the pearl , and
promises the best price. Kino brings out the bag slowly, with great suspense, and removes the pearl. When
the dealer sees it, his face does not change but his coin slips in his hand. The dealer is able to keep a
straight face, but his slip of the hand reveals his astonishment at the pearl’s magnificence. Of course he
has hidden his hand behind the table, so Kino cannot see it.
The neighbours whisper to each other as the dealer fingers the pearl , before throwing it back into the tray
and declaring the pearl worthless because it is too big and clumsy. He assesses it at a mere 1000 pesos.
Kino tries to defend the pearl and accuses the dealer of cheating him. The dealer, now a little fearful,
instructs Kino to ask around for other appraisals. All the anticipation of the pearl’s great appraisal has led
to this disappointment. The distance between how much the pearl seems to be worth and how much it’s
deemed worth is so great that Kino feels he must have been cheated. And in fact Kino is being cheated,
but if the only people who buy pearls are all trying to cheat you, then the pearl isn't really worth what it's
"worth." This makes the pearl different from Kino's canoe, the value of which does not depend on the
assessment or power of another.
The neighbours confirm under their breaths that they had been wary of something like this, but comment,
too, that 1000 pesos isn’t nothing. The pearl had, indeed, seemed almost too good to be true. The
neighbours also realize how quickly Kino has absorbed the expectations of a man with money. A thousand
peso's could improve Kino's life, just not in the way he had dreamed. But he has stated his dreams, and
cannot go back.
Kino feels evil swell about him, but gains strength when he looks at Juana. Even as evil surrounds them,
the family remains strong and united.
Three neighbouring pearl dealers enter the office and the one sitting at the desk tells them that he has
made an offer but wants to see how they will assess the pearl without knowing his own offer. One calls the
pearl a monstrosity and won’t offer any money. Another says that “better pearls are made of paste.” A
third offers 500 pesos. The fact that these individual dealers all come to say the same thing about the pearl
is supposed to reinforce the first dealer’s appraisal, but the reader knows already that it’s all a scheme to
deny Kino what he deserves—to keep the poor, poor and the rich even richer.
Kino grabs the pearl and cries that he’s been cheated and will go to the capital. In order not to lose his
pearl, the first dealer quickly interjects that he will raise his offer. Kino leaves, furious. Kino sticks to his
instincts and his principles, refusing to let his family and his dignity be cheated. That the pearl dealer
rushes to re-bid reveals that he was in fact withholding the pearl’s true worth.
In the evening, all the neighbours analyse the event. They consider the possibility that the dealers had
spoken and plotted beforehand, but dismiss the notion. Some think that Kino has destroyed himself.
Others think that Kino is brave. Kino has acted boldly, and no one can know what will come of his
boldness. The observant neighbours can only speculate upon it. As it turns out, all the neighbours are
right. He is both brave and has destroyed himself.
In his house, Kino mulls over the possibility of going to the capital, at first wary of the idea and then
determined. Juana watches him bury the pearl and feeds Coyotito. Having rejected the pearl-dealers, Kino
has nowhere to turn but the capital. It is a place he fears, but his last remaining hope.
Juan Tomas comes in and is silent for a long time, before expressing fear for Kino now that has acted
against the dealers and the whole system they represent. Juan encourages Kino to leave the town, but
suggests that the capital may not be the best place to go because, there, Kino and Juana will have no one to
rely on. Juan articulates the reality of the situation: Kino has disturbed not just the flow and pattern of
town, but the whole system of power and money of which the town is a part. He must beware the
consequences of his rebellion against these forces.
Kino insists that he must go, at least to give his son a chance, and proclaims that his friends will protect
him. Juan corrects this, suggesting that his friends will only help him if it doesn’t discomfort them. Kino
remains hopeful about the promise of the pearl and the capital, but Juan, the wiser older brother, knows of
the selfishness of mankind.
Kino says “Go with God” and, when Juan leaves, Kino sits observing all the sounds that surround him.
Juana sits with him for comfort and sings the song of the family. For a moment, Kino returns to his
traditional way of communing with nature and feeling the comfort of family.
Kino senses something outside the house and clutches his knife as he walks outside. Juana hears a struggle
and when she goes outside, Kino is on the ground with no one around. Despite any temporary semblance
of comfort and calm, danger is always lurking just outside. When it is dark, when no one can see who is
attacking, those motivated by greed make their moves.
Juana brings Kino, half conscious, into the house and wipes off his blood. Kino reports that he could not
identify the attacker, and Juana tries again to convince him to destroy the pearl before it destroys them.
Juana uses this most recent attack as further evidence that the pearl only breeds evil. She realizes that the
family was happy even without the wealth offered by the pearl, and that the promise isn't worth the cost.
Kino insists that he will defeat the evil forces, declaring himself “a man.” He confirms the plan to go to
the capital the next day, and the couple prepares for sleep. Kino is too proud to get rid of the pearl. He
cites his masculinity as reason for his strength.
I. The boss of the pearl buyers

i. Oppressive, dishonest and exploitative
He uses others as his employees to cheat on others i.e. pearl seller for his own benefit. He is just as
dishonest as his employed buyers, after all he is the one who has employed them hence he should be their
master even when it comes to trickery. His employees are lowly paid no wonder they always think of
ways on how to overtake him.
II. Juan Tomas

ii. Cautious/ realistic/wise
He cautions Kino to be careful because the pearl dealers might deceive him. He knows that since the
dealers have no competitor at La Paz, they have all the liberty to offer lower prices to their advantage. It is
likely that they might be selling the same pearls at a higher price somewhere else. He thinks that there
might be better prices for pearls in the city than at La Paz.
III. Kino
i. Shallow minded
By arguing that the old system of buying pearls was good but was against the priest’s sermons, shows that
he is simple minded. He thinks that the only measure of morality for everyone are the priest. He simply
assumes that Christianity should be a rule to dictate everyone to act faithfully like soldiers of God. He
does not realise that not all the time that people do what they preach.
ii. Frustrated
When he discovers that the pearl dealers are trying to cheat him, Kino becomes so frustrated that that he
thinks of going to the capital to sell his pearl. He eventually leaves as a frustrated person.
iii. Bold and principled
He rejects the lower prices offered by the pearl dealers when he does not know where also to sell his pearl.
At the same time, he risks his life by despising the wit of the pearl dealers, but he does not care. Kino does
not want to degrade his family by accepting very low prices for his pearl while their expectations are very
high.
iv. Resolute
When discovers that he is being cheated by the pearl dealers, resolves to go to go to the city where he is
going to sell his pearl. Though the dealers try to increase their prices for the pearl.
IV. Kino’s neighbours

i. Analytical
They consider the possibility that the pearl dealers had plotted to deceive Kino beforehand but dismiss it.
Some think that Kino has been brave enough to reject the dealers’ offer, however, some think that he has
destroyed himself by rejecting the dealers’ offer.
V. The first pearl dealer

i. Clever and cunning
His skill is symbolised by the way he is able to play around with the coin in his hands. This symbolises his
ability to manipulate his clients. He does not reveal a straight face when he sees the pearl in order not
reveal his shock at the splendour of the pearl.
ii. Misleading and discouraging
He describes Kino’s pearl as clumsy and too big, a product not worth selling so that Kino should be
discouraged from thinking that his pearl is of a higher value.
iii. Fearful and desperate
When he realises that his tricks have not worked on Kino, he becomes fearful of losing such a treasure. He
asks Kino to ask other dealers for appraisals.
THEMES
a. Superstition
Kino worries that the gods will get revenge against him if he finds success. He knows that the gods hate
when men plan for success, and now that Kino is making plans, he fears that something will come and rob
him of this opportunity.
Juana believes that the pearl is cursed because it has brought an intruder into their home. She warns Kino
that it will destroy them all, including their son, if they don't throw it back into the sea, but Kino won't
listen. His desire to use the pearl to educate his son and make a better life for his family is too strong. He
ignores Juana's warning and keeps the pearl.
b. Family
Kino won't give up the pearl even though it's brought nothing but pain because he sees its value as a
chance to provide for his son's education, allowing him to escape their simple life. Kino does not want
those with a formal education to take advantage of Coyotito, like they do to other uneducated natives. He
wants more for his son and his family than their simple life, and the pearl is the key to those aspirations.
c. Evil
The buyers work together to cheat Kino of his pearl and intend to give him very little money for it. They
have planned to convince him that his pearl is worthless and pretend that they're doing him a favour by
taking it off his hands. The buyers are aware of the pearl's tremendous value, and intend to con the
"uneducated native;" he will trust them because they are the "experts."
Kino believes that his friends will help protect him from the evils that might befall him because of the
pearl, but instead of finding protection with his neighbours, he is attacked. His pearl has turned friends
into enemies; they are jealous and envy the pearl of the world that Kino has found.
d. Disturbance of societal patterns
The author describes the town of La Paz as an intact society where everything is in order; every person is
well classed and no one can easily move from one class to another. However, the finding of the pearl by
Kino has disturbed everything in the city.
e. Neighbourliness
This theme has been portrayed by Kino’s neighbours who as usual follow Kino as he goes to sell his pearl
to the dealers. The neighbours are always around Kino both in good and bad times. This shows good
neighbourliness.
f. Intrinsic motivation
This theme has been portrayed by the pearl dealers for have reached the extent of liking their job, not
because of how much they earn (because they are poorly paid) but because of the thrill of bidding down
the worthy seller.
g. Shallow Imagination
It seems everyone in La Paz is overtaken by Kino’s pearl and imagine what they would do if they found
the pearl themselves. They think of all the work of charity they can do if they can sell the pearl
themselves. They think that the pearl will not cause any harm to Kino’s family. By thinking that the pearl
might not bring any sadness, it can be concluded that their thoughts are subjective and shallow.
h. Unity and family
When Kino is almost being outwitted by the pearl dealers to buy his pearl at a lower price, Kino turns to
Juana and he finds encouragement. The family remains united even when evil surrounds them all over.
CHAPTER 5
Summary Analysis
Kino awakes in the middle of the night to see Juana arise from the bed mat, go over to the fireplace, pause
by Coyotito, and then exit through the door. Kino, enraged, quietly trails behind her. When Juana hears
him, she begins to run towards the water and lifts her arm with the intention of throwing the pearl. Kino
jumps on her, grabs the pearl from her hand, and then hits her face and kicks her side. Juana, strong-
willed, tries to take initiative and get rid of the evil pearl. To preserve the pearl, Kino acts cruelly against
the person he loves the most, revealing the full extent to which the pearl indiscriminately inspires greed
and evil in those who encounter it.
Kino hisses at his wife with bared teeth, while Juana looks back with brave eyes. She is familiar with and
unafraid of Kino’s murderousness. Kino feels disgusted and walks away, up the beach. The pearl has
awoken a savage rage in Kino. Juana, demonstrating the strength of the family bond, loves Kino in spite of
his rage. She recognizes his violence against her as part of his temperament and accepts it.
He stabs at something lurking and engages in a fight with another body whose fingers search through his
clothes for the pearl. The pearl is forced from Kino’s hand and lands upon the ground. Everywhere Kino
turns, another danger is lurking. To protect the pearl, Kino has entered into an endless series violent
defensive attacks.
Juana, meanwhile, lifts herself up and reassures herself that Kino is necessary for her survival. She
acknowledges and appreciates the differences between the values of man (strength, sacrifice) and the
values of woman (reason, caution) without entirely understanding them. Juana transcends Kino’s
immediate violence and recognizes his importance to her, and the general importance of a man to a
woman. She recognizes and does not question the fact that she and Kino fall into customary gender roles,
with wife subservient to husband.
Following after Kino, Juana comes across the pearl . She is considering whether she ought to try disposing
of it again when she sees Kino and a stranger in the aftermath of a fight. Even when the pearl is knocked
away, it comes back into the paths of Kino and Juana, as though destined to be in their hands.
Seeing that Kino has killed the other figure, Juana recognizes that she and Kino have left the life they’d
led before, and that there’s no turning back now. She drags the dead body into the brush and dabs Kino’s
face. The pearl has turned Kino not only into a violent man, but into a killer. His killing of a man brings
him and Juana completely outside of their old way of life.
Kino begins to complain of having lost the pearl, but Juana silences him by presenting it. She tries to
explain to Kino that they have to leave, particularly now that he has killed a man. Even if it was in self-
defence, the murder will turn even more people against them. Kino’s murder necessitates that Kino and
Juana become fugitives. It distances them from the sympathy and values of their neighbours. It also shows
how the power structure victimizes the poor. The powerful attempt to steal the pearl anonymously, and
then when Kino kills to protect what is his he exposes himself to legal danger in a way that the rich—the
aggressors here—do not.
Kino instructs Juana to get Coyotito from the house while he brings the corn and prepares the canoe. But
as he approaches the boat, he sees that someone has damaged it with a large hole in the bottom. He thinks
that this is an “evil beyond thinking.” Kino’s only truly valuable possession, his canoe, has been destroyed
because of the pearl— the possession of Kino’s that appears most valuable but has only brought the family
destruction.
Kino does not think to steal a neighbour’s canoe. Despite the effect of the pearl, Kino keeps his respect of
propriety intact. He has not completely abandoned his respect for tradition and neighbours.
The sounds and smells of morning activity arrive and Kino, determined, runs towards the house, only to
find it engulfed in flames. Juana comes towards Kino, carrying Coyotito, and says that the house had been
torn up by “the dark ones.” The burning of Kino and Juana’s home reinforces their rootlessness. Now
there is nothing keeping them in the town, and their enemies seem to be growing in number and force.
Kino is afraid and then slips into Juan Tomas ’s hut, pulling his family in behind him. From inside, they
hear the cries of their friends watching their burning house outside, including Apolonia who returns to the
house to exchange her shawl and finds them there. Kino quietly demands that she bring Juan Tomas to the
house. They seek shelter with their family, the only people who they are sure they can trust.
Kino tells Juan about the attacks and the murder he committed in self-defence, to which Juan replies that
the pearl contains a devil and that it must be gotten rid of. Without house, canoe, or a virtuous track
record, Kino despairs, and begs that Juan allow them to hide out there. Juan permits it, promising that he
will protect them, but only for a day. Juan agrees with Juana that the pearl brings only evil with it, but
Kino insists that it’s all they have. At this point, the family is trapped: the pearl has destroyed everything
the family once had, but it’s also, therefore, the only thing left to them.
Kino and Juana sit in silence during the day and hear what the neighbours are saying about them outside.
Juan Tomas deceives the neighbours with false accounts of Juana and Kino’s whereabouts. After a storm
occurs, he announces that Kino must have drowned. Juan contributes to the proliferation of evil by
creating lies surrounding Juana and Kino. The fact that it’s desirable for Kino and Juana to be considered
dead reveals how extreme their circumstance has become.
Kino says that he intends to go north and Juan informs him that men from the city will be searching the
shore, but that the strong wind will hide their tracks. Now Kino and Juana have become wanted persons.
The people who tried to steal the pearl now feel free to act more openly now that they have forced Kino to
kill.
Kino and Juana leave the house before the moon has come out. Juan calls to his brother, “Go with God,”
and asks if he might give up the pearl. To this, Kino responds that the pearl has become his soul. The pearl
is not only Kino’s sole remaining possession. It has become him. The consequences of this transformation,
on the basis of his violence toward Juana, are not promising.
I. Kino
i. Emotional and cruel
He gets enlarged when he discovers that Juana is trying to throw away his pearl and beats her severely. He
cruelly beats the person he loves the most, revealing how much the pearl has corrupted his mind.
ii. Honest and disrespectful
When Kino decides to escape from his town, he does not think of stealing someone’s canoe, despite the
fact that there are several canoes around which belong to other people. He does not use his desperation as
an excuse to commit theft.
II. Juana
i. Brave
When Kino is mad with anger on her for trying to throw away the pearl, she looks back bravely. She is not
afraid of Kino’s murderous anger. She single handedly drags the dead man who Kino kills, out of sight
without any fear.
ii. Composed and calm
When Kino gets attacked by the unknown person, he begins complaining thinking his pearl has been taken
away. However, Juana is the one who silences him by presenting the pearl to him. She thereafter explains
to Kino that they should move away now that Kino has killed a person
iii. Realistic/accommodative
Though Kino has brutally beaten her, she still realises that Kino is necessary for her survival. She
acknowledges and appreciates the differences between men and women though she does not understand
them. When Kino kills a man, she quickly recognises that their family has lost the life they used to live in
the past.
III. Juan Thomas
Superstitious
He believes that the pearl is evil and that it should be thrown away before is causes more damage on Kino
and his family.
Sacrificial
He sacrifices his house to keep Kino and his family despite the fact that they are being hunted. Keeping
Kino in his house might risk Juan’s own life because if Kino’s enemies can discover this, they can destroy
him together with his keeper (Juan).
Misleading/dishonest and clever
He deceives his neighbours by convincing them that Kino and his family might have perished on the sea
as they were trying to escape while in real sense they are hiding in his own house. By doing this he shows
cleverness because he knows that not his neighbours might manage to keep the secret that Kino is still
around to his enemies.
THEMES
a. Evil
The pearl turns Juana and Kino against one another. The evil power of the pearl is strong enough to
inspire violence between them. Juana and Kino are so close to one another that conversation isn't even
needed, and yet the pearl is able to divide them. It has brought injury and danger, and now it pulls Juana
and Kino away from each other. Kino is forced to kill a man to defend himself and the pearl. Then Kino's
hut is burned after someone searching for the pearl has ransacked it. Those who covet the great pearl
destroy everything that Kino and Juana have in their attempts to find it. The Pearl is making everyone turn
against them, and Kino and Juana know that they are no longer safe in their village, and must escape.
b. Family
The pearl that Kino expected to protect his family is now tearing it apart. Juana warns Kino that the pearl
will destroy their family, but Kino refuses to believe it because he thinks that the wealth the pearl offers is
the best way to protect his family. He thinks that by keeping the pearl, he is doing what is best for his
family, but the pearl is only pushing him and Juana apart. If it is dividing them, it cannot protect the
family from harm. It only makes life more precarious for them.
Juan Tomas helps his brother in every way that he can, by diverting the neighbours and gathering supplies
for Kino's journey. Juan knows that the pearl has brought evil onto his brother's family, and he does all the
he can to help them escape from it, but he cannot convince Kino to get rid of the pearl.
c. Superstition
Juana decides that if Kino won't get rid of the cursed pearl, she will. She takes the pearl and tries to throw
it back into the sea to protect her family from any more danger, but Kino stops her. Her fear of the pearl is
well-founded; Kino beats her for trying to get rid of the pearl, further proving that the pearl is cursed and
evil. It has made Kino attack and harm the one person he loves most. Juan warns Kino that the pearl is
cursed and that he must get rid of it to pass the evil on to someone else. He hopes that Kino can sell it soon
so that the evil of the pearl will not destroy his family before Kino can rid himself of it.
d. Domestic Violence and conflict
These theme has been portrayed by Kino who mercilessly beats up his wife Juana for trying to throw away
the pearl in the sea. There is a conflict between Kino and Juana over the decision of keeping the pearl of
throwing it away. Juana feel the Pearl is the source of their insecurity while Kino thinks it is a source of
hope.
e. Insecurity
This theme has been portrayed in the chapter through the attack on Kino by an unknown person who tries
to snatch the pearl from Kino’s hands. This incident leads to the death of the thief leading to more
insecurity. Kino is no longer safe, he will now be hunted not only for having the pearl but also for killing a
person.
f. The love of money is the root cause of evil
In this case Kino loves the pearl (which can be converted into money) that he is ready to sacrifice even the
true relationship between him and Juana. The pearl has awakened the savage beast in Kino to the extent
that he ends up his wife severely for trying to throw away the pearl. Kino also kills a person because of the
pearl.
g. Loss
The theme of loss has been portrayed by Kino who after the attack, he loses his canoe because someone
has made a big hole at its bottom so that it is no longer usable. Kino considers this as a great loss to him
because he considers the canoe as a great possession handed down to him to be used to support his family.
This loss extends to Kino’s loss of innocence for killing an unknown man though in self-defence.
h. Transformation
The misfortune facing Kino after finding the pearl transforms him and his family into fugitives. The have
lost everything; the canoe, the house and innocence, now they are fugitives from the law. Kino who used
to be a peaceful man and husband, has turned out to be violent and murderous in his attempts to secure his
pearl.
CHAPTER 6
In strong wind and under a black sky, Kino and Juana begin to follow the sandy road that leads to Loreto,
the home of a statue of the Virgin. The wind, Kino hopes, will erase their tracks. Kino and Juana set out in
the direction of the statue of the Virgin, as though they are embarking on a religious pilgrimage, when
really they are escaping after an irreligious crime of killing (even if in self-defence).
Something ancient and animal awakens within Kino and exhilarates him. Connecting with nature and with
his ancestors reinvigorates Kino.
The moon rises and the wind has calmed. Without the wind to erase their tracks, Kino tries to follow an
existing wheel rut. Kino and Juana seek to cooperate with nature to facilitate their invisibility.
Coyotes and owls make their night noises. Evil lurks about. Kino and Juana walk all night, and Kino hears
the song of the pearl and the song of the family. Evil noises haunt Kino and Juana, but now they are the
noises of nature, not of greedy humans And Kino feels that he is acting to protect his family and the hopes
symbolized by the pearl.
At dawn, Kino finds a clearing by the road to sleep in for a bit. While Juana nurses Coyotito, Kino covers
up the tracks they’ve made. A wagon passes by and hides their footprints. It’s best to sleep at dawn,
because it’s too dangerous to walk in broad daylight. Traffic and natural elements aid their hiding.
Kino watches ants at his feet as he eats a corncake Juana has offered him. The sun rises high and hot. Kino
instructs Juana not to touch the tree that bleeds, nor the tree that blinds, and his wife nods knowingly.
Kino demonstrates to Juana his intimate familiarity with the surrounding nature. She, too, is familiar, but
assumes a subservient position in allowing him to teach her.
Juana and Kino discuss the likelihood of whether they are being followed. Kino is certain that they will
be. When Juana’s says that the pearl is actually worthless after all, Kino reasons that it must be valuable or
else people would not have tried to steal it. Not knowledgeable about the system of evaluation in which
the pearl plays a part, Kino and Juana can only interpret how valuable their pearl is from the reactions it
has provoked.
Kino declares aloud that he will have a rifle, but can see in the pearl only the man he’s killed. He declares
that he and Juana will be married, but he sees in the pearl Juana’s beaten body. He declares that Coyotito
will read, but he sees in the pearl only Coyotito’s sick face. The dreams that the pearl once inspired have
now been replaced by the terrible consequences the pearl has actually caused. When Kino looks into the
pearl, he sees not hopeful dreams but devastating realities—and yet he can't give up the dreams.
Kino puts the pearl back and the music of evil interweaves again with the music of the pearl. Kino recalls
the evil of the pearl as he sees these saddening forms in its surface.
Juana is playing with Coyotito and Kino is lightly asleep when Kino cries out in a bad dream and then sits
up sharply as though he’s heard something. He tries to eat a corncake to calm himself and then tells Juana
to silence Coyotito. A jolt in Kino’s dream seems to alert Kino that something bad is happening in reality
that he must be ready for.
He looks onto the road and sees one man on a horse and two men walking close to the ground, inspecting
like hounds. Kino tries to hold his breath as he recognizes these men as inland trackers, out to hunt Kino
and his family. Kino has become like an animal. He is powerless to do anything but violently attack in
defence or run away.
Kino decides that he must lunge for the horseman and grab his rifle, and digs his feet into pits in the sand
to prepare himself. The trackers pause at the place on the ground where Kino had swept their tracks away
and the horse snorts. Kino tenses, but then the trackers move on. A moment of suspense is deflated when
the trackers leave, making it unnecessary for Kino to attack just yet. And yet by delaying the climax it
only builds suspense for the real climax to come.
Kino backs up, considering it hopeless to cover his tracks, and suggests to Juana that maybe he should just
surrender himself. Juana challenges him, doubting that the trackers would let him live once they stole his
pearl. Kino is overwhelmed with despair. Finally Kino proposes that they go into the mountains to try to
lose the trackers. They do so in a “panic flight.” Kino seeks elevation, like all pursued animals. After days
of fighting off attack and pursuit, Kino’s hope and will are temporary worn down. He has a moment of
weakness, but then comes back to himself and creates a plan, getting in touch with his animal instincts.
Kino pictures the trackers coming up the mountain after them, once they find Kino and Juana’s previous
resting ground, but he cannot see them from where they are. The trackers are never far from Kino’s mind.
He is constantly aware of their approach.
The land that they travel over is dry, waterless. Natural elements, like a lack of water sources, provide an
additional obstacle to Juana and Kino’s survival.
Kino tells Juana to go north to Loreto or Santa Rosia while he leads the trackers into the mountain, and
that he will join her and Coyotito if he is able to escape. Juana refuses to leave his side. They move on, no
longer in a “panic flight.” Juana demonstrates how much she cares for her family and considers Kino
integral to her life when she insists that they remain together. Kino, too, is empowered by the family bond.
Kino walks in a zig-zag to throw off the trackers, and sets out for the spot of foliage that might mark a
water source, despite the danger of going to such an obvious and commonly needed destination. Thirst
overpowers all other concerns as Kino and Juana decide to go to water even though that's likely where the
trackers will look for them, or come themselves to drink. Nature and need prevails over strategy.
Kino and Juana arrive at a little spring, with water bubbling out of the stone and falling into a pool on a
stony platform, where all the animals come to drink. They look at the Gulf from afar as Juana washes and
nurses Coyotito and Kino drinks. Kino and Juana join the animals they’ve come to resemble in their flight
from the hunters, and unite with nature in this brief moment of calm and replenishment.
Kino looks down the mountain and sees the trackers scurrying up, ant-like. He estimates that they’ll catch
up by evening and suggests that they go west. He orders Juana to go hide in a cave up the hill, where
she’ll be more hidden. Kino climbs up the brush cliff past the cave, pulling at the shrubs along the way,
and then walks back down the hill to join her, making sure there’s no sign of his tracks. Kino acts as head
of the family in determining everyone’s course of action. He displays his intelligence and craftiness,
thinking not only how to run away from the trackers, but how to deceive and deter them along the way.
Kino tells Juana the plan—when the trackers follow Kino’s path uphill, Kino and Juana will go back down
the mountain—and reminds Juana that Coyotito cannot make a sound. Kino watches the trackers climb up
the hill and rest by the water beneath Kino and Juana while darkness descends. Juana coaxes Coyotito to
remain silent. Two of the trackers are sleeping while a third watches, and then their match is extinguished,
leaving the scene completely dark, but printed in Kino’s memory. Kino and Juana prepare for the trackers’
arrival and Kino plots his plan of attack. Kino is extremely alert and takes note of the details of where the
trackers are. Darkness hides everyone in mystery and suspense.
Kino pictures the position of the men, and then returns to Juana and informs her that he plans to attack the
tracker with the rifle first. She warns him that they’ll see his white clothing in the dark but he insists that
he must go, before the moon comes up. He tells her to go on to Loreto if he’s killed. He lays a hand on
Coyotito’s head, touches Juana’s check, and then takes off his white clothing and slithers out of the cave.
In his final moment before he goes to face the trackers, Kino shows care for his family and promises that
they will be together in the end, as long as he makes it through alive. After discrediting Juana’s advice to
remove his white clothing, he obeys it, showing how much he respects Juana and considers her intelligent.
He crouches carefully and quietly, with his knife hanging down his back, hearing strongly the Song of the
Family. He finally reaches the level of the trackers, twenty feet away, and crouches. He tries to remember
whether there are any obstacles that will obscure his attack, and then reaches for his knife, intending to
attack before the moon rises. Kino thinks of his family as he prepares to perform an act of potential
sacrifice for them. He demonstrates his skilful swiftness as he creeps along noiselessly and strategically.
The moon comes up before Kino had hoped, and Coyotito cries a little from the cave. The trackers hear
the cry and stir from their sleep, guessing first that the sound comes from a baby, and then deciding
instead that it must be a coyote. The tracker on watch lifts his rifle to shoot at the crying coyote. Just as
Kino creeps like an animal and is hunted like an animal, Coyotito’s cries sound like those of his animal
namesake. His cries often serve momentous narrative moments, either marking an important event (as in
the scorpion sting) or precipitating an important event (as here.)
Kino leaps out and the gun fires. Kino digs his knife into the watchers’ neck and chest and grabs the rifle.
He knocks the head of the sitting man and shoots the third, first to the ground, and then between the eyes.
Kino stands, sensing that something is wrong. The cicadas are quiet. Suddenly he becomes aware of a
moaning from the cave, the “cry of death.” Kino attacks savagely and successfully, but any sense of relief
or accomplishment is overridden by the sounds he hears from the caves. Along with the trackers, it seems
that Coyotito, too, has been killed. Kino attacks only in self-defence, to fight against evil, but every time
he does so the evil only grows.
The narrator reports that all the people of La Paz remember the moment when Kino and Juana came back
to the town as the sun was setting. They walked not in single file with Kino ahead, but side by side, Juana
carrying a dead Coyotito in her bloody shawl. Their faces were tired and tight and seemed as though
protected by magic, having surpassed human emotion. They walked straight ahead through the town. As
in the introduction to the novel, Kino and Juana’s story is placed within the context of the villagers’
narration, as a tale that’s been told again and again. The tragedy that they’ve been through has levelled
their relationship, equalizing man and woman (as indicated by their walking side-by-side) and numbing
and blinding them to all that surrounds them. Since they found the pearl, their lives have been so affected
by the community and world around them, but now they are like witnesses against that world, forcing it to
see what it has done.
They reach the Gulf shore, not looking towards the ruined canoe, and Kino lays down the rifle and takes
out the pearl, offering it to Juana. She insists that he do the deed. He flings the pearl back into the ocean,
and it settles to the bottom among the plants and crabs. Finally, now that the pearl has run its course of
evil, has destroyed Coyotito for whom they held all those dreams the pearl might have made possible,
Kino and Juana rid themselves of the pearl and all its associations. Now the pearl returns to nature, where
it belongs, and Kino and Juana symbolically reject the world into which the pearl thrust them. The way
that Kino offers Juana the opportunity to throw the pearl, and her insistence that he throw it, shows both
how they have reached more of an equality between each other, but also how each recognizes the way that
the pearl has injured the other. Ultimately, it is Kino who must throw the pearl because it is he who must
reject the dreams it inspired in him.
Kino and Juana stand next to one another and the music of the pearl fades away. Exhausted, Kino and
Juana are left only with one other. They have given up on the dreams of the pearl.
I. Kino
i. Protective
When Kino and his family are being pursued by the trackers, he does all he can to protect his family by
conceal their footprints, hiding his family and even physically attacking the trackers all in the name of
protecting his family.
Reasonable
Kino portrays this character when he tries to reason with Juana concerning the pearl that the pearl should
not be thrown away because it might really be a valuable thing because if it weren’t then people would not
be seeking to steal it.
Courageous/brave
Kino portrays this character by gathering the courage to attack the three trackers alone. They might have
outnumbered him but he has all the courage to kill them all.
Desperate
He portrays this character by suggesting that he should just surrender himself to the trackers, thinking that
they can let him free after stealing the pearl. This is a desperate decision which Juana does not even
support it.
Clever/strategic/ crafty
He walks in a zig-zag way in order to throw the trackers away. He keeps watch over the trackers and
estimates which direction they are going to take. He orders Juana to hide in the cave while he goes to
attack them. He thinks at the same time of how to protect his family and taking away the threat brought by
the trackers.
II. Juana
Submissive
When Kino tries to warn her against touching trees that bleed and blind, she willingly accepts to do so
though is already aware of such knowledge. She submits to Kino’s warning not that she does not know
already but out of respect for Kino as the head of the family.
Brave ad sacrificial
She does not accept to part ways with Kino when he suggests that she goes away with Coyotito while he
deals with deals with the trackers. She overlooks the fact that her life might be at risk.
Intelligent and realistic
She reasons with Kino when he suggests that he should surrender himself to the trackers, that thought he
might take that risk, the trackers will not leave him alive even after taking the pearl. She also advises Kino
to remove his white clothing which might reveal Kino’s presence to the trackers.
III. The trackers
Experienced and keen
They are able to interpret any sign along the way Kino and Juana have used such as foot-steps broken tree
branches etc. They follow every sound around them and follow them as a sing leading the hiding place of
Kino and his family.
THEMES
a. Evil versus Peace
Kino looks into the pearl expecting to see visions of the dreams he had the night after he found the pearl,
but the only things he sees are the horrible things that have happened to his family since he found the
pearl. He begins to realize the evil the pearl contains, but still refuses to give it up. In a dream, Kino has a
premonition of danger. He wakes and discovers trackers are following his family. He knows that they will
find them and kill them for the pearl. He feels trapped because there is no way for them to escape the
trackers. In the struggle to protect his family and survive, Kino turns into a killing machine. He attacks,
swiftly and brutally, killing all three men who were tracking his family in a quest to steal his great pearl.
Kino has been forced to do terrible things to survive and to protect the pearl from being stolen. The pearl's
value has made it evil.
b. Family
As Kino, Juana, and Coyotito are making their escape, Kino believes that his family will triumph because
they seem to be getting away. He begins to believe that everything will work out; the pearl promises
security and peace, and they will escape the bad luck that has plagued them since he found the pearl. He
believes that now his family will prosper. Kino considers giving himself up to the trackers because there is
no way that he and his family can get away from them. The thought momentarily defeats him, until Juana
reminds him that the trackers will kill her and Coyotito as well, and that prods Kino into action.
In the midst of danger, their survival depends on keeping the baby quiet through the night. If he cries, their
hiding place is given away, but if he can keep silent, perhaps Kino will be able to disarm the men and
secure his family's escape.
Juana has been right from the beginning -- the pearl will destroy their son. The trackers who will start
following them will kill Coyotito. Kino's insistence that the pearl will find peace and happiness for his
family costs Coyotito his life and leaves a hole in their family that will not have been there had Kino never
found the pearl.
c. Superstition
When Kino looks into the pearl and sees only the tragedies that have befallen his family, he begins to
believe that the pearl is cursed, but he still cannot part with it. Kino and Juana throw the pearl back into
the sea after Coyotito is killed by the trackers. The cursed pearl has brought about the death of their child
and forced Kino to kill to survive and protect his family. The great pearl has brought nothing but misery to
Kino and his family, and together they throw the cursed object back into the sea. As it sinks, the music of
the pearl turns to a whisper and then disappears.
d. Sacrifice
This theme has been portrayed several times in the final chapter. Firstly Kino has tried all his best to
protect his family from the trackers. Firstly he decides to hand himself into the hands of the trackers and
secondly, he suggests that Juana and Coyotito should go ahead while he remains to mislead the trackers.
However on both suggestions, Juana stops him. Kino fights all the trackers alone in the name of saving his
family. Sacrifice has also been portrayed by Juana who vows to follow Kino wherever he goes even if his
life is in danger. Finally, sacrifice has been portrayed by Kino and Juana who finally decide to sacrifice
the pearl so that their life should be at peace.
e. Transformation
The tragedy that Kino and Juana have been through, has levelled their relationship as indicated by their
waking side by side. This shows that man and woman are now equal, a thing that is a total divergence
from the life that the community is used to i.e. man is superior to woman.
f. Frustrated dreams
The final chapter portrays the theme of frustrated dreams through Kino who at first used to see all his
dreams (e.g buying a riffle, a Christian wedding and education for Coyotito) come true when looking at
the pearl. However, this time he sees the dead person, his bruised wife and his sickly son. This shows that
all the dreams Kino had, have been frustrated.
g. Violence
The final part of chapter six is packed with violence which include the shooting of Coyotito and the killing
of the three trackers by Kino.

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THE PEARL

(A way to understanding MSCE English Literature)

Compiled and edited By Kumbuakani Kayaman Mulenga

About the editor

Novel/Short Stories: General

Short Story Elements

B. Characterization: The collection of characters, or people, in a short story is called its

Novel/Short Story Devices and Features

 Person versus person

THE PEARL OBJECTS/PLACES

The Pearl Chapter 1

Summary & Analysis

CHARACTER AND CHARACTERISATION

v. Dedicated and reasonable

IV. The Doctor

He misses his home France and keeps on dreaming about it.

V. The Doctor’s servant

VI. The Brush house Community

VII. Church beggars

d. Nature/Two faces of Nature

f. Man is powerless before the power of evil

j. The Impact of colonialism

k. Shame and frustration

Summary and Analysis

CHARACTER AND CHARACTERISATION

Summary and Analysis

CHARACTER AND CHARACTERISATION

II. Beggars at the foot of the church

IV. The pearl dealers

V. Kino and Juana

a. Rumours spread faster

c. Change of mind set/paradigm shift

e. Envy and greed

f. Ambition and optimism

g. The concept of wealth

m. Change versus adaptation or confusion

p. Betrayal and isolation

s. The two faces of fortune (the pearl)

Summary and Analysis

CHARACTER AND CHARACTERISATION

I. The boss of the pearl buyers

II. Juan Tomas

iii. Bold and principled

IV. Kino’s neighbours

V. The first pearl dealer

ii. Misleading and discouraging

iii. Fearful and desperate

d. Disturbance of societal patterns

h. Unity and family

CHARACTER AND CHARACTERISATION

ii. Honest and disrespectful

ii. Composed and calm

III. Juan Thomas

Misleading/dishonest and clever

d. Domestic Violence and conflict

Summary and Analysis

CHARACTER AND CHARACTERISATION

Intelligent and realistic