The Pearl LitChart

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The Pearl
• Where Written: California
INTR
INTRODUCTION
ODUCTION • When Published: 1947
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN STEINBECK • Literary Period: Modernist novel
John Steinbeck grew up in and around Salinas, California. • Genre: Novella/ Parable
Steinbeck's comfortable California upbringing instilled in him a • Setting: La Paz, Baja California Sur
love of nature and the land, but also of the diverse ethnic and • Climax: Kino’s beating of Juana and his killing of a man in
socioeconomic groups featured throughout his fiction. He protection of the pearl
attended Stanford University, but never completed his degree. • Point of View: Third person (from the perspective of the
Instead he moved to New York in 1925 to become a freelance villagers who pass down the tale through generations)
writer. He returned to California after that plan failed and
earned his first real recognition for Tortilla Flat (1935), a EXTRA CREDIT
collection of stories about peasant workers in Monterrey,
From Kino to Kino. It is assumed that Kino was named after
California. He published many more novels throughout his
Eusebius Kino, a Jesuit missionary who explored the Gulf
lifetime and today is best known for the novella Of Mice and
region in the 17th century.
Men (1937) and the novel The Gr Grapes
apes of W
Wrrath (1939). He won
the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 and died six years later.
From Film to Fiction. Steinbeck wrote The Pearl on an invitation
from Emilio Fernandez, a well-known Mexican filmmaker, to
HISTORICAL CONTEXT write a screenplay depicting Mexican life. In consequence, The
In the early 1940’s, race riots were erupting in Los Angeles due Pearl features few characters, simple and intense action, and
to the discrimination of Mexican and Mexican-American cinematic viewpoints.
teenagers. In 1942, for example, twenty-four Mexican gangs
were tried in a murder case that lacked evidence of their guilt.
A year later, US Navy servicemen attacked a group of Mexicans, PL
PLO
OT SUMMARY
but escaped any criminal charges while the Mexicans they
attacked were persecuted. This period of racial conflict was The Pearl takes place in a small village on the outskirts of La Paz,
reminiscent of the Spaniards’ colonization of parts of Mexico California. It begins in the brush house of Kino, Juana, and their
and their subjugation of native Mexicans in the 16th century. baby, Coyotito, a family of Mexican Native Americans. In the
The white oppression of Mexicans both historically and in midst of Kino and Juana’s morning routine, Coyotito is stung by
Steinbeck’s California, greatly informed his writing of The Pearl. a scorpion that has fallen into his hanging box.
Aware of how poisonous the scorpion’s sting is, Juana orders
RELATED LITERARY WORKS that the doctor be gotten and when the doctor refuses to come
to them, insists they go to the doctor themselves. Kino, Juana,
Steinbeck derived some aspects of The Pearl from his
Coyotito, and their neighbors proceed together to the city.
screenplay for the 1941 documentary, The Forgotten Village,
When the servant reports their arrival at his gate, the doctor,
which depicts the contentious coexistence of modern and folk
lounging indulgently in bed, is insulted by the mere notion that
medicine in a Mexican town. The novel’s central plot, however,
he would “cure insect bites for ‘little Indians’” without
is based on the Mexican legend of a young boy who discovers a
compensation. The servant informs Kino that the doctor will
great pearl, which Steinbeck later narrated in his 1951 Log from
not be able to see them and Kino punches the gate, infuriated
the Sea of Cortez. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest
by the doctor’s evident discrimination.
Hemingway, whose simple prose resembles Steinbeck’s, might
also be considered a related work. Published five years after Kino and Juana set off in their canoe to search for pearls. Kino
The Pearl, it likewise deals with themes of nature, dignified dives down to the seafloor and finds one oyster lying alone,
work, ambition, and ruined dreams. gleaming from within. Upon returning to the canoe, Kino opens
this oyster last and finds within it the most perfect pearl in the
world.
KEY FACTS
News of Kino’s pearl spreads rapidly through the town,
• Full Title: The Pearl inspiring desire and envy in everyone who hears of it. When
• When Written: 1944 Juan Tomas asks Kino what he will do as a rich man, he
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responds that he and Juana will be married in a church, that wife, Juana, and their son, Coyotito, in a brush house near the
they will have new clothes, that he will have a rifle, and that his Gulf Sea. They lead a simple and dignified life, and Kino works
son will receive an education. hard to keep his family nourished and protected. In the
The priest visits the brush house to remind Kino and Juana to beginning of the novel, Kino is deeply connected to the culture
thank God. Then the doctor, inspired by the news of the pearl, of his ancestors—to their musical customs, their intimacy with
arrives in order to treat the baby. He administers a first nature, and their veneration of the family structure. When he
treatment and predicts that the poison will strike within the finds the pearl, however, Kino develops grand ambitions and
hour. Within the hour, Coyotito indeed becomes ill and the lofty aspirations, which distract him from these traditional
doctor administers a second treatment to cure him. Kino values and lead him to commit uncharacteristic acts of violence
promises to pay the doctor after selling the pearl, which the in protection of the pearl—against his own wife as well as his
doctor feigns not to have heard about. greedy neighbors and others. By the end of the novel, after his
efforts to keep the pearl have resulted in the disaster of
That night, after dark, Kino hears noises in the house and
Coyotito's death, Kino demonstrates a renewed respect for his
manages to strike a thief looking for the pearl with his knife, but
wife and a return to his initial values, particularly when he
is also struck in return. Juana begs, to no avail, that they get rid
allows Juana to walk by his side and then offers her the honor
of the pearl.
of throwing the pearl into the ocean.
The next day, Kino and Juana, followed by their neighbors, go to
Juana – Like her husband, Kino, Juana is hard-working, serious,
visit the pearl dealers. The first dealer Kino visits assesses the
and able to endure great physical and emotional strain. She
pearl at a mere 1000 pesos, declaring it too big and clumsy to
nurses Coyotito, builds fires for corncakes, prays in times of
be worth anything more, though it is clearly more valuable than
distress, and attempts to heal her baby’s scorpion sting.
he lets on. Kino accuses the dealer of cheating him, so the
Though she defers to her husband as a wife is expected, Juana
dealer instructs Kino to ask around for other appraisals, which
is also strong-willed, and it is she who insists that Coyotito see
are even worse than the first. Kino concludes that he’s been
the doctor. When she takes initiative and tries to get rid of the
cheated and decides to go to the capital for a better estimate.
evil pearl, however, Kino beats her into submission. Yet even
That night, Kino fights off another attacker. Juana tries to Kino’s violence Juana accepts rationally, reminding herself of
throw the pearl into the ocean, but Kino follows her, rips the the necessity of man for woman.
pearl away from her, and beats her to the ground. Some
Co
Coyyotito – Perhaps the most important, though most silent,
minutes later, Juana rises to discover that Kino has been
character in the novel, Coyotito is Juana and Kino’s infant son.
attacked yet again, and, this time, has killed his attacker. Now
He is a naïve instigator of action: in the beginning of the novel,
that Kino is guilty of murder, Kino and Juana truly must leave
he shakes the rope of his hanging box, causing the scorpion to
the town.
fall on his shoulder and sting him. It is to pay for his treatment
As Kino approaches the canoe to prepare for their departure, that Kino searches for the pearl, and in the end, his cries
he sees that someone has made a hole in its bottom. Then, upon awaken the trackers and cause them to shoot in his direction
seeing that their house is engulfed in flames, the family seeks and kill him.
refuge in Juan Tomas’s house. They flee north at nighttime,
The doctor – The doctor is the ultimate embodiment of evil and
pursued by trackers who have followed them from the village.
greed in The Pearl. The opposite of what one would expect of a
The family retreats into a cave on a mountainside, under which doctor, whose job is to care for others, he is selfish, indulgent,
the trackers come to rest at night. When it’s completely dark, and malevolent, and cares only about his own wealth and
Kino prepares to attack them but, as he is about to, Coyotito pleasure. He lives alone (his wife is dead) and lies in bed all day,
lets out a cry, provoking one of the trackers to shoot at what he eating candies and chocolate. When he is first asked to care for
assumes to be a coyote. Though Kino succeeds in killing the Coyotito, he refuses and cruelly proclaims that he is not a
men, Coyotito has already been shot dead. “veterinarian.” As soon as he hears of Kino’s pearl, however, he
Juana and Kino, united and beleaguered, walk back to the falsely claims that he always intended to treat the baby. It is not
village side-by-side with Coyotito’s dead body in Juana’s shawl. clear, then, whether the treatment he uses on Coyotito is
Kino throws the pearl back into the sea. effective, or if he just manipulates Coyotito’s condition to
worsen and then improve, making himself look good. All he
cares about is getting Kino’s pearl and it can be assumed, given
CHARA
CHARACTERS
CTERS that he watches Kino’s eyes so closely to see if they indicate the
pearl’s location, that he is responsible for at least one of the
MAJOR CHARACTERS violent nighttime theft attempts in Kino's house.
Kino – A strong, young Native American, Kino is The Pearl’s The pearl-dealers – While the pearl-dealers appear to be
protagonist and the head of its central family. He lives with his individual buyers, each providing estimates independently of

one another, they are, in fact, all operating under a single
master buyer, who controls their bids and wages. Unbeknownst THEMES
to Kino’s family or his neighbors, before Kino comes in with the
In LitCharts literature guides, each theme gets its own color-
pearl, the buyers have conspired to give him the lowest
coded icon. These icons make it easy to track where the themes
estimate possible. Their underestimation infuriates Kino,
occur most prominently throughout the work. If you don't have
making him feel powerless and cheated, and forces him to go to
a color printer, you can still use the icons to track themes in
the capital for a fairer assessment.
black and white.
The neighbors – Kino and Juana’s neighbors often assemble as
a unified chorus or procession to follow and support the family. COMMUNITY
For the most part, they unite only in times of particular
excitement and, even then, their primary function is to listen, Social structures such as the family, village, and
observe, and spread news. Some townspeople, however, after town, are central to The Pearl. The central unit, for
hearing of Kino’s pearl, peel away from the passive chorus of Kino and Juana, is the family. Their daily lives and
villagers and turn against Kino, raiding his house, injuring him, routines are organized around the family, and they make
and finally lighting his house on fire. These attacks occur at sacrifices for each other and for their son, Coyotito.
night, when Kino cannot see the faces of his attackers. So, while Outside the family’s hut is the village, which is small and
the neighbors present a unified front in the daylight, at night generally comes together to follow and support Kino and his
they attempt to realize their individual desires, in the privacy of family when they are in need. The “Pearl of the World,”
darkness. however, brings worldly concerns of wealth and self-
The tr
track
ackers
ers – These are the three men, two on foot and one advancement into the village and town, and brings out the
on horseback, who come from the town to capture Kino’s worst in the neighbors. It inspires the individualistic greed of
family and pearl. In defense, Kino kills the trackers while they the neighbors who try to rob Kino’s home, and the communal
are resting around a fire during. Before he does, however, one conspiring of the pearl dealers who attempt cheat Kino of his
of them mistakes Coyotito's cries for those of a coyote, and deserved money. In the end, the one unit that remains united
shoots and kills him. and strong and full of mutual love, even after loss and injury, is
the family: Kino, Juana, and their dead son, Coyotito.
The priest – The priest plays an active colonizing role in La Paz
by spreading the Christian faith of the Europeans to the natives
of the land. While Kino and Juana are persuaded by his GOOD VS. EVIL
benevolence—they follow his advice and repeat his sermons The plot of The Pearl is driven by a constant
and prayers—he may not be as virtuous as they assume. It struggle between the morally opposite forces of
seems at times, as when he reminds Kino and Juana to thank good and evil. Evil in The Pearl can appear in both
God for their discovery, that he, too, is only interested in the man (the doctor) and nature (the scorpion); both evil man (the
wealth that their pearl promises. doctor) and good man (Kino); both ugly shape (the scorpion)
and beautiful shape (the pearl). While the scorpion’s evil takes
MINOR CHARACTERS the form of lethal poison, man’s evil throughout the novel takes
the form of overriding greed. The doctor, for instance, is evil
Juan TTomas
omas – Juan Tomas is Kino’s older brother, who provides
because he acts upon greed over human care and professional
his younger sibling with shelter, wisdom, and support. He
responsibility. Similarly, the neighbors are evil when they act
articulates important truths in the novel: that the pearl is evil,
upon greed over neighborly respect, and Kino is evil when he
that mankind is innately selfish and greedy, and that the pearl-
acts upon greed over love for his wife.
dealers are likely to cheat Kino.
Evil in the novel is an omnipotent, destructive force. One must
Doctor’s servant –The Doctor’s servant is an example of
either bear it (as in the case of the scorpion) or avoid it (as in
someone who shares Kino’s race and ancestry but does not
the case of the pearl), because to combat it only breeds more
share Kino’s drive to resist the influence of European
evil. When Kino tries to fight off the thieves and protect the
colonizers. When Kino tries to speak to him in the old language,
pearl, for instance, he ends up committing acts of evil himself,
he responds in the language of the doctor.
on both the thieves and his wife. Kino does destroy the evil-
Apolonia – Apolonia is Juan Tomas’s wife and Kino’s sister-in- bearers that act to harm his family—he squashes the scorpion,
law. kills the trackers, throws the pearl into the ocean—but he only
succeeds in doing so after the evil has run its course and the
poison has already seeped in.

RACE, TRADITION, AND OPPRESSION not seem valuable to another. Moreover, wealth in the novel is,
in fact, not a source of well being, but of bad fortune or
Kino and Juana’s racial heritage both provides
malicious greed. In the end, what remains of value to Kino and
them with the grounding force of ritual and
Juana is immaterial and has no price: love and the family.
tradition and deprives them of power under the
reign of European colonizers. They continue to sing the songs
they have inherited from their ancestors, but they also NATURE
continue to be oppressed as their ancestors were, by white Nature is a powerful force in The Pearl. Natural
people like the doctor and by people with economic influence elements often serve to instigate crucial plot-
like the pearl-dealers. Their oppression is brought increasingly points. Sometimes they protect (as in the plants
to light throughout The Pearl, as Kino attempts to cooperate that keep Juana and Kino temporarily hidden from the trackers)
with the people who have the power (the money, the expertise) and feed (as in the fire that cooks the corncakes); while at other
to help his son recover, but are the very same people that times, they destroy (as in the scorpion that poisons Coyotito
traditionally oppress people of Kino’s race. and the fire that burns down Kino’s house). And throughout the
In the end, dealing in the world of White wealth and medicine novel, Kino is described as being, like his ancestors, intimately
leaves Kino and Juana in a worse condition than they set out in: connected with nature. He is said to have “the deep
they end up without a son, home, or canoe. By throwing the participation with all things, the gift he had from his people. He
pearl back into the ocean, it seems, Kino is attempting to free heard every little sound of the gathering night, the sleepy
himself of the colonizers’ influence and escape their system of complaint of settling birds…and the simple hiss of distance.”
evaluation, to return to his own set of traditions and values. As Though powerful, however, nature’s force is essentially neutral,
readers, we might also take a step back and wonder whether despite the meaning that mankind, here Kino and Juana, confer
Steinbeck might himself be guilty of the kind of racial upon it. As described above, the pearl in itself is worthless—a
discrimination that Kino attributes to the colonizers, in mere cement-wrapped grain of sand—but, in the course of the
consistently describing him with animalistic characteristics and novel, it represents for Kino and Juana first prosperity and
by making generalizations about “his people.” hope, and then evil and despair. In attributing the pearl such
meaning, Kino drifts away from his practice of “deep
VALUE AND WEALTH participation with all things” and into a system of valuation that
is not his own, and that ultimately ends up backfiring. Finally,
The value and evaluation of material entities is a
ridding himself of the pearl and all of the significance it’s been
central theme in The Pearl. The value of the pearl,
overlaid with, Kino is free to return to his truly meaningful,
for example, requires reassessment throughout the
ancestral relationship with nature.
novel: at the moment of its discovery, it seems to be worth
Coyotito’s life. That the pearl-dealers then so underestimate
the price of the pearl reveals how distant the monetary worth
of something can be from its perceived value, and how much
SYMBOLS
value is determined by those in power. Moreover, the Symbols appear in teal text throughout the Summary and
determination of the pearl’s value has little to do with anything Analysis sections of this LitChart.
inherent to the object itself. As the narrator describes, a pearl
forms by a natural “accident”: “a grain of sand could lie in the
folds of muscle and irritate the flesh until in self-protection the THE PEARL
flesh coated the grain with a layer of smooth cement.” The pearl is a complicated symbol. It highlights
Kino’s canoe, on the other hand, is described as the “one thing different themes and gathers new meaning as the
of value he owned in the world.” Kino prizes his canoe not as a plot progresses. When Kino first opens the oyster in which it
possession but as a “source of food,” a tool that allows him to lies, the pearl seems to signify that God is looking favorably on
fish and dive for pearls. It seems, therefore, that Kino values Kino and Juana. It soon becomes clear, however, that finding
things that can help him provide him for his family. Unlike the the pearl is not good fortune at all. Rather, it surfaces the evil
pearl, whose sole function is to be possessed and looked at and and greedy impulses of everyone that comes into contact with
whose value is assigned (arbitrarily) by people in power, the it and thus symbolizes the materialism and selfishness of man’s
canoe is valuable because of its functionality and tradition, and desires. It represents, too, the arbitrariness of value and the
its association with the dignity of work. capacity of an economic system to prevent those who are
powerless from rising above their present state. Created by an
The Pearl reveals the slipperiness of value and evaluation: often,
accident with a grain of sand, the pearl is assigned a price—the
value is assessed by those who are already wealthy and
lowest price possible—by conspiring pearl-dealers. Kino is
powerful. What is valuable to one man (the canoe to Kino) may
cheated in this system because he is not powerful enough (and

is assumed to be too ignorant) to see through the scandal and
fight it. once the Great Pearl came into their lives. The lack of
geographic specificity in regards to the "town" in which this
story is told suggests that, in addition to becoming a vague
THE SCORPION kind of legend, the tale is passed along in various towns as a
The scorpion is a figure of pure evil, whose sole warning of the dangers of sudden fortune.
function in the novel is to do harm to the most
innocent and powerless character, Coyotito. The scorpion
symbolizes the evil that is found in nature, which is seemingly Chapter 1 Quotes
arbitrary and unmotivated, in contrast to the evil that is found Juana sang softly an ancient song that had only three
in mankind, which is generally the result of selfish desire and notes and yet endless variety of interval. And this was part of
greed. the family song too. It was all part. Sometimes it rose to an
aching chord that caught the throat, saying this is safety, this is
KINO’S CANOE warmth, this is the Whole.
Passed down through three generations, the canoe

symbolizes for Kino the tradition and culture of his Related Characters: Juana
ancestors. Its importance to him demonstrates how much Kino
values both his ancestry and the ability to provide for his family. Related Themes:
Page Number: 5
QUO
QUOTES
TES Explanation and Analysis
Note: all page numbers for the quotes below refer to the Kino awakens early one morning, and he and his wife Juana
Penguin Books edition of The Pearl published in 2002. begin their typical routine. As their schedule never falters,
they are able to go about their business and communicate
without a word. Kino finds great beauty in this morning, due
Prologue Quotes
to the fact that it epitomizes the harmony of his home and
“In the town they tell the story of the great pearl—how it his family. In this quote, Juana sings a song, "The Song of
was found and how it was lost again. They tell of Kino, the Family," that simultaneously represents the present peace
fisherman, and of his wife, Juana, and of the baby, Coyotito. And of their family and their role as members of an ancient
because the story has been told so often, it has taken root in group of people. Juana's song brings the family together as
every man’s mind…If this story is a parable, perhaps everyone a unit and as a part of their larger culture (a culture that, it
takes his own meaning from it and reads his own life into it. In should be noted, is portrayed in a vague and simplified way
any case, they say in the town that…” by Steinbeck). This song deeply comforts Kino, as it reminds
him of his love and protective instincts towards Juana and
Related Characters: Kino, Juana, Coyotito Coyotito, and his responsibility as a member of the larger
town and its people.
Related Themes:
Related Symbols: This doctor was of a race which for nearly four hundred
years had beaten and starved and robbed and despised
Page Number: 1 Kino’s race, and frightened it too, so that the indigene came
humbly to the door.
Explanation and Analysis
This quote appears as a prologue to the story. The quotation
marks that bookend the quote suggest that it is one that is Related Characters: The doctor, Kino
often spoken aloud in the telling of the proceeding story.
Thus, the story of the "great pearl" has essentially become a Related Themes:
parable, such as The Boy who Cried Wolf or The Tortoise
Page Number: 11
and the Hare. Its perpetual telling is meant to teach the
listener a lesson, based on the morals gleaned from the Explanation and Analysis
misfortunes of Kino, Juana, and Coyotito that befell them

The perfect morning is irreparably broken when Coyotito is would not be alive.
stung on the shoulder by a scorpion. Though Juana quickly
sucks out the poison, Kino and Juana fear for their baby's
life. Determined to have him healed, Juana declares that
She gathered some brown seaweed and made a flat damp
they will bring Coyotito to the doctor. In this quote, the
poultice of it, and this she applied to the baby’s swollen
narrator notes that the doctor is of a different race than shoulder, which was as good a remedy as any and probably
Kino, Juana, and Coyotito. He is a white descendant of better than the doctor could have done. But the remedy lacked
Europeans who brutally colonized the lands on which Kino's
his authority because it was simple and didn’t cost anything.
ancestors have lived for thousands of years. As a result, the
doctor has money and influence whereas Kino's people
have been subjected to poverty. Collective memory Related Characters: Juana, Coyotito, The doctor
therefore leaves Kino and the townspeople afraid of white
people like the doctor, who have historically been cruel and Related Themes:
violent to the indigenous people in the area. Juana and
Kino's determination to have Coyotito treated by the white Related Symbols:
doctor is therefore viewed by the town as an act of bravery.
Page Number: 16
Every year Kino refinished his canoe with the hard shell- Explanation and Analysis
like plaster by the secret method that had also come to Having been turned away from the doctor's home, Juana
him from his father. Now he came to the canoe and touched the creates a poultice from seaweed to soothe the baby's sting.
bow tenderly as he always did. In this quote, the narrator notes that while this remedy is
likely just as effective as the doctor's treatment would have
Related Characters: Kino been, Juana views it as unsatisfactory because it was hastily
created by her and not by an expensive white doctor with a
Related Themes: degree. This point of view represents the influence that
colonization has had on the indigenous people in La Paz.
Related Symbols: Though Juana and Kino's people have been living in the
region for thousands of years, the sudden influx and
Page Number: 15 brutality of Europeans with rifles forced them to become
second-class citizens. European dominance has meant that
Explanation and Analysis luxuries such as schools and advanced medical care are too
As Kino has no money for which to pay for the doctor's expensive for the subjugated natives to afford. Since Kino
treatments, he is turned away from the doctor's house. In and Juana want absolutely the best for their son, they are
desperation, he decides to try his hand at finding a valuable determined to have him treated by a rich white doctor,
pearl to sell to raise money for Coyotito's medical whose people have thrived, albeit through cruel practices, in
treatment. In this quote, the narrator shows how much the region. By contrast, Juana's people have been murdered
pride and care Kino takes in his canoe. It is a priceless and subjugated, and thus internalized a sense of weakness
heirloom passed down from his father, and it is the sole that she associates with her poultice, regardless of how
source of his livelihood. In coating it with a "hard-shell like effective it is. She wants Coyotito to be healed by a doctor
plaster," Kino takes care of his canoe in the same matter that whose wealth and skin color are a kind of proof of strength
a pearl is made (a pearl is created when a grain of sand and dominance.
enters an oyster, and it coats it in a smooth covering to
avoid irritation). Kino's canoe represents his indelible
connection to his ancestry, to the pearls in the ocean, and In the surface of the great pearl he could see dream forms.
his pride in how he provides and cares for Juana and He picked the pearl from the dying flesh and held it in his
Coyotito. In touching the bow "tenderly," Kino greets his palm, and he turned it over and saw that its curve was perfect.
canoe, personifying it to the point that he provides the
object with the same respect that he would a person that he
cares for. Without the canoe--a representation of his Related Characters: Kino
genealogy, and how he feeds himself and his family--Kino
Related Themes:

pearl become irrationally angry and jealous that Kino has

Related Symbols:
something they desire. Contrary to the beautiful sheen that
coats a pearl and makes it so precious, the town is coated in
Page Number: 20
a "curious dark residue" that makes the previously close,
Explanation and Analysis supportive community now envious and vengeful. Without
realizing what he has done, Kino is suddenly the target of
In diving to search for oysters, Kino sees a large one
every man's jealousy and desire, simply because he
separated from the clusters of oysters. He is drawn to it for
possesses the pearl.
its singularity and a glimmer between its lips, which hints to
a pearl within. When he brings it back to the canoe, he
opens the oyster with bated breath and is shocked to find a
massive pearl inside. In this quote, Kino pries the pearl from It was the rifle that broke down the barriers. This was an
the dying oyster and suddenly realizes that it could be his impossibility, and if he could think of having a rifle whole
ticket to great wealth. As Kino has lived in poverty his entire horizons were burst and he could rush on. For it is said that
life, he believes that all his dreams can come true with a humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and
fortune such as this. Since much of the livelihood of the they want something more.
people in the region come from selling pearls, finding such a
perfect one in his time of need seems to be a sign that he is Related Characters: Kino
destined to do great things. Unfortunately, it turns out that
the opposite is the case--nature is uncaring for human fate, Related Themes:
and value and "luck" are often determined by corrupt
people in power. Page Number: 24

The essence of pearl mixed with the essence of men and a
The townspeople ask Kino what he will spend his fortune on
curious dark residue was precipitated. Every man
once he has sold the pearl. He immediately replies that he
suddenly became related to Kino’s pearl, and Kino’s pearl went
and Juana will be married in the Church, and that Coyotito
into the dreams, the speculations, the schemes…of everyone,
will have new clothes and go to school. In this quote, he also
and only one person stood in the way and that was Kino, so that
notes that he intends to buy a rifle, which is, to an extent,
he became curiously every man’s enemy.
still viewed as an "impossibility" despite his impending
riches. This is because rifles are a European invention, and
Related Characters: Kino therefore strictly associated with white colonizers,
brutality, and forced submission of indigenous peoples. To
Related Themes: have a rifle is for Kino to show the rich whites that fortune
has made him their equal, and to show his fellow
Related Symbols: townspeople that he has risen above the circumstances
from which his people have been forced. Yet, as the narrator
Page Number: 23 cautions, even this rifle might not be enough for Kino, based
on human nature's inherent dissatisfaction, which continues
on even after one's dreams come true. Though his
In the small town, word travels fast, and it is not long until all seemingly improbably wish to own a rifle and rise above his
of the townspeople hear of Kino's pearl. As many of these circumstances has suddenly been made feasible, Kino may
people earn their living selling pearls from oysters at the buy one only to want bigger and shinier objects. When great
bottom of the ocean, they are shocked that it was Kino, a riches fill vacancies in one's life, new vacancies appear.
normal man, who has found the "pearl of the world."
Immediately, everyone imagines what they would do if they
were in possession of such riches--or what they would like
to do with Kino's imminent wealth. As the narrator notes, “I hope thou wilt remember to give thanks, my son, to Him
Kino immediately becomes everyone's "enemy"--why was he who has given thee this treasure, and to pray for guidance
the one chosen to find such a fortune among a town of pearl in the future.”
divers? Those who wish that they themselves had found the

Related Characters: The priest (speaker), Kino curve, and size of the pearl, he realizes that these things
may very well become a reality. However, the existence of
Related Themes: these plans, and their sudden proximity to reality, also
means that they are in danger of being attacked and the
Related Symbols: subject of revenge--just like Kino, now that he is in
possession of the Pearl of the World. Knowing this, Kino has
Page Number: 27 never before made such plans, but the Pearl and wealth give
his future and imagination a flexibility they have never had
before. Having felt the rush of wild dreams that are close to
Having heard about the Pearl, the priest visits Kino under reality, Kino is determined to make these plans come true--
the guise of wishing him well, but with the actual intention but their reality also makes them vulnerable to attack.
of influencing him to donate money to the Church. Rather
than praising Kino for his good luck, the priest attributes
Kino's good fortune to the generosity and guidance of the
And he could not take the chance of pitting his certain
Christian God.The priest, a white missionary, calls each of
ignorance against this man’s possible knowledge. He was
the townspeople his "son" or "daughter" in a manner that is
trapped as his people were always trapped, and would be until,
traditional, but in this power dynamic may be seen as
as he had said, they could be sure that the things in the books
patronizing. In the colonization of the Americas, conversion
were really in the books.
was frequently used as a method of control. Instead of
treating the natives as his equal, the priest infantilizes them,
and believes he can manipulate them under the guise of Related Characters: Kino, The doctor
tenants of the Church. This is similar, though not as
extreme, to the way that the doctor nastily notes that he Related Themes:
does not like to treat the natives because he is not a
"veterinarian," thus implying that he believes the indigenous Page Number: 30
people as so inferior to him that they are on par with Explanation and Analysis
animals.
The doctor hears about Kino's discovery of the pearl, and
suddenly becomes interested in the young family with the
injured baby. He goes to Kino's house, and asks to see
But now, by saying what his future was going to be like, he Coyotito. He tells the worried parents that he has seen the
had created it. A plan is a real thing, and things projected attack of a scorpion sting many times before, and that
are experienced. A plan once made and visualized becomes a Coyotito, though seemingly healing, is still in danger. In this
reality along with other realities—never to be destroyed but quote, Kino is wary of the doctor's claims that Coyotito is
easily to be attacked…He knew that the gods take their revenge still in danger of the scorpion's poison. Yet, he notes that he
on a man if he be successful through his own efforts. was "trapped," just as his people had been trapped by
Consequently Kino was afraid of plans, but having made one, he colonists for years. When the European colonists came with
could never destroy it. medicines, religion, and shiny tools--namely guns and rifles
that forced the indigenous people into subjugation--the
Related Characters: Kino native people were forced to become second-class citizens
on lands that their ancestors had occupied for thousands of
Related Themes: years. Though Juana is determined to have Coyotito treated
by the doctor because he has knowledge and medicines,
Page Number: 28 Kino is skeptical of believing everything the white colonists
have to say, just because it comes from books that their
people have written. However, he cannot be sure that his
When the townspeople ask Kino how he will spend his skepticism is worth denying his only son treatment, and lets
riches, he has not thought through his answers: for him and the doctor see Coyotito.
Juana to get married in the Church, for Coyotito to have
new clothes and go to school, to buy a rifle for himself. But
once he says these plans aloud, and he thinks of the beauty,

[The doctor] held the eyelid down. “See—it is blue.” And
Kino, looking anxiously, saw that indeed it was a little blue. the pearl. Kino replies that he is afraid of everyone, for it
And he didn’t know whether or not it was always a little blue. could have been anyone who broke into the hut. The
But the trap was set. He couldn’t take the chance. intrusion represents the hostility that many members of the
town now secretly harbor towards Kino due to his
seemingly random stroke of luck. Like a grain of sand being
Related Characters: The doctor (speaker), Kino, The
coated until it is made into a pearl, Kino feels himself
doctor, Coyotito
acquiring a shell--though this shell is one of "hardness." Kino
knows that he must now be prepared to physically protect
Related Themes:
himself and his family from his own community--as well as
Page Number: 30 from the pearl itself, which increasingly seems like an omen
of evil, rather than good fortune.
After examining Coyotito, the doctor points to a blue vein in
the baby's eyelid, and claims it to be the poison from the Chapter 4 Quotes
scorpion's sting. Kino, though worried about his son, is still All of the neighbors hoped that sudden wealth would not
unsure whether the doctor is making things up that he turn Kino’s head, would not make a rich man of him, would not
knows Juana and Kino will believe, or if the baby is actually graft onto him the evil limbs of greed and hatred and coldness.
sick.The doctor gives the baby a little bit of powder, claiming For Kino was a well-liked man; it would be a shame if the pearl
that the poison will "attack within the hour." Sure enough, destroyed him.
the baby begins to vomit, and the doctor treats him again,
saying he has saved Coyotito's life. The reader is left unsure
Related Characters: Kino
as to whether Coyitoto was actually still ill, or if the first
powder the doctor feeds to the baby is poison to make him
Related Themes:
vomit and thus seem that the doctor saved Coyotito, so that
Juana and Kino will feel indebted to him. Given the doctor's
Related Symbols:
unsavory characterization, it is implied that the situation is
likely the latter rather than the former. This, too, is Kino's
Page Number: 42
instinct, though he is too nervous for his son's life to deny
him treatment from a certified doctor. Explanation and Analysis
Still reeling from Kino's good fortune, the townspeople
continue to gossip about how the riches will affect Kino and
“Who do you fear?” Kino searched for a true answer, and his family. In this quote, his neighbors note that they hope
at last he said, “Everyone.” And he could feel a shell of the sudden wealth will not change Kino into a greedy and
hardness drawing over him. cold man. The only very wealthy people that the
townspeople know are white settlers, who cruelly treat the
native people as inferiors. As the indigenous people have
Related Characters: Juana, Kino (speaker)
been subjugated into extreme poverty by the settlers, the
Related Themes: luxury of the lives of white people is something that they
aspire to, but also one that they abhor. Ironically, it is the
Page Number: 36 townspeople that end up changing Kino, as much as the
pearl itself changes him. Because Kino's former friends and
Explanation and Analysis peers constantly try to steal the pearl and attack Kino, he
When Kino goes to bed that evening, he is aware of the fact becomes paranoid and aggressive, eventually losing not
that he is now a target for those who are jealous of his only his potential for wealth and good fortune, but also his
wealth. He buries the pearl into a spot in the ground past innocence and happiness.
beneath his sleeping mat. In the darkness of the night, he
hears something enter his hut, and thrusts his knife into the
darkness. The figure runs away, and Kino sees blood on his
knife. In this quote, Juana asks him who he is afraid of--they
don't know who broke into their hut, but they are both
aware of the fact that it was someone who wanted to steal

But there was no sign, no movement, the face did not
change, but the secret hand behind the desk missed in its that the reader sees discord in Juana and Kino's seemingly
precision. The coin stumbled over a knuckle and slipped silently harmonious relationship. Though Kino holds great respect
into the dealer’s lap. for his wife and all she does to take care of the family, he
exerts control over her when he does not get his way, in line
with the tradition of patriarchy. By simply asserting the fact
Related Characters: The pearl-dealers
that he is a "man," he expresses his right to control Juana, a
woman, and that he possesses the power and bravery to
Related Themes:
protect the family against any foes that challenge them.
However, it is this hubris--and the jealousy of those who
Related Symbols:
want the pearl--that will end up destroying the family.
Page Number: 47
A dead man in the path and Kino’s knife, dark bladed
beside him, convinced her. All of the time Juana had been
Knowing that holding onto the pearl makes him a target, trying to rescue something of the old peace, of the time before
Kino brings the pearl to a pearl-dealer the morning after he the pearl. But now it was gone, and there was no retrieving it.
finds the precious jewel. Of course, the entire town finds
out, and follows him to the office of the pearl-dealer. The
Related Characters: Kino, Juana
narrator informs the reader that all the pearl-dealers
secretly work for the same employer under a salary, so that
Related Themes:
there is no competition in prices. The townspeople, who
make their living selling pearls, do not know that they have
Related Symbols:
been cheated their entire lives. The pearl-dealer, having
heard of Kino's great pearl, acts calm and collected when
Page Number: 59
Kino arrives. He expertly plays with a coin that weaves
through his knuckles as he speaks with Kino. In this quote, Explanation and Analysis
the pearl-dealer sees the pearl itself for the first time. Even After violently halting Juana from throwing the pearl back
though he keeps a calm face, the fact that he drops the coin into the sea in the middle of the night, Kino attacks two
means that he is shocked by what he sees. Kino has indeed figures who attempt to steal the pearl from him. One person
found the pearl of the world--but the pearl-dealer, like runs away, while the other further fights back, resulting in
everyone else in town, will attempt to cheat him out of the his murder by Kino's hand. In this quote, Juana sees the
riches he is due. dead body and knows that their lives will never again be the
same: the life that they had known before the pearl is gone
forever. By creeping out of the hut while Kino was asleep,
“I am afraid. A man can be killed. Let us throw the pearl Juana attempted to banish the pearl from their lives while
back into the sea.” “Hush,” he said fiercely. “I am a man. there was still a chance to return to the poor-but-happy
Hush.” harmony they had (in both their family and their
community) before the fateful sting of the scorpion. Now,
however, she knows that their is no turning back, and so she
Related Characters: Kino, Juana (speaker)
commits herself to trusting Kino and protecting the pearl at
Related Themes: all costs.
Page Number: 56
The killing of a man was not so evil as the killing of a boat.
For a boat does not have sons, and a boat cannot protect
After refusing to sell the pearl to the pearl-dealer, Kino itself, and a wounded boat does not heal.
must defend himself and their home against another
intruder. In this quote, Juana, convinced that the pearl is an
evil object that will bring them only misfortune, urges Kino Related Themes:
to throw it back into the sea. Kino silences Juana's pleas,
fiercely telling her that he is "a man." This is the first time Related Symbols:

Page Number: 61 native character as an "other," one who is sympathetic but

who is also described with animalistic, simplified language.
After Kino kills the man, Juana and Kino know that they
must leave town: now that Kino is in possession of the pearl “Juana,” he said, “I will go and you will hide…if I can escape
that everyone wants, nobody will accept that the killing was them, I will come to you. It is the only safe way.” She looked
committed in self-defense. Kino runs to his beloved canoe full into his eyes for a moment. “No,” she said. “We go with you.”
to prepare it for departure, and discovers that someone has
broken a hole in it. In this quote, Kino is horrified to find his
Related Characters: Kino, Juana (speaker)
canoe broken. It is his prized possession, having been
passed down to him by his father, and is the sole source of
Related Themes:
his livelihood. Though Kino has already been enraged by the
attacks, this crime sparks an even deeper rage within the Page Number: 75
man, as evidenced by this passage, in which he declares the
"value" of the canoe even greater than that of his own life. Explanation and Analysis
He feels that he and his family are at odds with the entire Pursued ever closer by the trackers, Kino is fearful for
world, and feels as if it would have hurt less had he been himself and his family. Since Juana is carrying Coyotito and
murdered himself. Though Kino does not know who must constantly make sure he remains silent, she cannot
specifically broke his boat, it represents Kino's rejection by move as quickly as Kino can alone. In this quote, Kino urges
the entire town, further encouraging him to flee with the her to hide in the mountains while he continues to move
pearl, Juana, and the baby for their collective protection. alone, creating a fake trail and ultimately sneaking up on the
trackers to attack them. However, Juana refuses on the
And Kino ran for the high place, as nearly all animals do grounds that the family must stay together. This moment is
when they are pursued. a harkening back to the beginning of the story, before the
family was struck with the mixed fortunes of the scorpion
sting and the pearl, when everything was in harmony.
Related Characters: Kino Throughout all of the trauma that has come with the "good
luck" of the pearl, the family has remained the most
Related Themes: important thing in their lives, the thing that will be there
regardless of the fortune, or misfortune, of the pearl.
Page Number: 73
Though Juana is resigned to the loss of their old lives, she
Explanation and Analysis refuses to split up the family.
With his boat broken, Kino and Juana must escape on foot.
They soon hear horses, and realize that they are being
followed by skilled trackers. Kino instinctively pulls his Everyone in La Paz remembers the return of the family;
family towards the mountains for safety, as this quote notes, there may be some old ones who saw it, but those whose
"as nearly all animals do when they are pursued." This is the fathers and whose grandfathers told it to them remember it
second time in the story that Kino has been compared to an nevertheless. It is an event that happened to everyone.
animal, the first time being when the doctor cruelly refers to
the native people as animals. In this instance, it symbolizes
Related Characters: Kino, Juana, Coyotito
two things: the first being the basic, animalistic instincts
that all humans have to protect themselves when in danger. Related Themes:
By heading to a high place, Kino knows that it will take the
trackers longer to reach him, particularly on horseback. Page Number: 84
Second, the narrator may be echoing the thoughts that the
trackers, likely white settlers, might have while analyzing Explanation and Analysis
the trail. Like the doctor, they may have racist, superior Like the quote at the beginning of the story, this quote notes
views towards indigenous people in which they do not that the story of Kino, Juana, and the pearl is one that is told
equate their own intelligences with those of the natives. for generations. Though the misfortunes specifically befell
Similarly, this may just be Steinbeck himself writing his one family, it is perceived as a tragedy that affected the

The people say that the two seemed to be removed from
entire town. Since the town is so small, and everyone knows human experience; that they had gone through pain and
everything about everybody, no detail of the story remained had come out on the other side; that there was almost a magical
private to Kino and Juana. Given the brutality that the protection about them.
people endured at the hands of the white settlers, and the
subjugation they still face, each fortune is regarded as a
collective one--leading to everyone wanting a piece of
Kino's pearl--and each tragedy is a burden to every member
Related Themes:
of the town, not just those people it specifically effects. By
retelling the story, generations bear the weight of how the Page Number: 85
promise of wealth can drive a person mad, and also bear the
sadness of Coyotito's senseless death. It is a parable that Explanation and Analysis
warns against greed and envy, and places importance in As Juana and Kino walk back into the town, they seem
family and safety above riches and wealth. One must always changed in a way that the observers cannot quite put their
be wary of a sudden stroke of luck--if it seems too good to fingers on. In this quote, the narrator of the story--which
be true, it just might be. has now changed from the story of Kino and Juana to the
parable of the Pearl, told by future generations--notes that
the pair seems to have transcended their tragedy to the
The two came from the rutted country road into the city, point that they, like the pearl did at first, seem to be coated
and they were not walking in single file, Kino ahead and in magic. It is implied that this "magical protection" protects
Juana behind, as usual, but side by side. the couple from the potential implications of Kino's murder,
but more profoundly it's suggested that all the pain they
have suffered has hardened them--in the future they might
experience the usual bad luck of life, but they are now
separate from emotion and normal human experience.
Related Themes:
Page Number: 85
And then Kino laid the rifle down, and he dug among his
clothes, and then he held the great pearl in his hand. He
After Coyotito's death, Juana and Kino return to the town, looked into its surface and it was gray and ulcerous. Evil faces
their lives irreparably changed. Having lost one-third of peered from it into his eyes, and he saw the light of burning.
their family unit, the couple no longer cares as to what
might happen to them should they return to town and be
accused of murder. In this quote, the narrator notes that
Juana and Kino walked back into town side by side, rather
Related Themes:
than Kino leading the way, as the man of the couple
(presumably) does in their culture. The tragedy that has
Related Symbols:
befallen their family has made them equals in their misery.
The burden of the curse of the pearl is something that they
Page Number: 86
share in equal parts. After seeing the courage and
commitment that Juana displayed in their escape from Explanation and Analysis
town, Kino no longer believes that his status as a man and
Upon returning to town after running for their lives and
Juana's as a woman makes her inferior to him in terms of
losing their child, Juana and Kino silently agree that they
moral character. The fact that the two walk back side by
must be rid of the pearl. Kino bears a rifle, which he won in
side, a departure from how the couple used to comport
his altercation with the trackers. Though he finally achieves
itself, is a signal to the townspeople that a profound event
his dream of owning a rifle, it has come at a great cost--and
has happened to the couple to change their habits so
certainly not one that he would have consented to had he
significantly.
been given the choice. Though the pearl had seemed so
beautiful and lovely to him when he first found it, it now
seems ugly and evil, as Juana had foretold. In its mottled
sheen he sees his own reflection--he has murdered as many

people as there have been days since finding the pearl, and Kino offers Juana the pearl to throw back into the ocean,
he finds his own eyes to be evil. Though Kino knows he but she urges her husband to do it instead. He tosses the
cannot earn back what he has lost--his own innocence, and pearl back where he found it, and in this quote, it settles
the harmony of their family and community--he knows that among the algae at the bottom of the sea. The
he can rid the family of further evil by returning the pearl to personification of the "waving branches" and the calling and
the sea. beckoning of the algae suggests that the pearl is a part of
some kind of intelligent sea system that has known the pearl
would eventually be returned to it (presumably after
wreaking havoc among the world of humankind). This
And the pearl settled into the lovely green water and
dropped toward the bottom. The waving branches of the ending is rather ominous in one sense, but it also shows how
algae called to it and beckoned to it. arbitrary are human ideas of value and beauty. The pearl
first appeared as lovely and priceless, then in the eyes of the
corrupt pearl-dealers its value was lowered as a means of
oppression, and then it became a kind of curse and hideous
Related Themes:
object when it led to so much death and destruction for the
family. Now that it has been returned to its natural
Related Symbols:
environment, however, the pearl once again resumes a kind
of innocence--something unconcerned with human fate or
Page Number: 87
desires, something beautiful in itself but no more "valuable"
Explanation and Analysis than the algae that embraces it.

SUMMARY AND ANAL

ANALYSIS
YSIS
The color-coded icons under each analysis entry make it easy to track where the themes occur most prominently throughout the
work. Each icon corresponds to one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this LitChart.
PROLOGUE
A quoted passage frames The Pearl as a story told again and The prologue sets up the townspeople as the collective narrator of
again, and known by everyone in the town. It has become a the tale to come. It also establishes the story’s universal nature, and
parable, with stark contrast between good and evil and no in- thus invites every reader to find connections in it to his or her own
between. Everyone that hears it considers the tale in relation life.
to his or her own life.
CHAPTER 1
Kino awakes in the early morning and looks around him to see In the very opening scene, we get a layout of the family hut, and a
his son still asleep in the hanging box, and his wife lying next to sense of the caring relationship between Kino and Juana.
him with her eyes open, as though she’d been watching him as
he slept.
He hears in his head the “Song of the Family,” like the songs of Juana and Kino begin what appears to be their daily morning
his ancestors before him, and then steps outside of his brush routine. Nature and Kino’s ancestors are introduced as significant
house to watch the sun rise. Juana, meanwhile, begins to make background characters.
a fire in the pit and to grind corn for morning corncakes.
Kino watches a crowd of industrious ants and coaxes a shy dog The crowd of ants, quietly working together, resemble Kino’s family
that has wandered over to their hut, as Juana makes the cakes and the town at large. A tone of safety, quiet, gentleness, and mutual
and sings to Coyotito. It is a morning like all others, safe and care is established.
whole.
Breakfast sounds come from neighboring huts. Two roosters Kino and Juana’s routine is echoed by that of their neighbors.
look to be about to fight.
Kino goes back into the hut and eats his corncake with Juana, The couple’s relationship is so strong that words are superfluous.
both of them silent because they need not speak, as sun Their hut is permeated by natural sunlight.
streams in through the hut’s crevices.
Suddenly, Kino and Juana freeze as they see a movement from While nature so far (the ocean, sun, ants) has been a source of peace
Coyotito’s hanging box and turn their heads to determine its and quiet, here it becomes a source of danger, in the form of a
source: a scorpion is climbing slowly down the rope of the poisonous creature.
hanging box, toward Coyotito.
©2020 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 14

Kino gets a determined look in his eyes and begins to approach Kino steps up as protector of the family as he seeks to take on the
the hanging box, the “Song of Evil” playing in his ears. scorpion.
As the scorpion moves further down the rope, Juana prays in a Juana’s spiritual invocation combines the faiths of their ancestors
whisper, an ancient prayer as well as a Hail Mary. and colonizers.
Kino is reaching for the scorpion when it freezes in place and Coyotito, naïve to the forces of evil, doesn’t realize the animal’s
flicks its tail. Coyotito then laughs and shakes the hanging box’s danger; Kino, who does, still cannot prevent the injury. The
rope, causing the scorpion to fall on him and sting his shoulder, scorpion’s sting precipitates the rest of the action in the story.
despite Kino’s attempts to grab it in the air.
From Coyotito’s shoulder, Kino takes the scorpion and The family was powerless to the attack of evil; all they can do now is
squashes it angrily. Juana, meanwhile, tries to suck the poison try to cure its effects.
out of Coyotito’s shoulder. Kino stands by, feeling helpless.
All the neighbors flock to the brush house at the sound of the This scene is the first to reveal the unity and proximity of the
baby’s cries. They all know that a scorpion bite can easily kill a community surrounding Kino’s hut.
baby, if sufficient poison has seeped in.
Just as Kino is admiring her fortitude, Juana demands that the Kino respects his wife’s strength and authority.
doctor be gotten.
Her request, both wonderful and surprising (because the That her request is considered wonderful, because rarely fulfilled,
doctor never visits their neighborhood), spreads quickly reveals just how marginalized the brush-house community is from
through the neighbors. When word gets back that the doctor the city. It also illustrates Juana's remarkable dedication to her
will not come, Juana decides that the family will go to the family.
doctor themselves.
The neighbors follow at the heels of Kino and Juana as they Again, the community’s chorus-like quality is illustrated. So, too, is
walk to and arrive at the city, replete with plaster, stone, and the economic inequality between the city and Kino’s brush-house
fancy gardens. town.

Beggars in front of the church there, who know everything The beggars—a new kind of community—give the reader an outside
about the town—the sins of its inhabitants, the bad ways of the perspective on Kino and Juana. That the beggars see Kino and
doctor—pin Kino and Juana down as “poverty people,” and look Juana as poor truly highlights just how poor and powerless they
on to see what will come of their visit. must be.
At the doctor’s gate, Kino hesitates, recalling that the doctor’s Kino’s ancestral history of oppression weighs heavily on him. He
people had historically oppressed his own people. Finally, still groups the doctor together with all the white colonizers that have
enraged by the recollection, he knocks the iron ring against the come before him. The servant is an example of someone whose
gate and reports Coyotito’s sting to the servant who opens it, native traditions and language have been replaced by those of the
speaking in the old language because the servant is of his race. colonizers.
The servant does not reply in the old language, and heads
inside to call on the doctor.
The Doctor, fleshy and stout, is in his bed, drinking chocolate in Kino’s suspicions about the doctor’s evil are confirmed by the
a Parisian dressing gown and dreaming of returning to France. doctor's rich, luxurious, selfish lifestyle.
Religious pictures, including a photograph of his dead wife, line
his walls.
When the servant tells the doctor about Kino and Juana, and The doctor—whose job it is to care for people—now vocalizes his
Coyotito’s scorpion bite, the doctor becomes angry, insulted by great racial prejudice. He refers to Kino and Juana as though they
the notion that he would deign to “cure insect bites for ‘little are animals and not worthy of his time and attention.
Indians’” for no money. He says, derogatorily, “I am a doctor, not
a veterinary.”
The Doctor asks if Kino has any money, so the servant returns In the city, a person is only worth as much as his money, especially if
to the gate and asks how Kino planned to pay. When Kino pulls that person is not white. Kino’s worthless pearls here foreshadow
out eight ugly, flat pearls, the servant reports that the doctor the perfect, though still value-less, pearl that he will find later on.
had to rush out and would not be able to see them.
Shame settles over the group of neighbors and beggars that The neighborhood procession can only follow Kino and Juana
has followed Kino and Juana; they disperse to save Kino from passively. The most they can do when misfortune strikes is to leave
the humiliation. the scene.
Kino stands for a while at the gate, before putting back on his After remaining quiet and collected, and then submissive,
hat. In a sudden lash, he punches the gate, and then looks down throughout this stressful first chapter, Kino lets his frustration show
at his bloody knuckles in wonderment. 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.

CHAPTER 2
The narrator describes the town, located on an estuary. Canoes Passages like this emphasize the town’s sense of unity between past
line the beach, constructed according to an old, secret method. and present, between humans and nature, and between humans
Sea animals and algae populate the floor of the ocean, and dogs and animals.
stalk its shore.
An “uncertain air” hangs over the Gulf. Its haziness, the The natural setting of the Gulf is an important character throughout
narrator suggests, might account for the Gulf peoples’ trust in the novel. Here it’s suggested that it even has the power to subtly
imagination. determine the mindset of its residents.
Kino and Juana walk to the beach, in the direction of their The canoe, which is more valuable than it might appear,
canoe. Kino had inherited the canoe from his father, who foreshadows the arrival of another possession that turns out to be
inherited it from his own father. It keeps the family from less valuable than it appears.
starving, and is described as Kino’s only valuable possession.
On Kino’s blanket, Juana sets down Coyotito, who’s calmed but That the doctor’s treatment is considered superior for its “authority”
still swollen. Juana treats his sting with seaweed, which is reveals that Kino and Juana have become subtly dependent upon
effective but not as authoritative as a doctor’s treatment. and convinced by the powerful persons who oppress them.
The narrator notes that Juana has directed her prayers not Here, as elsewhere in the novel, the narrator steps back and judges
toward Coyotito’s survival, but toward Kino’s finding a pearl Kino’s people, suggesting their simplicity and ignorance.
with which to pay a doctor, because her mind is “as
unsubstantial as the mirage of the Gulf.”
Kino and Juana take off in the canoe, and look down at the Kino and Juana are entering the very system of wealth and
oyster bed, which, it’s suggested, funded the power and wars of evaluation that historically allowed for the Europeans to displace
the King of Spain. their own people.
The narrator describes that a pearl is created through an The value of a pearl is arbitrary. Created accidentally, it’s nothing
“accident,” when a grain of sand irritates an oyster’s flesh, and but cement-coated sand. Only God’s will, and not the seeker’s, can
that to find one is to be in God’s favor. assure that the seeker will find one.
Kino dives into the water with his basket. Filling it with oysters, The mingling of the ancient song with the song of the pearl
he hears in his head the song of his ancestors and, quieter, the represents the larger mingling at work, between Kino’s traditional
Song of the Pearl that Might Be. values and the values of the white Europeans.

Young and able, Kino stays for a long time underwater, carefully Kino’s own qualities—his strength and fitness— do have some
selecting the largest and most promising oysters. impact on his success in this pearl-seeking venture.
He finds one oyster lying alone, with a partly opened shell, The great consequence of this pearl is immediately tangible.
revealing a gleam within. Kino’s heart beats excitedly and he
hears loudly the Song of the Pearl.
Kino reaches the water’s surface and places that final oyster at Kino and Juana understand one another without vocalized
the bottom of the canoe. Both Kino and Juana try not to get expression. They can both feel something great but, superstitiously,
too attached or dwell on Kino’s apparent excitement. Kino don’t want to ruin it by acknowledging it.
opens all the small oysters first, saving the hopeful one for last.
When it comes time to open the promising oyster, Kino Kino’s fear that the pearl’s been an illusion confirms the narrator’s
hesitates, afraid its glint was an illusion, but Juana encourages description of the Gulf people’s (sometimes deceptive) trust in
him. imagination.
Finally he pries the shell apart, revealing inside a perfect pearl, In this moment, the pearl is appreciated for its pure, visual beauty.
moon-like—“the greatest pearl in the world.” It’s not yet complicated by external assessments of value.
Kino hears the Song of the Pearl that Might Be resonant and Now Kino imagines all that the pearl might bring their family—it
warm and sees dream forms in his lucky find. Juana comes to reflects his hopes and dreams. The pearl’s location in Kino’s injured
look at the pearl, which Kino holds in the hand with which he hand draws attention to the contrast between Kino’s previous sense
had punched the doctor’s gate. of powerlessness and his newly gained sense of power.
Juana goes over to check on Coyotito and finds that the Kino and Juana’s situation seems to be in a trend of improvement:
swelling of his shoulder has gone down. Kino clenches the they’ve found a great pearl, and Coyotito appears to be healing.
pearl and howls.
Men in neighboring canoes paddle quickly toward Kino’s. The neighbors are never far away.

CHAPTER 3
The narrator describes the town as a “colonial animal”: it works It has already become apparent that the town functions as an
as a unit, separate from all other towns, and circulates a intimate unit, but this passage foreshadows the downside of this
uniform emotion. News travels through the town at an intimacy, which will become apparent in the rest of this chapter.
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."
When the doctor hears of Kino’s pearl, he openly declares that The doctor cares not for the people that he treats, but for their
Kino is his client and that he is treating Kino’s son. He then money. All he wants is more wealth and to return to Paris.
luxuriates in dreams of Paris.
The beggars at the foot of the church are also pleased by the While before they looked at Kino as a “poverty” person, now the
news, hopeful for alms. 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 The pearl dealers prevent anyone who isn’t already wealthy or
come in. The dealers always assess at the lowest feasible price powerful from becoming wealthy or powerful. Their assessments
before there is danger of the pearl-owner giving his treasure have nothing to do with the pearls themselves. The dealers
somewhere else (once a fisherman, deterred by the low price, therefore epitomize a society in which those in power remain in
donated his pearls to the church). While it appears that each power and deny anyone the opportunity for social mobility.
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.
When the pearl-dealers hear of Kino’s pearl, their fingers burn Even the dealers reside under the control of a higher power (their
with anticipation, scheming of how they might become more patron) and the pearl inspires them, too, to hope for a chance to
powerful than their boss, "the patron", or use the wealth for escape a system of oppression.
themselves to leave the trade altogether.
People in the town begin associating the pearl with their own As always, the town shares a common emotion, but now their unity
dreams and desires. Kino, who stands in the way as the pearl’s works for the worse, creating a communal sense of envy and greed.
true owner, becomes the obstacle to the satisfaction of these Everyone sees the pearl as something that can help them, change
desires. The town swells with something “black and evil.” their lives, and that separates the townspeople from each other.
Kino and Juana, unaware of the envy that surrounds them, There are still some, like close family members, who feel happy for
assume that everyone feels the joy that they feel, as Juan Kino and Juana to have found the pearl, but most do not. Kino and
Tomas and Apolonia do. In the afternoon, neighbors gather in Juana at this point to do not realize the extent of the town’s envy
their brush house and stare in awe at the beautiful pearl, and and malice.
consider Kino’s luck in finding it.

The music of the family and the music of the pearl combine, Kino relishes in a moment of peace, at which the family and pearl
each making the other more beautiful. 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, The pearl sparks many dreams that Kino had not dared to consider
Juana covers her excitement with her shawl and Kino quietly before he had the financial means. Many of the things he desires are
states that he and Juana will be married in a church. He sees Western—a Christian marriage, a felt hat, a sailor outfit—which
visions of their marriage in the pearl—Juana in a new skirt and suggests that he associates riches with American and European
shoes, he in a new felt hat, Coyotito in an American sailor culture, rather than his own.
outfit—and adds that they will have new clothes.
Kino continues to look into the pearl, seeing new desirable The rifle surpasses everything else that Kino has mentioned he
forms in its translucent surface. He sees a harpoon, and then a wants. The most infeasible of all, it opens the door to a limitless
carbine, and finally says aloud that he will also, perhaps, have a realm of infeasible desires. The rifle, too, is like an upgraded and
rifle. Kino’s desire for a rifle, which is the greatest impossibility westernized version of the canoe, Kino’s most valuable possession,
of all, breaks down the floodgates to whole new territories of in that it helps with daily work and hunting. But unlike the canoe it
desire. Kino has become like all other humans, never satisfied also carries with it the threat of violence, showing the connection
and always wanting more. between wealth and power and violence.
The neighbors echo that Kino will have a rifle. The neighbors are always there, at the ready to echo and spread the
word.
Juana looks admiringly at Kino while he sees in the pearl Kino aspires not only for material objects, but also for his son’s
visions of ever-grander dreams. He pictures Coyotito at a desk intellectual elevation. With wealth, one can learn. And with
and says aloud that his son will go to school. Juana is startled by knowledge, one can think for oneself and not depend upon the
this and looks to Kino to see if he means it. 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 Kino is used to listening and being told what to do. It is unusual for
write and make numbers, and that he and Juana will know him to have declared so much without knowing whether it will come
things through him. Never having spoken so much in his life, to pass.
Kino stops, afraid of what he has spoken unknowingly.
The neighbors acknowledge the marvelousness of this moment It is clear that this moment is significant for Kino’s family, whether
and imagine how it will be remembered in years to come. If or not Kino’s prophesies are realized. His speech is a turning point,
Kino accomplishes these things, they muse, it will be recalled as either to brilliant success or to devastating failure. He has made his
a moment of empowerment; if he fails to, it will be recalled as a dreams known; that is something he can't take back.
moment of foolishness.

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 neighbors remain. Word The priest represents the colonial influence of evangelism
comes that the priest is coming to the brush house. The Father, (preaching with the intention of converting natives to Christianity).
who treats the villagers like children, enters, and reminds Kino Now that Kino is wealthy, the priest seems to want him even more
that he is named after a “great man.” to remember Christianity. Perhaps he hopes for a donation?
Kino begins to hear the song of evil, but knows not what Greed and danger begin to surround the family, without a single
brought it on. identifiable source. It seems that everyone wants something from
him.
The priest tells Kino that he’s heard of the pearl, and that he Kino and Juana perform their obedience to the Father and to his
hopes that Kino will thank God for it and pray to Him for Christian values, like good native subjects.
guidance. Kino nods obediently and Juana reports that they
plan to be married. The priest blesses them approvingly and
leaves.
The neighbors leave to go to their own houses, and Kino stands Kino is no longer ignorant of the town’s envy or of the possibility
outside, feeling alone and unprotected though hearing the that others might get in the way of his realizing his plans for the
Song of the Family from behind him. Now that he has made betterment of his family. He recognizes that even his fellow
plans for his family’s future, he begins to steel himself against townsmen have become possible sources of harm.
the attacks that will surely come to prevent him from realizing
these plans.
The doctor arrives at the brush house, proclaiming his The doctor is already shown to be untrustworthy, as he falsely
intention to see the baby, with his servant in tow. Kino’s eyes pretends that he always wanted to treat Coyotito and that he hasn’t
burn with hatred for the years of subjugation that the doctor been motivated by the pearl. Kino feels this too, and yet he feels
represents. powerless in the face of the doctor's knowledge.
Kino replies that Coyotito is almost all better, but the doctor The doctor knows his power over Kino’s people, and the ease with
retorts that there often appears an improvement before a which he can gain their trust in his expertise. He is manipulative,
worsening. He shows his doctor’s bag, confident that Kino’s always looking for ways to assure Kino that he knows how to treat a
people trust the tools of medicine. scorpion sting.

Kino feels trapped between rage and fear, but finally lets the Kino does not want to submit to the white doctor as his ancestors
doctor enter. The doctor goes to Coyotito and points to the had, but he also does not want to deny his son the proper treatment
blueness of Coyotito’s wound, as though an indication that the that the doctor might provide. He opts for giving in to the doctor,
poison has seeped into the body. Kino can see the blue, and because how can he deny his son care? But the story implies that
feels he must trust that the doctor knows what it means and the doctor may be manipulating Kino and Juana.
that it means anything.
The doctor feeds Coyotito a capsule with white powder and Like Kino and Juana, the reader is left uncertain about the doctor’s
gelatin, predicts that the poison will attack before an hour is treatment. Is the doctor healing Coyotito, or is Coyotito already
over, and promises to return then. 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 The pearl is too dangerous, too valuable to keep exposed.
hides it in the floor in the corner of the house.
The neighbors speak of the events of the day. A school of fish Things outside the brush house go on as normal—the neighbors
glitter in the estuary. The shy dog watches the brush house. 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 The reader is left unsure about whether Coyotito’s new symptoms
flushed face, which convince the couple that the doctor knew are indeed the delayed effect of the scorpion poison, or if they were
what he was talking about. The neighbors gather when they brought on by what the doctor administered.
hear of the sickness.
The doctor returns and declares that he is able to defeat the The doctor at this point has won Juana’s admiration and the
effect of the poison. He feeds Coyotito ammonia as Kino family’s trust in his medicinal expertise, while the reader remains
watches the doctor and his doctor’s bag carefully. The doctor skeptical.
claims that the baby will improve and Juana looks at him
admiringly.
Kino says that he will pay the doctor once he’s sold his pearl. The doctor pretends that he has come to treat Coyotito out of
The doctor feigns to not have heard about the pearl, and offers professional duty and care—as a doctor should—but his true
to secure it in his safe. When Kino refuses, the doctor looks intentions are revealed by his attention to Kino’s eyes—he wants the
closely at Kino’s eyes to see if they might dart to the pearl’s pearl.
location.

When everyone has left, Kino listens to the sounds of the night Kino has become fully awakened to the danger of the circumstance
and then reburies the pearl in a hole under his sleeping mat. To of owning such a valuable item. He know sees that it makes them a
Juana’s inquiry about who Kino fears, he responds, “everyone.” target to all others, who want it for themselves.
As Kino and Juana try to fall asleep, Kino’s mind continues to Kino's dreams, symbolized by his hopes for Coyotito, once so pure,
work, dreaming of a learned Coyotito and hearing the music of are now mixed with a sense of danger and foreboding (the song of
evil. Then he hears a small sound from the corner of the house, evil). Kino’s predictions about future attacks now begin to be
which he recognizes as the sound of feet and fingers. He is realized. He was right to have been fearful. This fight sets Kino
taken with fear and grabs the knife from his neck and springs against everyone else that covets the pearl and therefore isolates
for the source of the sounds. He strikes and misses and then Kino and Juana from the rest of the town.
strikes successfully, when he feels explosive pain in his head
and blood stream down his face.
Kino assures Juana that he is alright, and Juana begins to make This is the first time that the pearl itself is acknowledged as a source
a fire and clean Kino’s head wound. She decries the pearl as of evil. Kino wishes to keep it despite the bad things it’s wrought
evil, a sin, and begs Kino to throw it into the sea before it because it also promises hope and the potential for greatness. Now
destroys them. Kino refuses, prizing the pearl as their only that he has a chance at a "better" life, he does not want to give it up.
chance.
Kino cleans his knife by plunging it into the earth. Morning Kino and Juana return momentarily to the rhythm with which the
sounds enter the house and Kino pulls out the pearl to admire book opened, grounded in the earth and aware of the nature around
it, full of promise and comfort. Kino and Juana smile together, them. They try to feel hopeful.
as one, and greet the morning full of hope.
CHAPTER 4
The narrator remarks on the marvel of the little town’s Kino has disturbed the natural flow of the town by finding such an
interconnectedness, how it keeps track of everything within it. inordinate treasure. He becomes, therefore, the subject of attention
A regular pattern has developed in the town, and whenever one throughout the town.
person disturbs this pattern, everyone hears about it. So, it’s
quickly known by all that Kino intends to sell his pearl.
The pearl dealers have heard word of Kino’s intention and they While Kino and Juana’s trip into the town is a momentous, once-in-
sit in their offices and fantasize. All under the control of a single a-lifetime occasion, for the pearl dealers, it is their day job, which
buyer, they all know ahead of time what they’ll offer and how they always go about in the same way, with no surprises, and with
much they’ll bid. Though they will not earn more than their the sole intention of cheating the seller.
regular wages, they are still excited for the pure thrill of the
task of bidding down a worthy seller.
The air is yellow and thick, but through it, a tall mountain two In the midst of commerce and economic valuation, nature beckons.
hundred miles away can be seen. 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 neighbors talk The selling of the pearl is an event not only for the family but for
of the pearl and what they would do if they’d found it. Most of everyone in the town. It occupies everyone’s days and thoughts. All
them fantasize about religious deeds and donations, and they the town people sense that the pearl might bring great joy, but could
hope that the pearl will not do bad things to Kino and his family. also lead to great sadness.
The importance of this day for Kino and Juana is felt very That Juana dreams of baptism represents how thoroughly she’s
strongly. Juana dreams of a baptism for Coyotito. internalized a Christian vision of wealth and happiness.
All the neighbors go, as expected, to follow Kino and Juana to Again, the neighbors follow the family in a supportive procession,
the pearl dealers. just as they did to the doctor's.
Juana and Kino prepare to go with Coyotito, Kino tilting his hat The family gets ready to face what they expect to be a very
forward to convey his serious intentions. The pearl lies in a important day.
leather bag in Kino’s pocket.
Juan Tomas walks next to Kino, warning his brother that the Juan Tomas demonstrates his wisdom, warning Kino against the
dealers might cheat him, because Kino doesn’t know what very thing that will come to pass. He describes the current pearl-
buyers in other places would offer for the same. He tells him dealing system, with all dealers operating under one buyer, but as
that there was a time when there was only one agent who though it existed in the past. He does not realize that the pearl
collected all the dealers’ pearls and brought them to the capital, dealers have simply become more sophisticated in hiding their
but that the system was changed back when one such agent corruption.
kept all the pearls for himself.
Kino posits that that old system was a good idea, but that it Kino doesn’t realize that while he follows the ideals preached by the
went against the priest's sermons, which dictate for every man priest, the white men who brought the priest in feel no such
to act faithfully and like a soldier for God. 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 Without power or wealth, Kino has learned to gain respect with his
defense—a stolid facial expression. face, the only possession that cannot be taken from him.
The procession moves slowly, under the weight of the Suspense grows as the procession savors the significance of this
significant event to come, and townspeople look on. The pearl journey.
dealers prepare their offices.

Kino goes in to one particular dealer, a “jolly man” capable of The dealer’s facility with the coin symbolizes his general
laughter and sorrow. He is rolling a coin over his knuckles, smoothness, quickness, and trickiness, which he can presumably
performing a swift and mindless visual trick. When Kino walks use in his trade to cheat clients.
in the man hides the coin.
The dealer continues to play with the coin behind his desk as he The dealer is able to keep a straight face, but his slip of the hand
speaks to Kino, asks to see the pearl, and promises the best reveals his astonishment at the pearl’s magnificence. Of course he
price. Kino brings out the bag slowly, with great suspense, and has hidden his hand behind the table, so Kino cannot see it.
removes the pearl. When the dealer sees it, his face does not
change but his coin slips in his hand.
The neighbors whisper to each other as the dealer fingers the All the anticipation of the pearl’s great appraisal has led to this
pearl, before throwing it back into the tray and declaring the disappointment. The distance between how much the pearl seems
pearl worthless because it is too big and clumsy. He assesses it to be worth and how much it’s deemed worth is so great that Kino
at a mere 1000 pesos. Kino tries to defend the pearl and feels he must have been cheated. And in fact Kino is being cheated,
accuses the dealer of cheating him. The dealer, now a little but if the only people who buy pearls are all trying to cheat you,
fearful, instructs Kino to ask around for other appraisals. 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 neighbors confirm under their breaths that they had been The pearl had, indeed, seemed almost too good to be true. The
wary of something like this, but comment, too, that 1000 pesos neighbors also realize how quickly Kino has absorbed the
isn’t nothing. 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 Even as evil surrounds them, the family remains strong and united.
looks at Juana.
Three neighboring pearl dealers enter the office and the one The fact that these individual dealers all come to say the same thing
sitting at the desk tells them that he has made an offer but about the pearl is supposed to reinforce the first dealer’s appraisal,
wants to see how they will assess the pearl without knowing his but the reader knows already that it’s all a scheme to deny Kino
own offer. One calls the pearl a monstrosity and won’t offer any what he deserves—to keep the poor poor and the rich even richer.
money. Another says that “better pearls are made of paste.” A
third offers 500 pesos.
Kino grabs the pearl and cries that he’s been cheated and will Kino sticks to his instincts and his principles, refusing to let his
go to the capital. In order not to lose his pearl, the first dealer family and his dignity be cheated. That the pearl dealer rushes to re-
quickly interjects that he will raise his offer. Kino leaves, bid reveals that he was in fact withholding the pearl’s true worth.
furious.

In the evening, all the neighbors analyze the event. They Kino has acted boldly, and no one can know what will come of his
consider the possibility that the dealers had spoken and plotted boldness. The observant neighbors can only speculate upon it. As it
beforehand, but dismiss the notion. Some think that Kino has turns out, all the neighbors are right. He is both brave and has
destroyed himself. Others think that Kino is brave. destroyed himself.
In his house, Kino mulls over the possibility of going to the Having rejected the pearl-dealers, Kino has nowhere to turn but the
capital, at first wary of the idea and then determined. Juana capital. It is a place he fears, but his last remaining hope.
watches him bury the pearl and feeds Coyotito.
Juan Tomas comes in and is silent for a long time, before Juan articulates the reality of the situation: Kino has disturbed not
expressing fear for Kino now that has acted against the dealers just the flow and pattern of town, but the whole system of power
and the whole system they represent. Juan encourages Kino to and money of which the town is a part. He must beware the
leave the town, but suggests that the capital may not be the consequences of his rebellion against these forces.
best place to go because, there, Kino and Juana will have no
one to rely on.
Kino insists that he must go, at least to give his son a chance, Kino remains hopeful about the promise of the pearl and the capital,
and proclaims that his friends will protect him. Juan corrects but Juan, the wiser older brother, knows of the selfishness of
this, suggesting that his friends will only help him if it doesn’t mankind.
discomfort them.
Kino says “Go with God” and, when Juan leaves, Kino sits For a moment, Kino returns to his traditional way of communing
observing all the sounds that surround him. Juana sits with him with nature and feeling the comfort of family.
for comfort and sings the song of the family.
Kino senses something outside the house and clutches his knife Despite any temporary semblance of comfort and calm, danger is
as he walks outside. Juana hears a struggle and when she goes always lurking just outside. When it is dark, when no one can see
outside, Kino is on the ground with no one around. who is attacking, those motivated by greed make their moves.
Juana brings Kino, half conscious, into the house and wipes off Juana uses this most recent attack as further evidence that the
his blood. Kino reports that he could not identify the attacker, pearl only breeds evil. She realizes that the family was happy even
and Juana tries again to convince him to destroy the pearl without the wealth offered by the pearl, and that the promise isn't
before it destroys them. worth the cost.
Kino insists that he will defeat the evil forces, declaring himself Kino is too proud to get rid of the pearl. He cites his masculinity as
“a man.” He confirms the plan to go to the capital the next day, reason for his strength.
and the couple prepares for sleep.

CHAPTER 5
Kino awakes in the middle of the night to see Juana arise from Juana, strong-willed, tries to take initiative and get rid of the evil
the bed mat, go over to the fireplace, pause by Coyotito, and pearl. To preserve the pearl, Kino acts cruelly against the person he
then exit through the door. Kino, enraged, quietly trails behind loves the most, revealing the full extent to which the pearl
her. When Juana hears him, she begins to run towards the indiscriminately inspires greed and evil in those who encounter it.
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.
Kino hisses at his wife with bared teeth, while Juana looks back The pearl has awoken a savage rage in Kino. Juana, demonstrating
with brave eyes. She is familiar with and unafraid of Kino’s the strength of the family bond, loves Kino in spite of his rage. She
murderousness. Kino feels disgusted and walks away, up the recognizes his violence against her as part of his temperament and
beach. accepts it.
He stabs at something lurking and engages in a fight with Everywhere Kino turns, another danger is lurking. To protect the
another body whose fingers search through his clothes for the pearl, Kino has entered into an endless series violent defensive
pearl. The pearl is forced from Kino’s hand and lands upon the attacks.
ground.
Juana, meanwhile, lifts herself up and reassures herself that Juana transcends Kino’s immediate violence and recognizes his
Kino is necessary for her survival. She acknowledges and importance to her, and the general importance of a man to a
appreciates the differences between the values of man woman. She recognizes and does not question the fact that she and
(strength, sacrifice) and the values of woman (reason, caution) Kino fall into customary gender roles, with wife subservient to
without entirely understanding them. husband.
Following after Kino, Juana comes across the pearl. She is Even when the pearl is knocked away, it comes back into the paths
considering whether she ought to try disposing of it again when of Kino and Juana, as though destined to be in their hands.
she sees Kino and a stranger in the aftermath of a fight.
Seeing that Kino has killed the other figure, Juana recognizes The pearl has turned Kino not only into a violent man, but into a
that she and Kino have left the life they’d led before, and that killer. His killing of a man brings him and Juana completely outside
there’s no turning back now. She drags the dead body into the of their old way of life.
brush and dabs Kino’s face.

Kino begins to complain of having lost the pearl, but Juana Kino’s murder necessitates that Kino and Juana become fugitives. It
silences him by presenting it. She tries to explain to Kino that distances them from the sympathy and values of their neighbors. It
they have to leave, particularly now that he has killed a man. also shows how the power structure victimizes the poor. The
Even if it was in self-defense, the murder will turn even more powerful attempt to steal the pearl anonymously, and then when
people against them. 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 Kino’s only truly valuable possession, his canoe, has been destroyed
brings the corn and prepares the canoe. But as he approaches because of the pearl—the possession of Kino’s that appears most
the boat, he sees that someone has damaged it with a large valuable but has only brought the family destruction.
hole in the bottom. He thinks that this is an “evil beyond
thinking.”
Kino does not think to steal a neighbor’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 neighbors.
The sounds and smells of morning activity arrive and Kino, The burning of Kino and Juana’s home reinforces their rootlessness.
determined, runs towards the house, only to find it engulfed in Now there is nothing keeping them in the town, and their enemies
flames. Juana comes towards Kino, carrying Coyotito, and says seem to be growing in number and force.
that the house had been torn up by “the dark ones.”
Kino is afraid and then slips into Juan Tomas’s hut, pulling his They seek shelter with their family, the only people who they are
family in behind him. From inside, they hear the cries of their sure they can trust.
friends watching their burning house outside, including
Apolonia. Apolonia returns to the house to exchange her shawl
and finds them there. Kino quietly demands that she bring Juan
Tomas to the house.
Kino tells Juan about the attacks and the murder he committed Juan agrees with Juana that the pearl brings only evil with it, but
in self-defense, to which Juan replies that the pearl contains a Kino insists that it’s all they have. At this point, the family is trapped:
devil and that it must be gotten rid of. Without house, canoe, or the pearl has destroyed everything the family once had, but it’s also,
a virtuous track record, Kino despairs, and begs that Juan allow therefore, the only thing left to them.
them to hide out there. Juan permits it, promising that he will
protect them, but only for a day.
Kino and Juana sit in silence during the day and hear what the Juan contributes to the proliferation of evil by creating lies
neighbors are saying about them outside. Juan Tomas deceives surrounding Juana and Kino. The fact that it’s desirable for Kino
the neighbors with false accounts of Juana and Kino’s and Juana to be considered dead reveals how extreme their
whereabouts. After a storm occurs, he announces that Kino circumstance has become.
must have drowned.

Kino says that he intends to go north and Juan informs him that Now Kino and Juana have become wanted persons. The people who
men from the city will be searching the shore, but that the tried to steal the pearl now feel free to act more openly now that
strong wind will hide their tracks. they have forced Kino to kill.
Kino and Juana leave the house before the moon has come out. The pearl is not only Kino’s sole remaining possession. It has
Juan calls to his brother, “Go with God,” and asks if he might become him. The consequences of this transformation, on the basis
give up the pearl. To this, Kino responds that the pearl has of his violence toward Juana, are not promising.
become his soul.
CHAPTER 6
In strong wind and under a black sky, Kino and Juana begin to Kino and Juana set out in the direction of the statue of the Virgin, as
follow the sandy road that leads to Loreto, the home of a statue though they are embarking on a religious pilgrimage, when really
of the Virgin. The wind, Kino hopes, will erase their tracks. they are escaping after an irreligious crime of killing (even if in self-
defense).
Something ancient and animal awakens within Kino and Connecting with nature and with his ancestors reinvigorates Kino.
exhilarates him.
The moon rises and the wind has calmed. Without the wind to Kino and Juana seek to cooperate with nature to facilitate their
erase their tracks, Kino tries to follow an existing wheel rut. invisibility.
Coyotes and owls make their night noises. Evil lurks about. Evil noises haunt Kino and Juana, but now they are the noises of
Kino and Juana walk all night, and Kino hears the song of the nature, not of greedy humans And Kino feels that he is acting to
pearl and the song of the family. 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. It’s best to sleep at dawn, because it’s too dangerous to walk in
While Juana nurses Coyotito, Kino covers up the tracks they’ve broad daylight. Traffic and natural elements aid their hiding.
made. A wagon passes by and hides their footprints.
Kino watches ants at his feet as he eats a corncake Juana has Kino demonstrates to Juana his intimate familiarity with the
offered him. The sun rises high and hot. Kino instructs Juana surrounding nature. She, too, is familiar, but assumes a subservient
not to touch the tree that bleeds, nor the tree that blinds, and position in allowing him to teach her.
his wife nods knowingly.

Juana and Kino discuss the likelihood of whether they are being Not knowledgeable about the system of evaluation in which the
followed. Kino is certain that they will be. When Juana’s says pearl plays a part, Kino and Juana can only interpret how valuable
that the pearl is actually worthless after all, Kino reasons that their pearl is from the reactions it has provoked.
it must be valuable or else people would not have tried to steal
it.
Kino declares aloud that he will have a rifle, but can see in the The dreams that the pearl once inspired have now been replaced by
pearl only the man he’s killed. He declares that he and Juana the terrible consequences the pearl has actually caused. When Kino
will be married, but he sees in the pearl Juana’s beaten body. looks into the pearl, he sees not hopeful dreams but devastating
He declares that Coyotito will read, but he sees in the pearl realities—and yet he can't give up the dreams.
only Coyotito’s sick face.
Kino puts the pearl back and the music of evil interweaves Kino recalls the evil of the pearl as he sees these saddening forms in
again with the music of the pearl. its surface.
Juana is playing with Coyotito and Kino is lightly asleep when A jolt in Kino’s dream seems to alert Kino that something bad is
Kino cries out in a bad dream and then sits up sharply as though happening in reality that he must be ready for.
he’s heard something. He tries to eat a corncake to calm himself
and then tells Juana to silence Coyotito.
He looks onto the road and sees one man on a horse and two Kino has become like an animal. He is powerless to do anything but
men walking close to the ground, inspecting like hounds. Kino violently attack in defense or run away.
tries to hold his breath as he recognizes these men as inland
trackers, out to hunt Kino and his family.
Kino decides that he must lunge for the horseman and grab his A moment of suspense is deflated when the trackers leave, making it
rifle, and digs his feet into pits in the sand to prepare himself. unnecessary for Kino to attack just yet. And yet by delaying the
The trackers pause at the place on the ground where Kino had climax it only builds suspense for the real climax to come.
swept their tracks away and the horse snorts. Kino tenses, but
then the trackers move on.
Kino backs up, considering it hopeless to cover his tracks, and After days of fighting off attack and pursuit, Kino’s hope and will are
suggests to Juana that maybe he should just surrender himself. temporary worn down. He has a moment of weakness, but then
Juana challenges him, doubting that the trackers would let him comes back to himself and creates a plan, getting in touch with his
live once they stole his pearl. Kino is overwhelmed with animal instincts.
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.
Kino pictures the trackers coming up the mountain after them, The trackers are never far from Kino’s mind. He is constantly aware
once they find Kino and Juana’s previous resting ground, but he of their approach.
cannot see them from where they are.

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 Juana demonstrates how much she cares for her family and
leads the trackers into the mountain, and that he will join her considers Kino integral to her life when she insists that they remain
and Coyotito if he is able to escape. Juana refuses to leave his together. Kino, too, is empowered by the family bond.
side. They move on, no longer in a “panic flight.”
Kino walks in a zig-zag to throw off the trackers, and sets out Thirst overpowers all other concerns as Kino and Juana decide to go
for the spot of foliage that might mark a water source, despite to water even though that's likely where the trackers will look for
the danger of going to such an obvious and commonly needed them, or come themselves to drink. Nature and need prevails over
destination. strategy.
Kino and Juana arrive at a little spring, with water bubbling out Kino and Juana join the animals they’ve come to resemble in their
of the stone and falling into a pool on a stony platform, where flight from the hunters, and unite with nature in this brief moment
all the animals come to drink. They look at the Gulf from afar as of calm and replenishment.
Juana washes and nurses Coyotito and Kino drinks.
Kino looks down the mountain and sees the trackers scurrying Kino acts as head of the family in determining everyone’s course of
up, ant-like. He estimates that they’ll catch up by evening and action. He displays his intelligence and craftiness, thinking not only
suggests that they go west. He orders Juana to go hide in a how to run away from the trackers, but how to deceive and deter
cave up the hill, where she’ll be more hidden. Kino climbs up the them along the way.
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 tells Juana the plan—when the trackers follow Kino’s path Kino and Juana prepare for the trackers’ arrival and Kino plots his
uphill, Kino and Juana will go back down the mountain—and plan of attack. Kino is extremely alert and takes note of the details
reminds Juana that Coyotito cannot make a sound. Kino of where the trackers are. Darkness hides everyone in mystery and
watches the trackers climb up the hill and rest by the water suspense.
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 pictures the position of the men, and then returns to In his final moment before he goes to face the trackers, Kino shows
Juana and informs her that he plans to attack the tracker with care for his family and promises that they will be together in the
the rifle first. She warns him that they’ll see his white clothing in end, as long as he makes it through alive. After discrediting Juana’s
the dark but he insists that he must go, before the moon comes advice to remove his white clothing, he obeys it, showing how much
up. He tells her to go on to Loreto if he’s killed. He lays a hand he respects Juana and considers her intelligent.
on Coyotito’s head, touches Juana’s check, and then takes off
his white clothing and slithers out of the cave.

He crouches carefully and quietly, with his knife hanging down Kino thinks of his family as he prepares to perform an act of
his back, hearing strongly the Song of the Family. He finally potential sacrifice for them. He demonstrates his skillful swiftness as
reaches the level of the trackers, twenty feet away, and he creeps along noiselessly and strategically.
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.
The moon comes up before Kino had hoped, and Coyotito cries Just as Kino creeps like an animal and is hunted like an animal,
a little from the cave. The trackers hear the cry and stir from Coyotito’s cries sound like those of his animal namesake. His cries
their sleep, guessing first that the sound comes from a baby, often serve momentous narrative moments, either marking an
and then deciding instead that it must be a coyote. The tracker important event (as in the scorpion sting) or precipitating an
on watch lifts his rifle to shoot at the crying coyote. important event (as here.)
Kino leaps out and the gun fires. Kino digs his knife into the Kino attacks savagely and successfully, but any sense of relief or
watchers’ neck and chest and grabs the rifle. He knocks the accomplishment is overridden by the sounds he hears from the
head of the sitting man and shoots the third, first to the ground, caves. Along with the trackers, it seems that Coyotito, too, has been
and then between the eyes. Kino stands, sensing that killed. Kino attacks only in self-defense, to fight against evil, but
something is wrong. The cicadas are quiet. Suddenly he every time he does so the evil only grows.
becomes aware of a moaning from the cave, the “cry of death.”
The narrator reports that all the people of La Paz remember As in the introduction to the novel, Kino and Juana’s story is placed
the moment when Kino and Juana came back to the town as within the context of the villagers’ narration, as a tale that’s been
the sun was setting. They walked not in single file with Kino told again and again. The tragedy that they’ve been through has
ahead, but side by side, Juana carrying a dead Coyotito in her leveled their relationship, equalizing man and woman (as indicated
bloody shawl. Their faces were tired and tight and seemed as by their walking side-by-side) and numbing and blinding them to all
though protected by magic, having surpassed human emotion. that surrounds them. Since they found the pearl, their lives have
They walked straight ahead through the town. 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 Finally, now that the pearl has run its course of evil, has destroyed
canoe, and Kino lays down the rifle and takes out the pearl, Coyotito for whom they held all those dreams the pearl might have
offering it to Juana. She insists that he do the deed. He flings made possible, Kino and Juana rid themselves of the pearl and all its
the pearl back into the ocean, and it settles to the bottom associations. Now the pearl returns to nature, where it belongs, and
among the plants and crabs. 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 Exhausted, Kino and Juana are left only with one other. They have
pearl fades away. given up on the dreams of the pearl.

To cite any of the quotes from The Pearl covered in the Quotes
HOW T
TO
O CITE section of this LitChart:
To cite this LitChart: MLA
MLA Steinbeck, John. The Pearl. Penguin Books. 2002.
Batkin, Liza. "The Pearl." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 17 Sep 2013. CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL
Web. 21 Apr 2020.
Steinbeck, John. The Pearl. New York: Penguin Books. 2002.
CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL
Batkin, Liza. "The Pearl." LitCharts LLC, September 17, 2013.
Retrieved April 21, 2020. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-pearl.

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Passed down through three generations, the canoe

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pearl become irrationally angry and jealous that Kino has

Explanation and Analysis

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Page Number: 61 native character as an "other," one who is sympathetic but

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SUMMARY AND ANAL

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