The major theme of the novel is the contrast between Good and Evil, greed, compassion, family values, racial and societal discrimination, and an individual’s will to improve their life.
Characters of The Pearl:
Kino is the protagonist of the novella. He is a Mexican-Indian who works as a pearl diver, searching for pearls while diving into the Gulf of the area. He is a devoted family man, father, and husband to Coyotito and Juana, respectively. Kino represents an 'everyman' who finds himself in a circle of vicious situations that turn him increasingly violent, frustrated, defiant, and paranoid. Juana is the mother of Coyotito and the wife of Kino. She is a nice woman, a devoted wife, and a caring mother. She dutifully supports her husband despite his rash behavior but continues to warn him about the impending dangers that his greed may bring upon him. She is a strong individual who even disobeys Kino when he suggests that they take separate paths to avoid the trackers. Coyotito is the infant son of Juana and Kino. He gets stung by a scorpion and suffers a lethal fever. Kino and Juana try every possible way to save their child. The Doctor is a fat, complacent, greedy, corrupt man who is a Racist and refuses to treat Kino’s child just because he doesn’t wish to help a poor man of another race. However, when he comes to know that Kino found a rare precious huge pearl, he insists on treating Coyotito just in the hope of stealing the pearl. Juan Tomas is a brother of Kino. He is a helpful benevolent man who helps Kino and hides Kino and Juana in his house after Kino murders a man in self-defense. Juan warns Kino against the disastrous consequences that he faces from finding the pearl. Apolonia is the wife of Juan who allows Kino and Juana to hide in her house after Kino murders a man in self-defense.
Summary of The Pearl:
Kino is a young Mexican-Indian man who works as a pearl diver. He is married to Juana and the couple have an infant child named Coyotito. The family lives in a brush house in the suburb of the city of La Paz. One day, when Kino wakes up, he sees a scorpion nearby that stings his child Coyotito. Coyotito instantly develops a fever and Juana gets worried. Juana tells Kino to go to town and get the doctor, but Kino and their neighbors tell Juana that the doctor will never come to where they live. Juana couldn’t let fate take control so she sets off with Coyotito to the doctor. Kino accompanies her and many other villagers follow them out of curiosity. The doctor is a known racist who never helps poor native Indians. When Juana and Kino reach there and knock at the door of the Doctor, a servant of the doctor comes out and says that the doctor is not at home. In fact, the doctor doesn’t wish to treat the child because he is a racist and knows that Kino is too poor to pay him well.
Disheartened, the couple returns and takes their son to the sea. Juana continues to find a cure for her child while Kino decides to go to work and find some oysters in the Gulf. Juana tends to Coyotito and applies a brown seaweed poultice on the shoulder of Coyotito which is swollen now because of the scorpion sting. As Kino decides to dive into the Gulf to find some osters, Juana prays he would get a large pearl that may help them pay for the doctor’s fee.
Kino searches the sea bottom and it appears as if Juana’s prayers for a large pearl are answered when Kino surfaces with the largest oyster that he has ever seen. He comes back to the canoe. Kino does not want to open the oyster immediately, but Juana insists he opens the oyster; when he does, he finds a huge pearl none of them had ever seen. Juana gets mesmerized by the pearl but soon remembers her son and goes to check him out. Juana finds that Coyotito is better now, his shoulder is no longer swollen. Kino is already excited by seeing the huge pearl and when Juana tells him that Coyotito is fine now, he becomes ecstatic. He puts back his head and howls, causing the other pearl divers to look up and race toward Kino's canoe.
The news that Kino has found an immense pearl travels fast through La Paz. The doctor who refused to treat Coyotito decides to visit Kino. Kino's neighbors begin to feel bitter toward him for his good fortune, but neither Kino nor Juana realize this feeling they have engendered. For safety, Kino hides the huge pearl and buries it in the corner of his hut. Kino’s brother Juan asks him what he will do with his money, and he envisions getting married to Juana in a church and dressing Coyotito in a yachting cap and sailor suit. He claims that he will send Coyotito to school and buy a rifle for himself. The local priest visits and tells Kino to remember to give thanks and to pray for guidance. The doctor also visits, and although Coyotito seems to be healing, the doctor insists that Coyotito still faces danger and treats him. Kino tells the doctor that he will pay him once he sells his pearl, and the doctor attempts to discern where the pearl is located. He offers to keep the pearl for Kino, and Kino refuses the request, but the doctor tricks Kino into revealing where Kino has hidden the pearl. That night, a thief attempts to break into Kino's hut, but Kino drives him away. Juana tells Kino that the pearl will destroy them, but Kino insists that the pearl is their one chance and that tomorrow they will sell it.
The next day, when Kino goes to sell the pearl, all the men of the village accompany him. They discuss what they would do if they had found the pearl, and suggest giving it as a present to the Pope, buying Masses for the souls of his family, and distributing it among the poor of La Paz. Kino discusses the prize for the pearl with a pearl dealer and he offers a thousand pesos when Kino believes that he deserves fifty thousand. Although other dealers inspect the pearl and give similar prices, Kino refuses their offer and decides to go to the capital to sell it there.
That night, after another attack on Kino, Juana begs him to get rid of the pearl; he refuses. When Kino falls asleep, Juana takes the pearl, intending to throw it back into the ocean, but Kino catches up to her at the beach and violently seizes the pearl, injuring Juana. As Kino returns home, unknown assailants again attack him; he kills one of them and the pearl rolls away. Juana recovers the pearl, which she now decides to keep, realizing that their old life is gone forever. She also manages to save Coyotito when other attackers burn their house down. Kino, Juana, and Coyotito take cover in the house belonging to Kino’s older brother Juan and his wife Apolonia. Juan and Apolonia try to convince Kino to get rid of the pearl as it is proving to be a bad omen for him but he refuses.
That night, Kino, Juana, and Coyotito leave their village and head toward Loreto. Kino is suspicious that they will be followed and thieves will try to snatch the pearl, so he tries to leave no tracks behind. They decide to travel at night and rest during the day. Juana and Coyotito fall asleep, and soon Kino does too. He is suddenly awakened by noises, creeps out from where they are hiding, and sees trackers who are following them. Once the trackers pass by the hiding place, Kino and his family head toward the high mountains. When they reach the first rise of the mountains, Kino tries to convince Juana to hide with Coyotito while he leads the trackers away, but she refuses so they head higher up the mountains to where Kino finds a stream. There, Kino hides Juana and Coyotito in a small cave and makes false tracks up the side of the mountain, hoping to mislead the trackers; he then hides in the cave with his family. Kino takes his white clothes off so that no one will notice his white clothing. Kino, realizing that the trackers will discover them in the morning, vows to attack the trackers before the trackers attack him and his family. He goes towards the campfire. One of the trackers was taking guard while two others were sleeping.
Coyotito feels a mosquito sting and he begins to cry. The tracker hears the sound and thinks that it must be a coyote pup. But the cries continue so the guarding tracker shoots in the direction of the cries. Kino attacks the tracker at the same time and kills all three of them. Kino can hear nothing but silence. He comes back and sees Coyotito dead from that shot of the tracker who was taking a guard. Juana and Kino, united and beleaguered, walk back to the village side-by-side with Coyotito’s dead body in Juana’s shawl. Kino carries a rifle stolen from one of the trackers he killed. The two approach the gulf, and Kino, who now sees the image of Coyotito with his head blown off in the pearl, throws it into the ocean.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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