The Pearl

written by: John Steinbeck

Composed by: Areej Farooq

The Pearl
• Type of Literary work: Novel
• Genre: Parable, Allegory
• Time and Place Written: 1944–1945,California
• Parable: a brief story, usually with human characters, that is told to
teach a lesson.
• Allegory: a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a
hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
• Steinbeck wrote: “If this story is a parable, perhaps everyone takes
his own meaning from it and reads his own life into it.” In other
words, “The Pearl” will mean something different to each of you.
General Information ( Themes)
• Themes: Greed – a destructive force; All competition in this novel is
unhealthy, and everyone is motivated by self-interest, not concern for
others.
• The roles of fate and action in shaping human life.
• Colonial society’s domination of native cultures.
• Family - The Pearl is about pursuing wealth and the dangers that such
an endeavor brings. Because wealth is so highly valued (for no good
reason, the novella argues), men make extraordinary sacrifices in its
name.
• Such blind, irrational values can only bring destruction in this text.
General Information
• Steinbeck hinted that “The Pearl” is both symbolic and literal.
• The symbolic meaning of “The pearl” In other words, the story can be
about the struggles of the poor or how sudden wealth can change
everything for any family. It is can also be seen as simply the story
about one family.
• The story is more than just a plot (this happened and this and then
this). The reader needs to understand that there is meaning below
the surface of the story.
History
• In the 16th century the Spanish landed in Mexico and overthrew the
Aztecs.
• The Spaniards enslaved the native people of the area.
• Today, these people are not slaves but they make up the underclass of
Mexican society.
• The descendants of the Spanish conquerors are still richer and more
powerful than the rest of the population.
• They make up the ruling class of Mexico.
Social Classes of Mexican Culture
• The doctor, the priest, and the pearl buyers are all of Spanish
descent (upper class).
• Kino and his family practice the Catholic religion, but still
hold onto their belief in the pagan gods.
• The upper class looks down on the poor native people
because of their beliefs, their race, and their poverty.
Themes
• Themes: Good vs. Evil - The family is good; greed is evil. Love
is good; destruction is evil. Overbearing colonization, corrupt
capitalism, and racism all go on the "evil" list, which we have
to say is a bit longer than the "good" one. In this novel, the
only thing that stands outside the clear evil vs. good
dichotomy is the pearl itself – it simply reflects what is
around it. That the pearl ends up reflecting evil is an
indication of The Pearl’s ugly view of the world.
Broad-spectrum Themes
• Themes: Gender - The male is the leader of the household. He is
dominant, he is the decision-maker, and the family’s welfare rests
solely on his shoulders. The female, on the other hand, is submissive,
deferent, and nearly always silent.
• Poverty versus Wealth: The pearl’s immediate and lasting effect upon
Kino is to cause him to dream of better things for himself and for his
family. Although the pearl attracts attackers and pursuers, Kino is
determined that it shall be the means by which his family rises above
their station and, most importantly, his son achieves an education.
Broad-spectrum Themes
• In this way the story is a political one. The story shows and draws
moral conclusions about the differences between early nineteenth
century Mexico’s poor, characterized by the sympathetic characters
such as Kino and Juana and the country’s rich portrayed using
unsympathetic characters like the doctor.
• Fortune : The operations of chance and the effort to tell good luck
from bad luck in an underlying theme in the story. The pearl itself is
the byproduct of a chance grain of sand embedding in an oyster.
 Broad-spectrum Themes
• Fortune: Additionally, Kino’s finding of the pearl is depicted as the
lucky moment of collusion of being in the right place at the right time
with the right need. The luck that that the pearl brings Kino’s family,
however, is revealed to be bad luck when his attempt to sell it at a fair
price leads to the death of his only son.
• Free will vs. determination (everything is fixed and you can’t change
it).
• Oppression by the rich and powerful on the poor.
• How wealth and possessions can corrupt people?
• The relationship of human beings to nature.
Characters
Kino – protagonist; motivated by basic drives: his love for his family,
loyalty to the traditions of his village and his people, and frustration at
his people’s oppression at the hands of their European colonizers. Kino
also possesses a quick mind and a strong work ethic, and he feels a
close, pure kinship with the natural world, the source of his livelihood.
Juana – wife of Kino; more reflective and more practical than Kino; has
the presence of mind; loyal and submissive, obeying her husband as
her culture dictates.
Characters

• The Doctor – symbolizes and embodies the colonists’ arrogance,

greed, and condescension toward the natives, whom the colonists do
not even try to understand.
• Coyotito - Kino and Juana’s only son, who is stung by a scorpion
while resting in a hammock one morning. Because Coyotito is an
infant, he is helpless to improve his situation and thus at the mercy of
those who provide for him. Kino and Juana’s efforts to save him by
finding a big pearl with which they can pay a doctor prove to do more
harm than good.
Characters
• Juan Tomás - Kino’s older brother. Deeply loyal to his family, Juan
Tomás supports Kino in all of his endeavors but warns him of the
dangers involved in possessing such a valuable pearl. He is
sympathetic to Kino and Juana, however, putting them up when they
need to hide and telling no one of their whereabouts.
• Apolonia - Juan Tomás’s wife and the mother of four children. Like
her husband, Apolonia is sympathetic to Kino and Juana’s plight, and
she agrees to give them shelter in their time of need.
Characters
• The priest - The local village priest ostensibly represents moral virtue
and goodness, but he is just as interested in exploiting Kino’s wealth
as everyone else, hoping that he can find a way to persuade Kino to
give him some of the money he will make from the pearl.
• The dealers - The extremely well-organized and corrupt pearl dealers
in La Paz systematically cheat and exploit the Indian pearl divers who
sell them their goods. They desperately long to cheat Kino out of his
pearl.
• The trackers - The group of violent and corrupt men that follows Kino
and Juana when they leave the village, hoping to waylay Kino and
steal his pearl.
Plot
• Major Conflict : After finding a magnificent pearl, Kino seeks to sell
it to acquire wealth. He wishes for his son’s wound to heal, and for his
son to obtain an education and become an equal to the European
colonists who keep his people in a state of ignorance and poverty.
When he tries to sell the pearl, however, Kino quickly meets
resistance in the form of other people’s greed. Ultimately, his struggle
to acquire wealth places him at odds with his family, his culture, and
nature, as Kino himself submits to greed and violence.
Plot
• Rising Action : A scorpion stings Coyotito; Kino discovers a great pearl;
Kino’s attempts to sell the pearl are unsuccessful, and he is mysteriously
attacked; Kino beats Juana for attempting to discard the pearl.
• Climax: Kino kills a man who attacks him for his pearl, an event that
exposes the tension surrounding this object as a bringer of great evil as
well as a chance for escape.
• Falling Action: Kino and Juana flee the village and find themselves chased
by trackers; Kino fights with the trackers, not knowing that they have taken
Coyotito’s cry to be that of a coyote and shot him; Kino and Juana return to
the village and throw the pearl back into the sea.
Chapter 1
• Setting: Before finding the pearl, Kino and his family living in harmony
with nature Songs and what they mean (the Song of the Family, the
Song of Evil, etc.)
• Imagery of music and songs, harmony and peace Story begins at
dawning of a new day.
• Songs can show the world at peace or out of control.
• Kino is living the way he is supposed to do.
• Kino and Juana have a harmonious relationship
• The man is clearly the head of the family.
Chapter 1
• Struggle for survival (life is a constant one)
• Complication – intruder – the scorpion
• Kino reacts; emotional (smashing the scorpion)
• Juana – thinks and uses logic (draws out the poison, takes the baby to
the doctor, etc.)
• Doctor will only treat the baby if he is paid. He refuses the first time
when he sees that Kino has only the poor seed pearls.
• The servant tells Kino the doctor has gone.
Chapter 2 and 3
• Kino must find a way to pay for medical treatment so he goes diving
• for pearls.
• Juana uses traditional ways to fight the poison (first, sucking the poison
out; later making a seaweed poultice)
• Song of the Pearl That Might be Kino finds a huge pearl.
• The Pearl of the World (Chap # 3)
• Now that Kino has the pearl, people treat him differently
• The priest, the doctor and the pearl buyers all make plans because of the
pearl. All seem motivated by greed.
• Later, Juana tells Kino the pearl is evil and will destroy them, but Kino says
the pearl is the key to the family’s future and a symbol of hope for all of his
people.
Chapter 3 – Kino’s dreams
• With the pearl, the baby can be cured. Kino and Juana can get
married in the church. They can all buy new clothes. Kino can buy a
rifle.
• Coyotito can get an education and all Kino’s people.
• After the doctor’s visit, Kino hides the pearl. The doctor tricks Kino
into showing where it is.
• That night, someone tries to steal the pearl. Kino attacks the person
with his knife.
• Juana tells Kino the pearl is evil and to throw it away.
• Kino says the pearl is there one chance and he will sell it the next day.
Chapter 4
• Everyone in La Paz knows that Kino is going to sell the pearl that day.
• Some say he will give it to the Pope or buy Masses for the souls of his
family for a thousand years.
• Others say he will give the money to the poor.
• Everyone worries that the pearl will destroy Kino and his family.
• The people’s plans for charity are opposite of what Kino plans for his family.
• Good and charitable ideas are easier when it is someone else’s money
being spent.
• Kino and Juana have hard decisions to make, not matter what they do.
Chapter 4
• Juan Tomas (Kino’s brother) warns him to get the best price for the
pearl.
• Once the Indians hired an agent to negotiate for them and take the
pearls to Mexico City, but the agents were never seen again. Some say
they were stolen by the agents; others think that the agents were
murdered and the pearls stolen from them. In any event, the pearls
are never seen again.
• The priest tells the Indians that this is a warning from God not to try
and change their place in the world.
Chapter 4
• Pearl buyer tells Kino the pearl is like fool’s gold: too large and not
valuable. He is offered 1,000 pesos; Kino says it is worth 50,000
pesos. The buyer seems to be trying to cheat Kino. Kino can feel evil
around him as the other buyers inspect the pearl.
• The pearl dealer, like the priest and the doctor, tries to manipulate
Kino. He tries to cheat Kino out of his money.
• No other pearl dealer will pay more. By refusing to sell the pearl, Kino
is taking on the entire power structure of his society. This could be
very dangerous.
Chapter 4
• Kino says he will go to the capital (Mexico City) to sell the pearl.
• The townspeople argue about whether Kino should have taken the
money. Kino buries the pearl again and is angry and terrified.
• Juan Tomas says that Kino is challenging the people in power. He
could change everything. Juan Tomas says his friends will only protect
him if he is not in danger.
• They will not do anything to jeopardize their own safety.
• That night, Kino is attacked again when he tries to protect the pearl.
• Juana says the pearl is evil and must be destroyed. Kino says he is a
man and will not be cheated by anyone.
Chapter 4 and 5
• Kino is willing to fight for the pearl. Kino is demanding just and
respectful treatment. Juana is the voice of reason. She warns Kino
about what could happen. She thinks the pearl is evil. Finding the
pearl should have meant security and prosperity. Instead, it seems to
offer only pain and danger.
• Chapter 5 Juana takes the pearl and goes to throw it in the ocean.
• Kino stops her and punches and kicks her.
• Kino says he is a man; Juana knows this means that he is half insane
and half a god.
CHAPTER 5
• Kino is again attacked by strangers and kills one of them.
• He loses the pearl in the fight but Juana finds it later. Kino knows that
they must run away from the village to save their lives. Kino finds that
someone has put a hole in his canoe. To Kino this is worse than killing
a man because a canoe does not have sons who can seek revenge.
Kino does not even think of stealing another canoe, which would
mean starvation for the other canoe’s owner.
CHAPTER 5
• Juana tells him that their hut has been searched and set on fire. Kino
hides at his brother’s house. His brother lets him stay but only
reluctantly. His brother says that the pearl is the cause of all the
trouble. Juan Tomas says that perhaps Kino should have sold the
pearl, but now it is too late. Kino says that to give up the pearl would
be the same thing as giving up his soul. Kino says that he will head
north in the morning and head to the capital, Mexico City.
• Kino finds that he is willing to kill to keep the pearl.
• Juana begins to realize that Kino cannot win and may end up
destroying himself.
CHAPTER 6
• While on the journey, Kino finds himself both excited and afraid.
• Kino tells Juana that anyone who finds them will take the pearl. Juana
wonders if maybe the pearl
• really was worthless, but Kino says
• no one would be trying so hard to
• steal a worthless pearl.
• Kino again imagines all of the things
• he will do with the pearl if he sells it,
• but everything he sees in the pearl
• now seems evil and twisted.
CHAPTER 6
• They are being followed by three trackers, one on horse with a rifle.
• Kino and Juana realize they will be killed if they are found.
• Kino realizes he must kill the man on horseback and get his rifle.
• Kino tells Juana to take the baby and leave him but she refuses. Juana
hides in a cave with Coyotito.
• Kino takes off his white clothing so he can be less visible.
• The family is being hunted like animals. Kino especially becomes like
an animal. Juana retains her human qualities.
CHAPTER 6
• Kino kills all three attackers, but the baby is also killed.
• When Kino and Juana return to La Paz, he throws the pearl
back into the sea.
• When he does this, he throws away his pain along with his
dreams of wealth.