The Pearl

THE PEARL
Colby Curtis
March 31,2008

The story focuses on a family of three. The father’s name is Kino and the mother’s name is Juana. They live in a grass shack near the ocean.
In the beginning of the story, their child, named Coyotito, gets stung by a scorpion. The poison from the scorpion is very potent and his parents know that it could be life threatening. They ask the doctor to help their child. The doctor won’t help them because he knows that they don’t have any money. He looks down on them because they are Indians.
When they’re sent home by the doctor, Kino decides to go pearl hunting. Kino dives down to the bottom several times and finds a few small oysters and puts them in the boat. The rest of his family comes with him and helps him gather the oysters when he puts them in the boat. Kino then dives down again, when something shiny catches his eye. He looks under a small ledge and finds a huge oyster that he carries up to the boat.
When he gets in the boat, he starts opening the oyster shells. He begins opening the small ones first, to save the best for last. The small ones didn’t have any pearls in them so he opens the big one he found. He grabs his knife and sticks it into the shell and wrenches it open. What he sees amazes him because he found the pearl of the world.
By the time they reach shore, Coyotito begins to show signs that he is getting better. Kino and Juana still want to take him to see the doctor to make his recovery “official.” The doctor gives Coyotito some medicine that makes him cough violently and throw up. He says that he will come back to see how Coyotito is doing. An hour later, he comes back and says Coyotito will be just fine.
The next day Kino goes into town to sell his magnificent pearl. By this time, word has gotten around town that Kino found the pearl of the world. When he gets to the pearl traders, there is a group of people following him to see how much he gets for his pearl. The pearl trader takes the pearl from Kino and scans it. After he scans it, he puts it back into the tray it was in. He tells Kino that it is only worth 1000 pesos. Kino is in shock and says it is worth at least 50000 pesos. The other Pearl traders offers him even less money. Kino thinks he getting swindled. Kino plans to take the pearl to the capital and see how much he can get for it there.
That night, Juana tries to get rid of the pearl by throwing it back into the ocean, but Kino stops her and takes the pearl. On the way back to their house, Kino gets attacked and the pearl gets knocked away from him. Kino grabs his knife and stabs the attacker, killing him. Right then, he gets thrown down and gets injured.
When he and Juana get back to the house, it is ablaze. Having killed a man, Kino knew that they had to leave. They decided to travel to the capital to see how much they could get for the pearl.
On there journey, they are chased by two trackers and a man on a horse. They stopped in the same place Kino and his family did to rest for the night. Kino’s family is well hidden in a cave on the cliff side.
Kino knew that the stalkers would eventually find them, so he decides to attack when most of them where sleeping. He goes down the cliff side and first kills the man on watch with his knife and grabs his rifle, then shoots the two others. Before Kino is able to attack the person holding the rifle, that man shoots at what he thinks is a coyote but is actually Coyotito, killing him.
I think this story expresses greed as a destructive force. Kino keeps thinking of what he was going to buy with all the money he thinks he is going to make. “Kino looked into his pearl, and Juana cast her eyelashes down and arranged her shawl to cover her face so that her excitement could not be seen. And in the incandescence of the pearl the pictures formed of the thing Kino’s mind had considered in the past and had given up as impossible. In the pearl he saw Juana, Coyotito, and himself standing and kneeling at the high altar, and they were being married now that they could pay. He spoke softly, “We will be married in the church”” (page #24)
Kino wouldn’t listen to his wife when she told him to get rid of the pearl. Juana even tries to steel the pearl from Kino while he is sleeping, and tries to throw it back into the ocean. Kino caught up to her and struck her in the face. Kino gets attack several times during the story. After every time his wife says to get rid of it, and Kino says that it will be all right and they should just sell it.
“It will destroy us all” Juana cried, “even our son.” “Hush,” Kino said. “Do not speak any more. In the morning I will sell the pearl.” (page#39) Kino puts his family’s safety aside because he doesn’t want to get rid of the pearl. With so many bad things happening because of the pearl, this book is emphasizing that greed is a destructive force.