The Pearl

Summary

The Pearl is a short novella in six chapters, framed as a folk tale retold in the Gulf town of La Paz, on the coast of Baja California. Kino, a poor pearl diver, lives in a brush house by the shore with his wife, Juana, and their infant son, Coyotito. One morning a scorpion stings the baby. Juana sucks the wound, and the family, followed by curious neighbors, carries Coyotito to the town's doctor, a foreigner who despises Kino's people; told through his servant that Kino has no money, the doctor refuses to come out. Kino and Juana paddle out in the canoe Kino inherited from his father and grandfather, and while Juana prays and puts a seaweed poultice on the swelling, Kino dives and brings up an enormous pearl, the Pearl of the World. News spreads at once. Kino dreams aloud of a church wedding, new clothes, a harpoon, a rifle, and school for Coyotito so that he can read and be free. The priest calls to remind him to give thanks, and the doctor now arrives eagerly, gives the recovering child a white powder that makes him sick within the hour, and then treats the sickness, while watching to see where the pearl is hidden. That night an intruder attacks Kino in the dark. In the morning the pearl buyers of La Paz, who all work for one hidden master, pretend the pearl is a clumsy curiosity and offer a thousand pesos. Kino refuses and resolves to sell it in the capital, against the warnings of his brother, Juan Tomás. In the night Juana tries to throw the pearl into the sea; Kino catches and strikes her, and moments later he is ambushed and kills a man. Their canoe is holed and their house burned, so after hiding a day with Juan Tomás and Apolonia, the family flees north on foot. Two trackers and a horseman with a rifle follow them into the mountains. At a pool below a cliff, Kino creeps down at night to attack; Coyotito cries, the rifleman fires at the sound, and Kino kills all three men, but the shot has killed the baby. Kino and Juana walk back into La Paz side by side, Juana carrying the dead child, and Kino throws the pearl into the Gulf. Steinbeck first heard the story in La Paz in 1940 and recorded it in Sea of Cortez (1941); a version titled The Pearl of the World appeared in Woman's Home Companion in December 1945, and Viking published the book in 1947, the year of the Mexican film La Perla.

Plot or Argument

• Chapter 1: The scorpion

  Dawn in Kino's brush house and the Song of the Family; the scorpion stings Coyotito; the doctor refuses to treat a poor Indian child.

• Chapter 2: The Pearl of the World

  Juana's seaweed poultice and prayer; Kino dives from his inherited canoe and opens the great pearl.

• Chapter 3: Dreams and the doctor

  The town hears the news; Kino's plans for a wedding, a rifle and schooling; the priest and the doctor call; the doctor's powder; the first night attack.

• Chapter 4: The pearl buyers

  The dealers act out their scorn and offer a thousand pesos; Kino refuses and decides to go to the capital; Juan Tomás warns him.

• Chapter 5: Violence and flight

  Juana tries to throw the pearl away and Kino strikes her; he kills an attacker; the canoe is broken and the house burned; the family hides with Juan Tomás.

• Chapter 6: The trackers and the return

  Pursuit into the mountains; Kino's night attack at the pool; Coyotito is shot dead; Kino and Juana return to La Paz and Kino throws the pearl into the sea.

Characters

• Kino, protagonist

  Poor pearl diver whose great find promises freedom and brings ruin.

• Juana, Kino's wife

  Steady, devout and practical; she treats the sting and first sees that the pearl is evil.

• Coyotito, Kino and Juana's infant son

  The baby whose scorpion sting begins the story and whose death ends it.

• Juan Tomás, Kino's brother

  Cautious elder who warns Kino against defying the buyers and shelters the family.

• Apolonia, Juan Tomás's wife

  Kino's sister-in-law, who mourns the burned house and helps hide them.

• The doctor, the town physician

  Foreign-born, greedy and contemptuous of the Indians, he refuses Coyotito until the pearl is found.

• The priest, village priest

  Visits after the find to remind Kino to give thanks and remember the Church.

• The pearl buyers and the trackers, antagonists

  Dealers who conspire to cheat Kino, and the hunters who follow him into the mountains.

Lessons

• Wealth that owns its owner

  Kino believes the pearl will make him free, but from the moment he finds it the pearl rules his days, his sleep and his family. Steinbeck shows how a treasure can turn a man from provider into prisoner.

  • How does Kino's life change in the first day after he finds the pearl?
  • When does Kino stop owning the pearl and the pearl start owning him?
  • Why does Juana see the danger before Kino does?

• The powerful prey on the poor

  The doctor, the pearl buyers and the hidden thieves all treat Kino as something to be used. The book asks what a poor man can do when every route to a better life is controlled by others.

  • What does the doctor do before and after he hears about the pearl?
  • How do the pearl buyers try to trick Kino?
  • Was Kino brave or foolish to refuse their offer?

• Pride and its price

  Kino calls himself a man and will not be cheated, and that resolve leads him to strike his wife, kill, and lose his son. The story honors his courage while showing how quickly it turns to violence.

  • Why does Kino say he will not give up the pearl, even after the house burns?
  • What does Kino lose by the end of the story, and what does he keep?

• A story told as a parable

  Steinbeck presents the tale as one the townspeople retell, with clear good and evil and no in-between. Reading it as a parable means asking what each part stands for and what it says about the reader's own life.

  • What might the pearl stand for besides money?
  • Why does Steinbeck give Kino songs in his head instead of long speeches?

Context

The story is set among the poor Indian fishing families of La Paz, at the southern end of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico, a town long famous for pearl beds. Steinbeck shows a town still layered by centuries of Spanish rule: a foreign doctor and Spanish-descended townspeople in stone and plaster houses, and the native divers in brush huts at the shore, dependent on a single network of buyers.

Composition

In 1940 Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts sailed the Gulf of California on the Western Flyer collecting marine specimens. In La Paz Steinbeck heard a local tale of an Indian boy who found a huge pearl, was cheated and hunted, and threw it back into the sea; he retold it briefly in Sea of Cortez (1941). He developed it with a film in mind, and a version titled The Pearl of the World ran in Woman's Home Companion in December 1945. The Viking Press published the book in 1947 with drawings by José Clemente Orozco.

Reception

The Mexican film La Perla, directed by Emilio Fernández with a screenplay credited in part to Steinbeck, was released in 1947 in Spanish and English versions. The novella became one of Steinbeck's most widely read books and a fixture of middle and high school reading in the United States.

Comparisons

• the-old-man-and-the-sea

  Two poor fishermen win a great prize from the sea and lose it; Hemingway's Santiago keeps his dignity in defeat, while Kino gives up the pearl himself after losing his son.

• of-mice-and-men

  Steinbeck's earlier novella also builds on a dream of escape from poverty that ends in a killing; both are compact, scene-based and close to parable.

• cannery-row

  Cannery Row grew from the same friendship with Ed Ricketts and the same love of tide pools and shore life, but treats poverty as comedy rather than tragedy.

• silas-marner

  Eliot's weaver loses his hoarded gold and gains a child; Kino gains a treasure and loses his child. Both are moral fables about what wealth does to love.

• the-pilgrims-progress

  Bunyan's Vanity Fair and Steinbeck's pearl buyers both show a marketplace that cheats and tempts; each book is a simple story meant to be read as allegory or parable.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The songs Kino hears in his head, the Song of the Family, the Song of Evil and the Song of the Enemy, and when each one rises.
• The doctor's two meetings with the family in Chapters 1 and 3, and what has changed between them.
• How the pearl looks to Kino at different moments: first full of his dreams, later gray and ugly.
• Juana's two attempts to be rid of the pearl, in Chapter 5 and at the very end, and who finally throws it.
• Animal images throughout: the scorpion, the ants, the fish and the herons by the shore, and the coyote cry in the cave.

Key terms and names

La Paz

The town on the Gulf of California where Kino's people live in brush houses beside the shore and the wealthier townspeople live in stone houses.

The Pearl of the World

The name the town gives Kino's great pearl as soon as the news spreads. It suggests that the whole world wants it.

The Song of the Family

The music Kino hears in his mind when his home is safe and whole. It fades as the pearl brings danger.

Pearl buyers

The dealers of La Paz who seem to compete but all work for one hidden master; together they pretend Kino's pearl is worth little.

Poultice

A soft, moist remedy laid on a wound. Juana makes one from brown seaweed for Coyotito's swollen shoulder.

Parable

A simple story told to teach a moral or spiritual truth. Steinbeck's opening note invites readers to read The Pearl this way.

Trackers

Men skilled at following the faintest signs on the ground. Two of them, with a rifleman on horseback, pursue Kino's family into the mountains.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Why does the doctor refuse to treat Coyotito in Chapter 1, and why does he come to Kino's house in Chapter 3?
2. Comprehension What does Kino plan to buy with the pearl, and which plan matters most to him?
3. Comprehension How do the pearl buyers try to persuade Kino that the pearl is worth little, and what does Kino decide to do instead?
4. Interpretation Juana tries to throw the pearl into the sea and Kino strikes her. What does each of them understand about the pearl at that moment?
5. Interpretation Kino tells Juana that he is a man and will not be cheated. Is that pride, courage, or both, and how does the story judge it?
6. Interpretation At the end Kino and Juana walk side by side rather than with Juana behind. What has changed between them, and why does Kino offer Juana the chance to throw the pearl?
7. Interpretation Steinbeck says stories like this have only good and evil and no in-between. Does the novella itself keep to that rule, or does it show characters who are mixed?
8. Big Question Was Kino wrong to hope that the pearl could make his son free? When is it right for a poor man to fight for a better life, and when should he let a chance go?

Faith Connections

• Matthew 13:45-46 (Scripture)

  Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a merchant who sells everything to buy one pearl of great price. Kino's pearl is the reverse: a pearl that costs him everything and buys nothing worth having, which makes the contrast with the true treasure sharp.

• 1 Timothy 6:9-10 (Scripture)

  Those who will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many hurtful desires. From the night of the first attack, the pearl draws everyone around Kino, and finally Kino himself, into that snare.

• Luke 12:15-21 (Scripture)

  Christ warns that a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions, and tells of the rich fool who plans for wealth on the night his soul is required. Kino's plans in Chapter 3 echo the fool's, though his aim is his son's good.

• Augustine, Confessions X (Great Conversation)

  Augustine examines the lust of the eyes and the way created goods become rivals to God when loved for themselves. The town's gaze fixed on the Pearl of the World is a vivid picture of that disordered love.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Kino's people are poor and kept poor by those who control medicine, trade and money. The pearl seems to offer an escape for his son. But a treasure in a world ruled by greed draws thieves and cheats, and Kino's refusal to be cheated turns him toward violence. The pearl therefore destroys what it was meant to save, and only by throwing it back can Kino and Juana end its power over them.

Rhetorical device: frame narrative and parable form. The epigraph before Chapter 1 tells the reader that the story is already a town legend with only good and evil in it, and the closing sentence of that note invites each reader to find a personal meaning, so the whole novella is read as a parable rather than a realistic report.

Debate: Resolved: that Kino was right to refuse the pearl buyers' offer.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Compare the doctor's visit in Chapter 1 with his visit in Chapter 3 and argue what the change shows about how the pearl alters the way the town sees Kino's family.

Comparison with The Old Man and the Sea: Kino and Santiago are both poor fishermen who take a great prize from the sea and lose it. Compare what each man gains and loses, and argue which ending is more hopeful.

Medical Lens

The novella opens with a medical emergency and a refusal of care. A scorpion stings an infant; his mother sucks the wound, and the town's only doctor, who will not treat a poor Indian family without payment, turns them away. Juana's brown seaweed poultice is folk medicine, and by the time Kino surfaces with the pearl the swelling is going down. After the pearl is found the doctor returns, tells the parents the poison may have gone inward, gives the recovering child a white powder in a capsule, and then treats the sickness that follows; the narrative strongly implies that he induced the illness to make himself necessary. For a medical reader the book is a compact study of access to care across race and class, of the physician as exploiter of people he regards as beneath him, and of a doctor's trust abused. The death of Coyotito and Juana's silent carrying of his body home close the book in grief. Clinical readings of the scorpion sting and of what the powder might have been are the reader's own; Steinbeck names no drug.

• Chapter 1

  The scorpion stings Coyotito; Juana sucks the puncture; the family goes to the doctor's gate and is refused through his servant.

  Physicians Doctors Medical Ethics Pain
• Chapter 2

  Juana prepares a seaweed poultice for the baby's swollen shoulder while Kino dives.

  Pain
• Chapter 3

  The doctor arrives uninvited, gives the child a white powder, and returns an hour later to treat the illness that follows, while watching Kino's eyes for the pearl's hiding place.

  Physicians Doctors Pharmacology Poisons Medical Ethics
• Chapter 6

  The rifleman's shot at the cry in the cave kills Coyotito; Juana and Kino carry him back to La Paz.

  Death Dying Grief

Creative Prompts

• Essay

  Trace the Song of the Family, the Song of Evil and the Song of the Enemy through the novella, and argue what Kino's inner music shows that his few words cannot.

• Dialogue

  Write the conversation between Kino and Juan Tomás on the night before Kino sets out for the capital, with each brother defending his view of the pearl.

• Classroom

  List each person who comes to Kino's house after the pearl is found and what each wants from him; then rank them from most to least honest.

• Fiction

  Retell the ending as the townspeople of La Paz would tell it years later to their children, keeping only the good and evil parts, as Steinbeck's epigraph says such stories do.

Further Reading

• The Log from the Sea of Cortez, John Steinbeck

  The narrative part of Sea of Cortez (1941), reissued separately in 1951; it contains the La Paz tale behind the novella.

• Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

• La Perla (1947 film), Emilio Fernández (director)

• John Steinbeck, Writer, Jackson J. Benson