The parable “The Pearl” deals with a drastic incident in the life of Kino, a hapless Indian fisherman, and his wife. The story is set in the small town of “La Paz,” which is situated on the coast of the Gulf of California.
A new day begins, and Kino awakens next to his wife, Juana, in their simple hut made of wood. The couple sleeps on mats on the dirt floor, and their small boy, Coyotito, sleeps in a hanging box. Kino is happy and content with his life despite the family being very poor. He watches the sunrise and listens to the sounds of the morning.
While watching the dawn, he hears the Song of the Family in his head. When Kino hears the Song of the Family playing in his head, it’s an indication that all is well. The Song of the Family or the Song of Evil, which occurs later in the play, are songs that play in the minds of the Indian people in this narrative. These ancient songs have been passed from generation to generation, and they start to play in the minds of the Indian people when good or evil things happen.
But suddenly, a catastrophe happens because a poisonous scorpion stings Coyotito. Juana takes her child immediately and sucks out the poison. Due to Coyotito’s scream, the whole neighborhood comes to the family’s hut, including Kino’s brother, Juan Thomas, and his wife, Apolonia. Juana tells Kino to get the doctor, but this is impossible because of the class differentiation between Indian people and Spanish people. Kino also has no money to pay for the doctor’s treatment. But Juana isn’t impressed by that and decides to go to the doctor because she wants to do everything for her child.
When the neighborhood gets to know about their plan, they join Kino and Juana walking to the doctor. But as expected, the doctor refuses to examine Coyotito because the family has no money. Therefore, Kino is furious, and he angrily punches the door. The following morning, when Kino and Juana come down to the beach, she makes a poultice of seaweed and puts it on Coyotito’s shoulder. This remedy is probably as good as the doctor’s treatment, but the remedy lacks his authorization because it is simple and doesn’t cost anything.
Then they push the canoe into the water and paddle together to the oyster bed where Kino fishes and hunts for pearls. Kino knows that a great pearl will bring him a lot of money, but he doesn’t dare to hope for such a great pearl because it isn’t good to want too much. A short time after Kino starts to dive, he finds a large oyster in which there is a great and perfect pearl. Now Kino’s problems seem to be over, and he believes that the pearl will make him rich, and that his boy Coyotito can be cured and go to school someday.
While Kino holds the pearls in his hands, the swelling on Coyotito’s shoulder has gone down. It seems that the poison is leaving the body of the child. Kino screams very loudly because he is so happy now, and this loud screaming attracts the other fishers and divers, and they come to his canoe to look at what has happened. Because Kino is a rich man now, the other people are envious of him, and he becomes an outsider. In the following night, he is even attacked by a thief who wants to steal the great pearl. And the people become interested in Kino because they want his money. The priest comes because he needs money for some repairs of the church, and even the physician claims now that the boy of the family, Coyotito, is his patient. When the physician comes to Kino’s hut, Kino is filled with fright and fury, but he lets the physician in when he claims that there can be a delayed reaction to the scorpion sting. The physician makes a great show and uses different remedies to “heal” Coyotito, who already seems really healthy. He even visits Coyotito a second time and claims that he won the battle against the disease.
Subsequently, in the night, Kino is attacked a second time by a thief in their hut. Kino is wounded in the battle, and Juana begs Kino now to throw the pearl off because she feels it is evil and it will destroy the family. But Kino refuses because he wants to achieve his dreams.
The following day, Kino tries to sell the pearl to pearl purchasers in the town, but they only offer him a very small sum of money. They know that the pearl is worth a lot, but they want to buy it very cheap and pretend that it is no good. Kino is very angry about this and says that he will sell his pearl in the capital because he wants to get a fair price. In the evening, Kino is attacked once more, but he can chase away the aggressor. Juana believes that the pearl is evil and wants Kino once more to throw it off.
Subsequently, in the night, Juana removes softly from her sleeping place and goes out of the hut with something in her hand. She wants to throw the pearl off, but Kino stops her and beats her for this attempt. When he returns to his hut, Kino is attacked once more, but this time by two men. He kills one of them, and the other one escapes. Kino knows that he must go away now because he killed someone. Before they can escape, their canoe is destroyed, and their hut is burned.
They hide until the following night in the hut of Kino’s brother, Juan Thomas. In the following night, the family starts their journey to the capital, but soon they realize that they are being chased by a group of three people. The family flees up the mountain and falls into a small cave, and their pursuers pitch their camp not far from them. Kino knows that the only possibility to survive is to kill one person of the group, take his rifle, and kill the other two who are sleeping.
When Kino starts to attack the man with the rifle, suddenly his boy Coyotito begins to shout, and the man with the rifle shoots in this direction. But then Kino overpowers the man, and he also kills the other two men. When Kino returns to the cave, he sees that his boy Coyotito was killed before by the shooting of the man.
On the following twenty-four hours Kino and Juana return to their town carrying their dead kid and the Rhode Island. They walk through the town to the seashore without speaking to anyone and throw the pearl into the sea.
Main Fictional characters:
Kino: He is an honest and responsible adult male who dives for pearls to support his household. He works very hard, but, however, he is very poor. When his boy Coyotito gets badly, he hopes to find a pearl to be able to pay for his remedy. He also hopes that such a pearl will provide him and his family peace and wealth in the future. Like most human beings, he wants to get ahead. But Kino is also very intelligent because he knows that he and the other Indians have been exploited by rich and powerful men.
He also realizes that he has become a new victim of the development by powerful men after he had found the pearl. The physician or the pearl purchasers are the best examples of such men. But Kino becomes aware of this, and in the end of the story, he sees that the powerful and rich men would even kill him and his family to get more power and money.
Juana: She is a very intelligent and responsible personality, but also a loving and devoted wife. At first, it seems that she is completely servile and that she would do anything that Kino wants. But in the course of the drama, we see that she has great inner strength and will. For example, at the beginning, when her boy is bitten by a scorpion, she acts in the right way and tries to suck out the poison from Coyotito’s body.
She also insists that they go to the physician, although the other people think that the doctor won’t cure Coyotito. Juana also has a strong instinct to save the life of her baby. When the physician refuses to cure Coyotito, Kino punches angrily on the door of the physician, but his wife acts in the right way and tries to mend Coyotito by putting a cataplasm of seaweed on the shoulder of her boy.
She also acts with the same strength when she wants to throw the pearl away because she believes that this pearl threatens her family, but in this instance, Kino has his way and is able to stop her.
The physician: He is the typical rich and powerful inhabitant of “La Paz.” For him, money counts more than a human life. Even when Kino and Juana come to his house with their sick boy Coyotito, he refuses to cure him because he wouldn’t get any money for the treatment. But when he hears that Kino found a pearl and is now a rich man, he claims that Coyotito is his patient and pretends to care about the sick baby. Therefore, the physician is a very mercenary character who symbolizes the arrogance of powerful people towards poor people.
