The pearl, greed and the fate that we can’t change

Mr John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California and grew up together with his three sisters.

His father owned a grain store and worked as a secretary in a monetary county while his mother was a school teacher. He was enrolled at Stanford University, a decision he made just to please his parents and, after drifting in and out of school for six years, he eventually dropped out.

He briefly moved to New York, where he worked as a construction worker and a newspaper reporter before going back to California, where he worked as a caretaker in Lake Tahoe and began his writing career.

He was married three times and had two sons. He died of heart attack on December 20, 1968 at his home in New York City.

Apart from The Pearl, he has also written Of Mice and Men, (1937), Grapes of Wrath (1939); and East of Eden (1952), among others. He has also received awards which include the Pulitzer award (1940) and Nobel Prize for Literature (1962).

GREED, OPPRESSION, RACISM AND TRADITION

The Pearl is a story of the force of destiny and fate, and how man struggles to change it in vain. The novel also addresses themes of greed, oppression, racism and tradition, among others. Steinbeck uses vivid description, suspense, foreshadow among other styles, to address the issues. The novel is set mainly in La Paz, Mexico around 1940.

The novel opens in a small bush house in the village of La Paz in which Kino, Juana, his wife, and Coyotito, their son, live. It is early morning and Kino awakes and looks at first, at the box in which Coyotito is sleeping and then at Juana, who is sleeping beside him on a mat and then goes outside to watch the dawn.

Their life is portrayed as simple but very peaceful and full of satisfaction and as he steps outside the song of the family, which he hears whenever he is at peace, comes to his mind.

Later the same morning, a scorpion sings Coyotito despite all the efforts Kino makes to stop it. Juana acts very fast and sucks the poison out but the shoulder remains swollen.

The baby screams out in pain and this attracts the neighbours, who gather at the house to find out what is happening, and when Juana suggests that they call the doctor, they assure her that the doctor would not come as he never visits the bush houses because he has more than enough rich people to take care of and he has no time for the poor. Juana decides that they will go to the doctor.

Encounter with the doctor

They set off for the doctor’s place with Juana leading followed by Kino then the neighbours and are later joined by other people on the way.

When they get to the doctor’s house the doctor sends the servant to find out if they have money to pay for the treatment and when Kino gives him eight small misshapen pearls, the doctor turns them away saying that he has better things to do than cure insect bites for ‘little Indians,’ showing how he despises the natives.

Kino feels terror and rage as he always did whenever he went near the people of doctor’s race, who spoke to Kino’s people as though they are animals and had beaten, starved, robbed, despised and frightened them for nearly 400 years. He strikes the gate out desperation, splitting his knuckles.

The pearl

After leaving the doctor’s house Kino and Juana go pearl fishing and Juana makes poultice from brown seaweed and applies it on Coyotito’s swollen shoulder, which was as good a remedy or even better than the doctor’s treatment, but instead of praying for Coyotito’s recovery, prays that they get a pearl with which they can hire a doctor to cure the child.

This shows how the natives have been brainwashed by the colonialist and they no longer believe in themselves but live at the mercy of the colonialists.

Kino finds the largest pearl he had ever seen and his hope for Coyotito’s cure and a better future for the family are raised. The pearl, however, ignites envy amongst the people. They start planning how they can benefit from it.

The priest hears the news about the pearl and starts thinking about the certain repairs necessary to the church and wonders if he had baptised Coyotito or married Kino and Juana in church. He visits Kino in his house and reminds him to give thanks to the Lord who has provided him with the treasure and tells he is pleased to hear that they are thinking of getting married in church.       

The doctor, who had previously refused to treat the child, receives the news and he immediately declares the child his client and becomes nostalgic about the luxurious life he had in Paris.

He sees Kino’s pearl as a means to going back there. He visits Kino later in the day and poisons the baby to make them desperate for his services and later comes back and ‘treats’ the baby.

Pretending that he doesn’t know about the pearl, he inquires how and when Kino plans to pay him. Kino says he would pay after selling the pearl. The doctor asks him if he has kept the pearl in a safe place and offers to keep it for him in his safe.

When Kino realises the interest that people have developed in the pearl, he becomes so obsessed with it that he is ready to do anything to protect it. When intruders come to his house and try to steal the pearl for two consecutive nights, Kino attacks and kills one of them.

His caring and loving nature changes. He also attacks his wife when she tries to throw away the pearl when she realises that it is evil and would destroy them.

Search for market  

With a lot of hope and determination, Kino is joined by neighbours and they set off for the town in search of a market for the pearl. Meanwhile, pearl buyers, who had already heard about the pearl, conspire to cheat Kino and give him the lowest price possible.

When Kino gets to them, they undervalue the pearl by calling it a monstrosity, a fool’s gold and saying that it is chalky and, therefore, of low quality.

Kino refuses to fall for their tricks and decides to go to the capital, where he hopes to get a better price. He embarks on a long and dangerous journey with a lot of uncertainty and he, and the family, have to hide from the trackers who follow them day and night.

They walk up and down the mountains and have to survive and compete with animals for the little natural resources like water.

The tragic end

After taking some water from the pool down the mountain, it gets dark again and Kino’s family hide in a cave from where he notices that the three trackers are still following them and he decides to go and kill them.

He undresses to avoid being noticed and creeps down the mountain ready to attack. As fate, would have it, Coyotito cries out and attracts the trackers’ attention, who mistake his sound for that of a coyote, and one of them, who has a rifle, aims towards the cave.

Kino gets to him, attacks him with his knife and takes the riffle then cuts the second one with his knife and shoots the third one.

After killing the three trackers, he comes to his senses and hears Juana’s cry from the cave. It was a signal that the baby has been killed. Ironically, Kino acquires the rifle he had always wished to possess, but he loses the one person he was protecting: His son.

The two trek back to the village, beaten and defeated with Kino carrying a rifle across his arm and Juana carrying the dead body of their son in her shawl.

They walk towards the sea without talking to anyone and Kino throws the pearl back to the sea, from where he had got it, and where it belonged. Kino’s efforts to better his lot only leaves him more miserable and poorer than he was before finding the pearl.

The writer teaches literature at Alliance Girls High School