The Pearl-Quote Analysis

The Pearl-Quote Analysis

“In the town, they tell the story of the great Pearl – how it was found and how it was lost

again. They tell of Kino, the fisherman, and Juana, and of the baby, Coyotito.

And because the story has been told so often, it has taken root in every man’s mind. And,

as with all retold tales that are in people’s hearts, there are only good and bad things and

black and white things and good and evil things and no in-between anywhere.

If this story is a parable, perhaps everyone takes his own meaning from it and reads his

own life into it. In any case, they say in the town that…” (Steinbeck, 1).

This epigraph to the novella introduces the book and sets its tone by telling of the family of the fisherman Kino, his wife Kino, and their child Coyotito. Steinbeck poses the intro relating the novella to a parable that teaches the existence of either good or bad, black or white, good or evil things, and no in-between. Here, we get to know of how Kino got the great Pearl of the world but later came to let it loose. The epigraph connects with the first chapter of the book with the first sentence of the chapter concluding the unfinished epigraph. This brings about the sense of the story is being told by someone. The epigraph also emphasizes the personal application of the parable according to one’s understanding and interpretation.

Kino heard the little splash of morning waves on the beach. It was very good – Kino

closed his eyes again to listen to his music. Perhaps he alone did this and perhaps all of

his people did it. His people had once been great makers of songs so that everything they

saw or thought or did or heard became a song. That was very long ago. The songs

remained; Kino knew them, but no new songs were added. That does not mean that there

were no personal songs. In Kino’s head there was a song now, clear and soft, and if he

had been able to speak of it, he would have called it the Song of the Family (Steinbeck, 1).

The phrase introduces us to La Paz, a place in Mexico. Kino and his family live on brush houses near the beach offshore. Steinbeck presents the theme of music, which is present throughout the novella. Kino, the main protagonist, engages in a moment where he listens to the music in his mind. This was perhaps a gimmick with the people of his community. The habit dated back to their ancestors, who were great song makers and made songs of everything they crossed path with. The culture was passed on to the up and coming generations. Here Kino is engaging in a personal song, the Song of the Family. The family’s song was always vibrant when the family was around and prioritized as to be seen later in the book. At this event, Kino feels the song of the family just after waking up. It is a typical morning in La Paz, and the weather is harsh. The people of these communities connect with all that they get to hear, think, or do to songs.

The word was passed out among the neighbors where they stood close-packed in the little

yard behind the brush fence. And they repeated among themselves, “Juana wants the

doctor.” A wonderful thing, a memorable thing, to want the doctor. To get him would be a

remarkable thing. The doctor never came to the cluster of brush houses. Why should he,

when he had more than he could do to take care of the rich people who lived in the stone

and plaster houses of the town? They came to the place where the brush houses stopped and the city of stone and plaster

began, the city of harsh outer walls and inner cool gardens where a little water played and

the bougainvillea crusted the walls with purple and brick-red and white. They heard

from the secret gardens the singing of caged birds and heard the splash of cooling water

on hot flagstones. The procession crossed the blinding plaza and passed in front of the

church (Steinbeck, 4-5).

This quotation comes from the first chapter after a spider has bitten Coyotito. The spider had been crawling about Coyotito’s sleeping box. The bite of a spider was known by the villagers to be quite poisonous and had devastating effects on the victim. Coyotito being an infant, the bite could kill him. This was the known effects of a scorpion bite, an adult might be very ill from the sting, but a baby could easily die from the poison. Juana, her mother, tried all she could by sucking the poison out from the hole made by the sting. This did not satisfy Juana because the sting could still harm Coyotito and so she decided that they needed to call the doctor to tend to their son.

For someone living this far end of La Paz, wanting the doctor was more than usual amongst the people for the doctor to set foot this side of the region merely. To get him would be a remarkable thing. He was always working in the city made of stones and plaster, taking care of the rich who could afford the treatments and medical services he offered. The neighbors surrounding Kino’s brush house whispered that the doctor would not come to the brush house, and the thought of it hit Kino.  Juana was not ready to lose his firstborn child, and Kino could tell from the determination set on her face every time she looked at Coyotito. Because the family was important, the song of the family played vividly in his mind and they knew what they had to do. Juana suggested that they take the baby to the doctor now that they figured the doctor wouldn’t come to them to aid the stung child. The narrator states that Juana looked at Kino with “her eyes as cold as the eyes of a lioness,” to show her ground on wanting treatment for young Coyotito. The narrator employs the metaphor to depict the determination of Juana. And they came to the city where the doctor lived. A city, unlike the homes of Kino and his neighbors. Walls well protected the city homes and in the inside had beautiful gardens which Kino and the passing congregation could hear splashes of water cooling the gardens. The group had to walk all this way to get treatment only because the arrogant doctor wouldn’t come to the brush houses simply because only the poor resided here. This is contrary to what a doctor should do as his task was to offer treatment.

Kino hesitated a moment. This doctor was not of his people. This doctor was of a race

which for nearly four hundred years had beaten and starved and robbed and despised

Kino’s race, and frightened it too, so that the indigene came humbly to the door. And as

always when he came near to one of this race, Kino felt weak and afraid and angry at the

same time. Rage and terror went together (Steinbeck 5).

When the mass arrives at the doctor’s gate in the city of stones and plasters, Kino seems to have a change of mind but the thought of sick Coyotito brings him back to his senses. Kino thinks twice before knocking o the doctors gate. The narrator makes it clear that the doctor belonged to a race that has a long-held vendetta with Kino’s race. Here we get to see the theme of racism amongst the people of La Paz.  The doctor’s race had been terrorizing and committing various atrocities to Kino’s race.  The narrators claim that they compared Kino’s race to mere animals. This showed how disrespectful, and inferior they thought of Kino’s race. The thought of the atrocities ring in Kino’s head as he knocks on the door. The racial discrimination following the doctor’s race anger Kino and the song of the enemy plays in his mind. The theme of songs is depicted once again but this time, an enemy song plays back on Kino’s mind.  Steinbeck explains that his rage and terror went together, to show the degree of anger in Kino on the thought of the doctor’s racial biasness and oppression. Here the narrator shows how racism can affect a person’s mindset which can in turn affect his or her decision making. All the atrocities committed to Kino’s people came to him right at the moment and it haunted him.

The thing had become a neighborhood affair. They made a quick soft-footed procession

into the center of the town, first Juana and Kino, and behind them Juan Tomás and

Apolonia, her big stomach jiggling with the strenuous pace, then all the neighbors with

the children trotting on the flanks (Steinbeck 5).

Kino’s neighbors make up the society/community whose involvement in the scorpion affair is on another level. Steinbeck depicts the neighbors as actively involved in each other’s issues and especially Kino’s. The neighbors arrive at Kino’s house immediately after Coyotito has been bitten, and they even follow the couple when they decide to take the baby to the doctor. This prints out the theme of community in the Pearl. They show their support to Kino and Juana by helping them trail up to the doctor’s home in search of treatment for Coyotito. In this quotation, we also get to meet Kino’s brother Juan and his wife Apolonia, who are next in the procession to the city. As a family, his brother is seen next to Kino as we will learn later in the book, in both good and bad times. This embraces the theme of family and how important it plays in one’s life.

Kino and Juana came slowly down to the beach and to Kino’s canoe, which was the one

thing of value he owned in the world. It was very old. Kino’s grandfather had brought it

from Nayarit, and he had given it to Kino’s father, and so it had come to Kino. It was at

once property and source of food, for a man with a boat can guarantee a woman that she

will eat something (Steinbeck 8).

This event follows the doctor’s ignorance and refusal to treat Coyotito. The family is forced to go to the sea to find a way to pay the doctor to treat their young one. For this reason, Kino accompanied by Juana carrying the baby head to the sea to fish. This is the only way the “fishing clan” earned a living. The sea bottom was rich with crawling and swimming and growing things with which the people sold or ate. For this utility of the sea, a canoe was a precious thing to be owned by a man. They were passed down from generations to generations. Kino got his canoe from his father, who had inherited it from his father. It was a thing of honor, and so the fishing people took much care of their canoes. Amongst the fishing people a man with a canoe had some credit on him even on the case of marriage foe a canoe convinced a woman that she wouldn’t go a day hungry. The fishing people had a secret method of refinishing their canoes which was passed to them by their forefathers.

Now, Kino’s people had sung of everything that happened or existed. They had made

songs to the fishes, to the sea in anger and to the sea in calm, to the light and the dark and

the sun and the moon, and the songs were all in Kino and in his people – every song that

had ever been made, even the ones forgotten. And as he filled his basket the song was in

Kino, and the beat of the song was his pounding heart as it ate the oxygen from his held

breath, and the melody of the song was the gray-green water and the little scuttling

animals and the clouds of fish that flitted by and were gone (Steinbeck 9).

Kino is now underwater hunting for pearls and other precious stones on the ocean floor while Juana is on the canoe looking after Coyotito and ready to help her husband with the hunt. As Kino is on the ocean floor, songs play in his mind. The narrator brings about the theme of songs in depth. Here, we see that the fishing people had made songs of everything that ever happened. They used songs as a record of events, thoughts, and ideologies. They described happenings using songs. Songs were a way of reminiscing to them. And the songs were also passed from generation to generations. Taught to their offspring as they had done with other knowledge. Songs were incorporated in their culture and belief system. The narrator explains that the songs remained in Kino and his people and even the forgotten ones.

But in the song, there was a secret little inner song, hardly perceptible, but always there, sweet and mysterious and clinging, almost hiding in the counter-melody, and this was the Song of the Pearl That Might Be, for every shell thrown in the basket might contain a pearl. Chance was against it, but luck and the gods might be for it. But the pearls were accidents, and the

finding of one was luck, a little pat on the back by God or the gods or both (Steinbeck 9).

Kino is still underwater hunting for precious stones and maybe a pearl. In his mind, the song of the Pearl is playing. Every fisherman dreamt of getting a pearl. They wished to find only one, but their occurrence was rare. For this reason, the narrator explains that the song of the Pearl is almost unperceptive.

Kino, like any other fisherman, hoped he could find one. Steinbeck employs a metaphor to show just how tough it was or maybe how favored one who found a pearl would be. He compares finding a pal to a pat on the by the gods. This depicts how rare it was for a fisher to get a pearl. The quotation also describes the belief system of the fishing people of La Paz. They believed in God or gods. As it will be later depicted in the book, there exists forces of good and forces of evil.

Then Juana steadied the boat while he climbed in. His eyes were shining with excitement,

but in decency he pulled up his rock, and then he pulled up his basket of oysters and

lifted them in. Juana sensed his excitement, and she pretended to look away. It is not

good to want a thing too much. It sometimes drives the luck away. You must want it just

enough, and you must be very tactful with God or the gods. But Juana stopped breathing (Steinbeck 10).

This event comes after Kino is done with fishing from the undersea. Juana helps in the process. She steadies the boat for Kino to climb in. she’d gone fishing with her husband. This puts her out the context of women roles in the society. Here, Juana accompanies her husband to work. In the quotation, we see that the connection between Juana and Kino is strong such that she is able to notice excitement in Kino’s face even without being told. Even after realizing the excitement, she could not show it, for it is forbidden to want something too much. There is a degree in which someone is supposed to want something. Maintaining the degree of want, keeps one from greed. In the fishing people’s belief system, wanting something too much can drive the luck away or other times displeases the gods who brought one the luck. The degree of wanting must be in accord to what the gods or God wants. In this case the narrator explains that the excitement was too much for Juana that she halted her breath.

This might have followed her despair and the fact that she was holding and nursing sick Coyotito in her hands. She really wanted and prayed for a fortune. Early in the chapter, the narrator tells how she had prayed not for Coyotito to get healed but for them to find a fortune with which they would pay the arrogant doctor. That is important because her prayer is answered later in the book when they are the lucky couple of the village brushes and in the city of plasters for stumbling on the Pearl of the world.

A town is a thing like a colonial animal. A town has a nervous system and a head and

shoulders and feet. A town is a thing separate from all other towns, so that there are no

two towns alike. And a town has a whole emotion. How news travels through a town is a

mystery not easily to be solved. News seems to move faster than small boys can scramble

and dart to tell it, faster than women can call it over the fences. Before Kino and Juana and the other fishers had come to Kino’s brush house, the nerves of the town were pulsing and vibrating with the news – Kino had found the Pearl of the World (Steinbeck 11).

Here the narrator tries to let us grasp how news spread literally by comparing a town to a “colonial animal.” He analyses a town in the analogy of the animal, assuming it possesses a head, shoulders, and feet like any other. He goes on to explain how individualistic towns are. There are no identical towns as there are no two identical animals in behavioral characteristics. This composition of features makes towns responsible for the news spread faster than can be explained. The narrator tries to picture how faster the news traveled in the town of La Paz. This way, we are told that even before Kino, Juana and the other fishermen arrived at the brush houses, the news of their luck was widely spread all around the town. As we will later learn in the book, all of the people, ranging from neighbors in the brush houses to shopkeepers and tailors in the plaster city, became interested in Kino’s affairs. This quotation again brings about the theme of community. The neighbors who are actively involved with Kino play the part of spreading news too. Following Kino’s luck, some praise, and others wish they were Kino.

All manner of people grew interested in Kino – people with things to sell and people with

favors to ask. Kino had found the Pearl of the World. The essence of Pearl mixed with

essence of men and a curious dark residue was precipitated. Every man suddenly became

related to Kino’s Pearl, and Kino’s Pearl went into the dreams, the speculations, the

schemes, the plans, the futures, the wishes, the needs, the lusts, the hungers, of everyone,

and only one person stood in the way and that was Kino, so that he became curiously

every man’s enemy. The news stirred up something infinitely black and evil in the town;

the black distillate was like the scorpion, or like hunger in the smell of food, or like

loneliness when love is withheld. The poison sacs of the town began to manufacture

venom, and the town swelled and puffed with the pressure of it (Steinbeck 11,12).

This event follows Kino’s luck amongst the fishermen. He stumbles upon the Pearl of the World and his neighbors spread the news of his touch by the gods. This makes Kino a person of interest in all over La Paz.  The narrator explains how business people thought of items they could sell to Kino. The priest also had thoughts lingering in his mind on how he could advantage out of Kino’s luck. He tried reminiscing if he had baptized little Coyotito or maybe even married his parents.  Here the theme of greed is again depicted. Steinbeck tells of how every man and woman in La Paz became associated with Kino’s Pearl. The people dreamt, made speculations, and wished that they were Kino. The thoughts, ideas, wishes and speculations took different turns as they even elevated the hunger or the Pearl. This made Kino an enemy of the people. The people are driven by greed to go on pursuing and wishing that they had been the one’s finding the Pearl.

The narrator explains how the news made become greedy and jealous of Kino. He employs a simile to compare the degree with which the people were jealous of Kino. The news spread aroused some people like the smell of food in times of hunger. He goes on to personify the town once again stating how greed and jealousy flowed and swelled all around town. The quotation just shows how harmful and poisonous jealousy and greed can be on humans.

But Kino’s face shone with prophecy. “My son will read and open the books, and my son

will write and will know writing. And my son will make numbers, and these things will

make us free because he will know – he will know and through him we will know.” And

in the Pearl Kino saw himself and Juana squatting by the little fire in the brush hut while

Coyotito read from a great book. “This is what the pearl will do,” said Kino. And he had

never said so many words together in his life. And suddenly he was afraid of his talking.

His hand closed down over the Pearl and cut the light away from it. Kino was afraid as a

man is afraid who says, “I will,” without knowing (Steinbeck 13).           In this quotation, the neighbors are gathered around Kino’s brush house for we are told that the finding of a pearl was a once in a blue moon thing.  The song of Pearl is crystal clear in Kino’s mind so as he explaining how he would do with the Pearl; he engages in a moment of prophesy. He foretells of how his son Coyotito will attend school and be able to read. Through this passage in the second chapter, we get to know that the fishing people are illiterate. This perhaps had made them perceptible to exploitation by other people. We learn that most of the fishing people were primitive including Kino and his wife Juana. Kino foretells how Coyotito would redeem him and the rest of his people from the trap of illiteracy.

After the moment of prophecy, Kino is suddenly afraid of his own words.  For it was against the gods for someone to want something too much as earlier on mentioned. The narrator explains that Kino had never said so much words together in his entire life. From his speech, the neighbors are convinced that something great will become of Kino and his family. The neighbors would live to say they witnessed the transfiguration of Kino, and if the prophecy never came to pass then they would have witnessed his madness.

Kino felt all the warmth and security of his family behind him, and the

Song of the Family came from behind him like the purring of a kitten. But now, by saying

what his future was going to be like, he had created it. A plan is a real thing, and things

projected are experienced. A plan once made and visualized becomes a reality along with

other realities – never to be destroyed but easily to be attacked. Thus, Kino’s future was

real, but having set it up, other forces were set up to destroy it, and this he knew, so that

he had to prepare to meet the attack. And this Kino knew also – that the gods do not love

men’s plans, and the gods do not love success unless it comes by accident. He knew that

the gods take their revenge on a man if he be successful through his own

efforts. Consequently, Kino was afraid of plans, but having made one, he could never

destroy it. And to meet the attack, Kino was already making a hard skin for himself

against the world. His eyes and his mind probed for danger before it appeared (Steinbeck 15).

After the neighbors have left for their houses, Juana gets busy cooking and Kino was on the doorway and felt the protection of his family while holding his Pearl strongly in his palm. The song of the family is vibrant in him. The narrator explains that Kino having spoken out and said what his future was, he had created it. His visualization and planning of his future projection had to become a reality. The narrator shows that realities can be hardly destroyed but are prone and easily attacked. Kino’s future was as real as he had foretold but forces of evil were up to destroy his plans. Kino was aware of his degree of luck and knew anyone would want the Pearl, and he was ready to protect his Pearl and his family.  Kino was also well verse that the gods were against such plans as he had made and this made him fearful but his determination subdued the fear. He knew what he had to do to make his plans stand. His primitive character is brought out in the quotation. Steinbeck explains how Kino’s eyes and mind probed for danger before it appeared just in preparation to protect his Pearl. The quotation also depicts the fishing people’s belief system. They believed in good and evil forces that would punish a man according to his deeds. This shows that they were religious people.

He smelled the breeze and he listened for any foreign sound of secrecy or creeping, and

his eyes searched the darkness, for the music of evil was sounding in his head and he was

fierce and afraid. After he had probed the night with his senses, he went to the place by

the side post where the Pearl was buried, and he dug it up and brought it to his sleeping

mat, and under his sleeping mat he dug another little hole in the dirt floor and buried his

pearl and covered it up again (Steinbeck 19).

The episode follows the arrival of the doctor in the brush houses a place he never stepped foot in. The narrator explains that everyone in the village knew why the doctor had come. After attending to sick Coyotito, he asked how soon he’d get paid and Kino promises to pay soon as he sells his Pearl which was supposed to be the following day. The doctor as aware of Kino’s possession of the Pearl yet he pretended not to know. After everyone left again, Kino felt insecure about his hiding place. His primitive nature is sensitive. In his mind, the music of evil was starting to play in his mind and this made him uneasy. His connectedness with the world had changed from a once calm and relaxed to scary and frightening. The universe was producing creepy sounds that in turn brought about the song of the evil. This made him angry while afraid at the same time. He was uneasy that he even woke from his sleep, went and dug his hideout for the Pearl and buried it near his sleeping mat where he was assured of its safety entirely. The quotation depicts how Kino was obsessed with the Pearl. Greed had devoured his innocent soul and his ambition of selling the Pearl was active in his mind.

Now the tension which had been growing in Juana boiled up to the surface and her lips were thin. “This thing is evil,” she cried harshly. “This Pearl is like a sin! It will destroy us,” and her voice rose shrilly. “Throw it away, Kino. Let us break it between stones. Let us bury it and forget the place. Let us throw it back into the sea. It has brought evil. Kino, my husband, it will destroy us.” And in the firelight her lips and her eyes were alive with her fear (Steinbeck 20).

This event comes after the neighbors are disbursed back to their houses and Kino feels insecure of his Pearl so he hides it near his sleeping mat. The narrator explains that Kino did not get a grip of sleep and neither did Juana. They were aware of the slightest movement in the brush house because they expected anything.

Here, Juana revokes the Pearl. This event follows the attack on their brush house late at night while the family was asleep. While they are sleep, they hear some movement and this makes Kino raise an attack with his knife to injure the person after he feels a piece of clothing.  The injured persons escape in the darkness but also leaves Kino injured on his forehead.  Now as Juana is tending to his injury, she rethinks the whole change of events since they stumbled on the Pearl.  Knowing what was upon them, it dawned on her that the Pearl was evil. She wants what’s best for her family. She is motivated by her love to her family. She compares the Pearl to sin that was going to destroy their family. Here the woman is pictured to disagree with her husband. She urges Kino to throw away the Pearl but he had his plans ready.  She proposes ways of destroying the Pearl, to curb its evil forces. Here we see that she is thoughtful and reflective. Although she was the first one to love and want the Pearl, she now wants it destroyed. She realizes that the Pearl symbolizes evil. The narrator personifies her eyes and lips to depict the fear in her eyes.

And rage surged in Kino. He rolled up to his feet and followed her as silently as she had gone, and he could hear her quick footsteps going toward the shore. Quietly he tracked her, and his brain was red with anger. She burst clear out of the brush line and stumbled over the little boulders toward the water, and then she heard him coming and she broke into a run. Her arm was up to throw when he leaped at her and caught her arm and wrenched the Pearl from her. He struck her in the face with his clenched fist and she fell among the boulders, and he kicked her in the side. In the pale light he could see the little waves break over her, and her skirt floated about and clung to her legs as the water receded (Steinbeck 31).

The event follows the day after Kino goes again to the city of stone and plaster to sell his Pearl. He is accompanied by his neighbors from the brush houses. Th narrator explains that everyone knew that Kino was going to sell the Pearl and the buyers were ready. On arrival, the buyers claim Kino’s Pearl is feign and big for nothing although this is not the case. The pearl buyers had organized a scam tom play Kino but his determination would not allow hi to get conned. He refuses all their deals and decided that in the following day, he would go sell the Pearl in the capital. The buyers wanted to exploit him for his lack of knowledge. Here we see how determined Kino is. After getting back to the brush houses, the neighbors are convinced that Kino’s stone is fake and some suggest that he could just have sold it to the highest bidder. Some called him a fool while some believed in his course.

Later that night, Kino feels the mere sense of insecurity again and as he steps outside his brush house, he meets an attack that leaves him with a cut in his scalp. Juana again tries to convince his husband to destroy the Pearl lest it destroys their family but Kino having set his mind had no space for doubt of his plans. He knew the Pearl was worthy. Later that night, Juana unearths the Pearl as fast as she can and tries to destroy it. This angers Kino who follows her in the night. The narrator employs a metaphor “his mind red with anger” to explain how surged Kino was.  As Juana was almost throwing the Pearl back into the sea, Kino reaches for her arm and takes it away from her. Kino beats her up with anger and leaves her lying on the beach. At this point we see that he goes against his own family, the one he lived to love and protect.

And in that day the wind rose up to beat the Gulf and tore the kelps and weeds that lined the shore, and the wind cried through the brush houses and no boat was safe on the water. Then Juan Tomás told among the neighbours: “Kino is gone. If he went to the sea, he is drowned by now.” And after each trip among the neighbours Juan Tomás came back with something borrowed. He brought a little woven straw bag of red beans and a gourd full of rice. He borrowed a cup of dried peppers and a block of salt, and he brought in a long working knife, eighteen inches long and heavy, as a small axe, a tool and a weapon. And when Kino saw this knife his eyes lighted up, and he fondled the blade and his thumb tested the edge (Steinbeck 35).

The event comes after Kino beats up Juana. As he is heading back to the house, he meets a big figure who again attacks and Kino kills the man. Kino is left unconscious on the ground until Juana wakes him. Kino loses his senses for a moment but Juana is there to keep him on track. They plan to escape La Paz for Kino had killed a man. Kino described the scene as self defense but Juana told him the villagers would think he was insecure and prompted by greed to kill so they plan to escape. They notice that their canoe had been partly destroyed. They set their house on fire and hide in their brother’s house. They explain to Juan, Kino’s brother the truth of the matter and Juan houses them through the day. And the narrator personifies the wind, “and the wind cried through the brush houses and..” to show how windy the day was. Juan helped keep Kino’s secret, and so did his wife Apolonia. Here we see how family plays an important role in life. In the course of the day, Juan borrows items and food stuff that Kino and his family might need in their journey the same night. Of all items that were brought, Kino marveled at a big knife and even testes its sharpness with his thumb. His ambition still stood and whoever stood in his way would meet his end.

And Kino fled. He knew what would happen. A little way along the road the trackers would become aware that they had missed the path, and they would come back, searching and judging, and in a little while they would find the place where Kino and Juana had rested. From there it would be easy for them – these little stones, the fallen leaves and the whipped branches, the scuffed places where a foot had slipped. Kino could see them in his mind, slipping along the track, whining a little with eagerness, and behind them, dark and half-interested, the horseman with the rifle. His work would come last, for he would not take them back. Oh, the music of evil sang loud in Kino’s head now, it sang with the whine of heat and with the dry ringing of snake rattles. It was not large and overwhelming now, but secret and poisonous, and the pounding of his heart gave it undertone and rhythm (Steinbeck, 40).

In this quotation, Kino and his family are deep in the desert hiding. They had escaped at night when everyone was asleep. They knew that they would be followed by trackers. For this reason, they travelled at night when they knew the waves of the desert would blow the sand and cover their tracks. However much they tried covering their tracks, Kino knew that the trackers were professional and would follow them until the last minute. When Kino thought of giving up and surrendering, Juana was there to assure him that the trackers would only kill him and take the Pearl. We see how thoughtful and reflective Juana is. She keeps Kino on track as the laws of her community demanded even after she was nursing injuries that she got from Kino himself. She is depicted as an obedient wife motivated by the love for her family.

Kino observes the trackers as they mis a point and go back but he knows very well that they would be back. He makes a plan of Killing them by starting with the man holding the rifle. All this, he does to protect his family, Pearl and mostly, his ambition. As he is watching the trackers, the song of evil plays clearly and soundly in his mind and he knows what he must do. The narrator personifies the tone of the song mixing up with mother nature to poison Kino and all he was thinking was to kill.

Kino was in mid-leap when the gun crashed and the barrel-flash made a picture on his

eyes. The great knife swung and crunched hollowly. It bit through neck and deep into

chest, and Kino was a terrible machine now. He grasped the rifle even as he wrenched

free his knife. His strength and his movement and his speed were a machine. He whirled

and struck the head of the seated man like a melon. The third man scrabbled away like a

crab, slipped into the pool, and then he began to climb frantically, to climb up the cliff

where the water penciled down. His hands and feet threshed in the tangle of the wild

grapevine, and he whimpered and gibbered as he tried to get up. But Kino had become as

cold and deadly as steel. Deliberately he threw the lever of the rifle, and then he raised

the gun and aimed deliberately and fired. He saw his enemy tumble backward into the

pool, and Kino strode to the water. In the moonlight he could see the frantic eyes, and

Kino aimed and fired between the eyes (Steinbeck 46).

In this event, Kino has forgotten the ways of his people and neglected what the gods want. He further escapes into the mountain knowing the trackers would trace him, he planned on how to kill them again. He leaves Juana and the baby up in the mountain and slowly come down to finish his mission. He knows he has very little time to kill the three trackers before the moon has risen. To show his primitive nature, he decides as warned by Juana to rip his white clothes off which would have reflected light in the dark.

Coyotito makes a sound that awakes the trackers and Kino launches his attack.  He uses his knife to slaughter the first man and then crashes the next mans head. The narrator compares Kino to a killing machine. He employs a simile, “But Kino had become as

cold and deadly as steel,” to show how animal Kino had got. He looks into the third mans eyes and shoots him in the middle of the head. For a religious man, this was forbidden but family and ambition were the only options in his mind. He had killed everyone who stood in his way. After killing the men, he sensed that something was off, the nature that he once connected with seemed strange and frightening to him. From the cave where he had left Juana and little Coyotito, he heard the cry of death which he was familiar with. Coyotito was dead.

In Kino’s ears the Song of the Family was as fierce as a cry. He was immune and terrible,

and his song had become a battle cry. And when they came to the water’s edge they stopped and stared out over the Gulf. And

then Kino laid the rifle down, and he dug among his clothes, and then he held the great

Pearl in his hand. He looked into its surface and it was gray and ulcerous. Evil faces

peered from it into his eyes, and he saw the light of burning. And in the surface of the

Pearl he saw the frantic eyes of the man in the pool. And in the surface of the Pearl he

saw Coyotito lying in the little cave with the top of his head shot away. And the Pearl was

ugly; it was gray, like a malignant growth. And Kino heard the music of the Pearl,

distorted and insane. Kino’s hand shook a little, and he turned slowly to Juana and held

the Pearl out to her. She stood beside him, still holding her dead bundle over her shoulder.

She looked at the Pearl in his hand for a moment and then she looked into Kino’s eyes

and said softly: “No, you.”

And Kino drew back his arm and flung the Pearl with all his might. Kino and Juana

watched it go, winking and glimmering under the setting sun. They saw the little splash

in the distance, and they stood side by side watching the place for a long time (Steinbeck 47).

After their misfortune, Kino and Juana carrying dead Coyotito returned back to the village. They did not talk to each other or anyone they met on the way not even Juan Thomas his brother. The song of the family was a blended cry that played in Kino’s mind all the way. He was trying to battle the cry, which a man does not do. On arrival to the near pool, Kino took his Pearl and looking at it, he saw everything different to what he had earlier on saw. The narrator explains that even the color of the Pearl seemed to change. It was all evil disgusting. It was responsible for a lot of misery than the bliss the had expected. On looking at it, he saw the face of one of the men he had killed. He blamed the Pearl. On the other side, he saw his dead son Coyotito with his head shot, up in the cave. The Pearl was no longer beautiful but ugly and disgusted him. The music of the Pearl didn’t appear attractive this time but distorted. She asked Juana to do the honors of throwing it back as she had once wanted but she insisted that he do it himself. And Kino threw back the Pearl to the sea where it came from and embraced Juana.

Works cited

Steinbeck, John. The Pearl. Penguin UK, 2011.