LITERARY FIGURES
CHARACTERES
Kino
The most important character in this novella, Kino is a dignified, hardworking, impoverished native who works as a pearl diver. He is an Indian who lives in a modest house with his wife, Juana, and their dear son, Coyotito, both of whom he loves very much. After Kino finds a great pearl, he becomes increasingly ambitious and desperate in his mission to break free of the oppression of his colonial society. Ultimately, Kino’s material ambition drives him to a state of animalistic violence, and his life is reduced to a basic fight for survival.
Juana
Kino’s wife, after her prayers for good fortune in the form of a giant pearl are answered, Juana slowly becomes convinced that the pearl is in fact an agent of evil. Juana possesses a simple faith in divine powers, but she also thinks for herself. Unfortunately for her and her child, Coyotito, she subjects her desires to those of her dominant husband and allows Kino to hold on to the pearl.
Coyotito
Kino and Juana’s son, who is injured by a scorpion while resting in a hammock one morning. Coyotito is baby as a result, he is helpless to improve his situation and thus at the mercy of those who provide for him. Kino and Juana’s efforts to save him by finding a big pearl with which they can pay a doctor prove to do more harm than good.
Kino’s older brother. Deeply loyal to his family, Juan Tomás supports Kino in all of his endeavors but warns him of the dangers involved in possessing such a valuable pearl. He is sympathetic to Kino and Juana, however, putting them up when they need to hide and telling no one of their whereabouts.
Juan Tomás’s like her husband, Apolonia is sympathetic to Kino and Juana’s plight, and she agrees to give them shelter in their time of need.
He dreams of returning to a bourgeois European lifestyle. The doctor initially refuses to treat Coyotito but changes his mind after learning that Kino has found a great pearl. He shows us the arrogance, condescension, and greed at the heart of colonial society.
The local village priest ostensibly represents moral virtue and goodness, but he is just as interested in exploiting Kino’s wealth as everyone else, hoping that he can find a way to persuade Kino to give him some of the money he will make from the pearl.
The dealers
The extremely well-organized and corrupt pearl dealers in La Paz systematically cheat and exploit the Indian pearl divers who sell them their goods. They desperately long to cheat Kino out of his pearl.
The group of violent and corrupt men that follows Kino and Juana when they leave the village, hoping to waylay Kino and steal his pearl.
SYMBOLISM
Things that we can see but at the same time give us different meanings, we founded the following examples in this interesting Reading.
For us those are the most important SYMBOLISM used across The pearl.
1. The pearl
We thing that the pearl is the most important SYMBOLISM used because it give us different meanings and also is used to show us how the evil and at the same time good are presents in this history.
GOOD
Coyotito is seen by the doctor and recovers from the scorpion sting after Kino finds the pearl.
Coyotito is to get a good education and a chance to have a better life quality.
The pearl represents human dreams of comfort and security for the family.
The pearl represents spiritual purity.
The Music of the pearl rises like a chorus of trumpets to Kino’s ears. The music is sweet and lovely.
EVIL
The doctor has not moral scruples, his greed for the pearl makes him poison Coyotito first before offering him the antidote.
The pearl become an instrument of his death Coyotito is accidentally shot by one of the trackers.
In moments of danger, the music becomes distorted and insane. The music is the signal the writer uses to show us that something is happening.
2. The canoe
Is important because is SYMBOL of the legacy taking about Kino’s father and ancestors.
3. The scorpion
When this SYMBOL appears all the reading change strongly, here we can see the evil reflected in an animal, in this case a scorpion.
Themes
This reading provide us different themes to be analyzed, in consequence we chose two that for our point of view was really interesting and also gave us other view about author’s point of view talking about political and economical issues.
Greed as a Destructive Force
As Kino seeks to gain wealth and status through the pearl, he transforms from a happy, contented father to a savage criminal, demonstrating the way ambition and greed destroy innocence. Kino’s desire to acquire wealth perverts the pearl’s natural beauty and good luck, transforming it from a symbol of hope to a symbol of human destruction. Furthermore, Kino’s greed leads him to behave violently toward his wife; it also leads to his son’s death and ultimately to Kino’s detachment from his cultural tradition and his society. Kino’s people seem poised for a similar destruction, as the materialism inherent in colonial capitalism implants a love of profit into the simple piety of the native people.
Colonial Society’s Oppression of Native Cultures
The doctor who refuses to save Coyotito’s life at the beginning of the novel because Kino lacks the money to pay him represents colonial arrogance and oppression. Snide and condescending, the doctor displays an appallingly limited and self-centered mind-set that is made frightening by his unshakable belief in his own cultural superiority over Kino, and by the power that he holds to save or destroy lives. Steinbeck implicitly accuses the doctor’s entire colonial society of such destructive arrogance, greed, and ambition. The European colonizers that govern Kino and the native people are shown to bring about the destruction of the native society’s innocence, piety, and purity.