Kino, a poor Indian fisherman, lives on the Gulf of California with his wife Juana and son Coyotito. Their simple hut is made of brush, and the couple sleeps on mats thrown on the dirt floor, while Coyotito sleeps in a hanging box. Like others in their poor village, they depend on nature for survival. As The Pearl begins, dawn is breaking.
Kino watches the sun rise and listens to the sounds of the morning. But within moments, a dangerous situation develops. A poisonous scorpion stings Coyotito, Kino’s infant son, and the baby’s screams draw people from all over the village. Juana insists that the doctor be called, but Kino knows the physician is Spanish and considers himself above treating poor Indians.
This does not satisfy Juana, who announces that if the doctor will not come to the village, then they will go to his house. But the doctor refuses to treat Coyotito because Kino is too poor. Later that day, while Kino and Juana are fishing in the Gulf, Kino finds an enormous pearl and cries out in joy. He believes the pearl will make him rich and enable him to provide security for his family.
But Kino discovers otherwise. The pearl stirs envy in the villagers, and that night Kino is attacked in his hut by a thief. The following day, he tries to sell the pearl to buyers in town, but he is offered only a small amount of money for it. The buyers all work for the same man. They know the pearl is worth a fortune but hope to buy it cheaply by pretending that it is worth little. Kino says he will sell his pearl in the capital city, where he believes he will get a fair price.
This amazes the villagers because Kino has never traveled so far. After dark that evening, Kino is attacked again. Juana is sure the pearl is evil and will destroy the family. During the night, she quietly removes it from the spot where Kino has hidden it and tries to throw it back into the ocean. He stops her before she succeeds and beats her for trying.
As he returns to the hut, Kino is attacked again, this time by two men. He kills one of them, and the other escapes. Because of the killing, Kino knows that he will be hunted as a murderer. As a result, he and Juana must leave the village the next morning. However, before they can escape their canoe is destroyed and their hut is burned.
They hide until the next night in the hut of Kino’s brother, Juan Tomas. The following evening, Kino and Juana begin their journey to the capital. Soon they realize they are being followed by three people, so they flee up the mountain and hide in a small cave. Their followers set camp in a clearing just below the cave. Kino decides the only way to survive is for him to kill the person on guard, take his rifle, and kill the other two, who are sleeping. Kino goes to the followers’ camp and is about to attack them when his son Coyotito cries out.
Kino knows that he must act immediately upon his enemies, but he is a second too late and one of them shoots toward the cave. There is a struggle and Kino kills all three of his enemies. The earlier shot has killed Coyotito. The following afternoon the villagers witness the return of Kino and Juana, carrying the rifle and their dead child. Without a word to anyone, they walk through the village to the shore.
Kino lays down the rifle, takes out the pearl, and throws it into the sea. It is difficult to get to know the characters in The Pearl in the same way you might get to know the characters in other novels. They say very little, and you see them in few situations. Their actions seem to be based more on ancient habits than on free choice. Like in one of his other books that I have reed, Of Mice and Men, the characters were not developed thoroughly and stood as more of symbols than actual characters in the story.
However, the strong symbolization made by the pearl is a great asset to the story. The pearl in the story has a strong allegorical message to the reader about human greed. Kino becomes a symbol of the poor but happy man who is destroyed when he becomes obsessed with his wantings of the material world. The pearl that was supposed to bring him happiness and contentment brings him only death and destruction. At the end of the, both Kino’s dream and his son are dead.
