Kino And The Pearl Summary

Among the family is Kino (the father who is the central character of the story), Juana (Kino’s wife who is the second character of the story), and their infant son, Coyotito.

The book starts off with Kino waking up next to his wife Juana. Kino looks at his baby Coyotito and notices a scorpion crawling down a rope into his cradle then crawls onto Coyotito. The song of danger is sung while Kino reaches his hand towards the scorpion to try to save Coyotito. The scorpion stings coyotito and Kino throws it off of coyotito and punches it into the ground. Kino takes the baby to the doctor but the doctor refuses to help Kino's family because they don't have money to pay the doctor to help Coyotito. Kino punches the gate and they go down to the beach. At the beach Kino takes his boat out to look for pearls while Juana wraps Coyotito's sting with seaweed. While Kino is diving for pearls he finds one the size of a seagull egg in a oyster. Kino rush Coyotito to the doctor again now that they have the money to pay the doctor to help him.. Then Juana takes the seaweed off of Coyotito's sting and everyone notices that the sting was getting better. So they leave the doctor and everyone in the village finds out about the pearl. People gather around Kino's house to look at the pearl. Then the doctor comes and tells Kino that Coyotito won't live unless he takes some medicine. While the doctor is there he finds out the hiding spot of the pearl. Later that night some people jumped Kino and tried to steal the pearl but fails and runaway. The next day they decide Kino and his family should sell the pearl. They go and try to sell the pearl but our given low prices to try to get the pearl for cheap. So Kino decides not to sell the pearl and headed back home. Later that night Juana tries to throw the pearl back into the ocean but Kino stops

In hopes to save their sick child, parents Juana and Kino rushed into town to see the doctor. All the neighbors heard Coyotito scream in pain which lead them to rush out of their brush houses to see what was wrong. After learning that the baby was stung them all accompanied the family into town. Kino’s brother, Juan Tomas, gave his account of the

Kino was attacked by mean trying to steal the pearl. He killed one of them in self-defense but Juana tells him that does not matter. He will still face consequences from the townspeople once the body is found in the morning.

Juan Tomas who is Kino’s older brother, warns him about the peculiarity about the unusual events that happen to him due to discovering the pearl. He says “ There is a devil in this pearl. You should have sold it and passed on the devil” (Bender 98). This quote shows Juan his happy for his brother and wants him to be wealthy but he is also nervous about how society and his life will change around him because everyone wants the pearl.  He hides Kino and Juana in his house after he finds out Kino had killed someone to protect himself. Apolonia who is Juan’s wife warns Kino as well about the dangers of the pearls discovery. She has four children too and agrees to give Kino and Juana housing if they need it. Those characters are well aware of the strange occurrences that follow the finding of the pearl. Steinbeck has included them in his book to show that greed can come of a situation like as illustrated in the book. Another character the doctor, is represented in the book as selfishness and greed in the society. He does not agree to treat Coyotito after he has been bitten by a scorpion until he finds out Kino has a pearl that is worth great fortune. Most people in the book become close to Kino to be closer to the pearl. This demonstrates the lust for currency, which Steinbeck truly despises. The priest as well tries to get close to Kino in hopes he can receive some money. The trackers and

Although Kino performed many heroic acts, he also acted foolishly in various circumstances. He lives with his wife Juana and his son Coyotito. The novel tells his story when he happens to find a large pearl in the beach that has the capacity to either bring him death or happiness. After finding this big pearl, he believes that this is going to the beginning of a new chapter for him and his family because poverty was eventually going to leave them. His foolishness was first seen when he announced the pearl that he had found making everyone to try to steal it from him. Knowing the worth of the pearl, he should have kept the information to himself and sold it later. After seeing what people were able to do to him because of the pearl, he should have just sold it at the price the buyers said because it eventually led to the death of his son. The buyers only referred to it as a ‘fool’s gold’ and that it was not worth anything. Kino’s greed put his family in danger and caused the death of his only son. Even after he was convinced that the pearl was evil by his wife, he says, "The pearl has become my soul. If I shall give it up, I

Society never gives Kino a chance to have an education, setting him up for failure. When Kino is given the opportunity to change his life by selling a valuable pearl, he takes it. Along with his wife, they think that the pearl can provide their infant son, Coyotito, with an education, provide them with a wedding and a new life. However, society does not allow this to happen. Since, Kino was not educated as a child, he does not understand nor know the pearl's value. Juan Tomis cautions his brother, "'You must be careful to see they do not cheat you... We do not know what prices are paid in other places... How can we know what is a fair price, if we do not

News of the pearl travels quickly. when kino and juana return home people start to gather around them. kino starts making plans on what he is going to do with the money from the pearl. he tells everyone he is going to get married, going to buy new clothes for his family, buy a rifle and send coyotito to school. the priest comes to say that the church would need the pearl for repairs, juana respects the father’s words but kino was too busy on hearing the song of evil and the song of the pearl. when everyone leaves kino starts to think that everyone has it for the pearl and he is the only thing in their way. later the doctor and his servant come to kino’s home and he offers his services. he tells kino about the poison and he treats coyotito.

Lets start when Kino stabs someone for trying to steal his pearl. There were two times in this book when Kino caught a someone trying to steal his pearl. The first time, Kino was sleeping when he heard the scuffling noise of someone digging, he quietly got his knife and stabbed the man who supposedly got away. However, the second time that he caught someone stealing his pearl after he had dropped it, he instinctively stabbed the man and killed him.

Juana inside the hut hears a thump outside and rushed outside brandishing a boulder as a weapon in case the attacker is still lurking. She finds Kino on the ground, his face all bloody, half conscious and wounded. Kino awakes and is instantly told by Juana that the pearl back into the sea as it has cursed

However, two vibrant changes occur as the story progresses —Coyotito, his son, getting stung by a scorpion and Kino’s discovery of the pearl—broaden Kino’s horizons and outlook on the world. As Kino begins to strive for wealth and education for his son, the simplicity of his life becomes increasingly complicated by greed, conflict, and violence. Kino’s character then falls through a gradual decline from a state of innocence to a state of corruption and disillusionment. The factors promoting this decline are ambition and greed. Thus, when going got tough for Kinoo and he had to escape town he faced a lot of hardships, since he had to go into hiding and the only immediate help he had was from his brother. This had an adverse effect on his personality as he became increasingly negative, given the way he hit his wife shows how the pearl preoccupied his mind to such a great extent that he grew indifferent to everything else as evil and restlessness eloped him. In addition to these social changes, Kinoo, after attaining the pearl was on the move to gain economic sustenance, but not being able to find the right price to sell his pearl got him feeling even more uncertain and disappointed but he continued to strive and was reluctant to give up because he wanted everything in his reach for his son, who he consequently ended up losing in the

The pearl's evil infects Kino like a ravaged disease and consumes his mind. He starts off with good intentions, but they become twisted. He wants to sell the pearl and use the money to better his family's lifestyle. He has dreams and goals that each depends on the pearl selling for a good price. Juana sensing the evil and greed coming from Kino attempts to destroy it. Kino beats her unmercifully. "He struck her in the face and she fell among the boulders, and he kicked her in the side...He hissed at her like a snake and she stared at him with wide unfrightened eyes, like a sheep before a butcher." Juana sees through the outer beauty of the pearl and knew it would destroy Kino and herself. Kino's vision from the soul becomes blurred by the possible prosperity the pearl will bring. The evil invades Kino's life as well as everyone he knows and loves.

After traveling long and fighting against the whole world, first with his town filled with people trying to steal it, then fighting for the money, then against himself and finally against the trackers, he was left weak, and there was no more strength to fight anymore. “The people say that the two seemed to be removed from human experience” (Steinbeck 88). His struggles with the pearl have left him dehumanized and stripped of emotions because after so many battles with himself and others, it has ruined the pearl’s value by taking away the shine and leaving a dusty grey as all of his original plans of a wedding, new clothes and an education for Coyotito have turned into memories of traumatic moments. “And in the surface of the pearl, he saw Coyotito lying in the little cave with the top of his head shot away.” (Steinbeck 89). Family was the strongest part of his life because it was Kino’s only power throughout his life, which is why when he returns back to his village, people don’t recognize him as he walks through people unbothered by their staring eyes that glare right through the hollowed soul, making them feel scared. Whether Kino can’t feel anymore or chooses to disconnect himself from that battle is a mystery, but, he is still left as a dehumanized

When Kino was looking for a Pearl, he saw an oyster that caught his eye. Kino grabbed it and went back to the boat to start opening the oysters, Kino was anxious for not Knowing if he was going to get a pearl, was so excited,nerves,mad, and sad. When Kino opened the pearl, he yelled with joy, for now he has a pearl. Know when Kino got back to the shore he could pay for someone to help Coyotito. When they were back on land Kino was looking at the pearl ,Juana checked Coyotito. The swelling of the sting on Coyotito was going down. For now Kino had something to be proud of. Within 3 hours the town know about Kino's finding and wanted to know how they could get a part of the finding. The town could care less who got a big pearl they could get

“‘I am being cheated,’ Kino cried fiercely. ‘My pearl is not for sale here. I will go, perhaps even to the capital.’ Now the dealers glanced quickly at one another…the man at the desk said quickly, ‘I might go to fifteen hundred.’ But Kino was pushing his way through the crowd…When the evening came, the neighbors in the brush houses sat eating their corncakes and beans, and they discussed the great theme of the morning…‘And mark this,’ they said…‘Each of the three knew the pearl was valueless.’ ‘But what if they had arranged it before?’ ‘If that is so, then all of us have been cheated all of our lives,’”