Now, Kino’s a bit of a homebody, so a trip up north is a big deal. Furious, Kino decides to forget the pearl buyers and go straight to the capital. No one offers him more than a third of the pearl’s real value. Unfortunately for Kino, the pearl buyers are all colluding with each other. The next day, Kino goes to sell the pearl, eagerly watched by his entire community. As Juana nurses Kino’s injury, she insists that the pearl is evil and they better get rid of it. The intruder smashes Kino on the head before departing. Kino awakens in the middle of the night to find an intruder in his hut trying to steal the pearl. (Kino buried it under the ground.) After all of Kino’s new "friends" leave the hut, he and Juana go to sleep. He then proceeds to "heal" Coyotito, but actually just poisons the kid and then cures him in the course of a few hours, all with the intention of finding where the pearl is hidden. Meanwhile the doctor has shown up, all apologies for being a racist jerk earlier that morning. Then all the freeloaders-sorry, well-wishers-start arriving to flatter, cajole, and generally make nice with Kino. Kino and Juana are similarly psyched Kino dreams of marrying Juana properly in a church, paying for Coyotito’s education, and buying a rifle.
THE PEARL JOHN STEINBECK PAGES HOW TO
Dollar signs (or peso signs, more accurately) immediately start running through everyone’s brain as they all think about how to get in on Kino’s new-found wealth.
Word travels through town that Kino has hit the mother lode. At the same time, Coyotito miraculously heals himself. Kino then finds… a really, really big pearl. Juana accompanies him on the canoe with their baby.
The doctor won’t treat Coyotito, so Kino goes pearl-diving in the hopes of hitting the jackpot (i.e., a really, really big pearl).
Kino and Juana go to the doctor’s house anyway, but their race and poverty work against them. Distraught (understatement of the year), Juana calls for the doctor, who has very particular requirements for his patients-namely, that they have lots of cash. who unfortunately gets stung by a scorpion within the first five pages. He lives with his wife Juana and his son Coyotito. Meet Kino, an impoverished but plucky native who makes a living diving for pearls off the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. From the beginning, we learn that the story we’re about to read is a parable, which means that although it’s about one man, it’s really about more than one man.