The Pearl In the novel, The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, we meet Kino, his wife, Juana and their baby, Coyotitio. Kino's family lives in a grass hut in the poor, fishing village of La Paz, Mexico in the 1920's. Their lives are disrupted when a vicious scorpion bites Coyotito. The only way that they can get help were they live is to have enough money to pay the local doctor. Kino goes pearl diving and discovers a pearl that is worth "millions." It appears that Kino has gone from having nothing to being able to get whatever his dreams desire. But in literature, as in life, things are not always as they appear to be, and the pearl ends up bringing them things that they never expected.
Kino has lived a hard life. He works hard and gets very little out of it. His family is very poor and cannot afford nice things.
English: John Steinbeck
Grave site of John Steinbeck and family
Steinbeck - "The Pearl"Coyotito his son was bitten bye a scorpion when he thought his father "Kino" was playing. Kino tried to grab the scorpion but he was just a second to late. They go to the doctor to get help but the doctor treats them like animals and tells his assistant to tell them that he is not there. Kino now needs money to save his child, so he goes looking for a pearl any pearl just one that the doctor would take to cure Coyotito. He finds a pearl a giant beautiful pearl worth millions, and with even more luck Coyotito gets better on his own.
Kino is now the hunted he has something that everybody wants a pearl worth millions of dollars. He is told that the pearl is only worth a few hundred dollars were he lives so Kino wants more he knows what the pearl is worth so he goes to the city with brother Juan Thomas but they don't sell it they just go back to La Paz and discover there house was burnt down and people came looking for the pearl so Kino, Coyotito, And Juana leave to escape danger. They head for the mountains and are followed by three men hired by the pearl buyer to get the pearl even if it means killing the whole family.
As they go toward the mountain they know that they are still being followed so they go to the highest point in a cave on the mountain and later that same night the three men camp on a ledge right under them. Kino goes and tries o kill the men but Coyotito gives off a cry and one of the men the only one with a gun points the gun towards the cry and fire just as Kino is jumping toward them Kino once again is a split second to late to save his son. Coyotito is shot in the head and dies. On the way home Juana and Kino walk side by side. Not like a normal family with the dominent male in front and the wife with the child behind.
Kino was just a split second to late to rescue Coyotito from the vicious scorpion. He was also just a split second to late to save Coyotito once again, but this time it was from a bullet. Coyotito was brutally shot in the head by a man out to get Kino's valuable pearl.
English: Bahía Kino. Isla Alcatraz and Kino Nuevo...
La Paz, Mexico
English: The Bay of La Paz.