Pearl by John Steinbeck Characters

¶ … Pearl by John Steinbeck

Characters in the Pearl are:

Kino, the main character is a family man who lives life with songs that play in his head. He lives in a house by the water (the Gulf) and dives for pearls for a living. In the beginning he and his wife are happy together, contented and satisfied, and have no need to talk. His conversation is a sigh of satisfaction. He is "rich in spirit" but he has no money and owns nothing of value but a few small seed pearls. Later, he becomes capable of violent feelings - like when he socked the gate at the doctor's house and split his hands and when he hit Juana in a rage because she tried to throw away his pearl.

Juana, his wife, is a quiet, loving woman that sings the ancient songs of their tribe as she works. She has black hair that she braids and ties in ribbons. Although she is "patient," and "fragile" looking, a basically gentle person, she has great inner strength and knows how to endure hardship. She is completely loyal to her husband.

Coyotito, their son, is a baby that sleeps in a box that hangs by a rope. His mother is still nursing him, so he is an infant. At the beginning of the story he gets bit by a scorpion while he plays in his box and gets sick from it.

Juan Tomas is Kino's older brother. He is wise, gives Kino good advice, and is loyal to him.

Apolonia is Juan Tomas's fat wife. She is obedient to her husband and to her brother-in-law Kino.

The doctor is an evil man, rich but heartless. He loves pleasure and status. Although he is rich, he gives almost nothing to the church and is greedy. He is fat from eating rich foods and lying in bed. His servant waits on him. The doctor is lazy and only cares about himself.

The Story

Kino and his wife Juana are poor people but they are comfortable. They live in a brush house with their baby Coyotito in a small community of island people that dive for pearls for a living. Even though they have almost nothing in the way of possessions and their life is very simple, they are happy together. They don't have much stress. They have enough food, water, shelter and love. Kino's "song" that plays in his head is a love song of family and close-knit community where people care about each other. The thing that changes all of this is a scorpion that bite's the baby Coyotito. The whole community becomes concerned that the baby may die from the scorpion's venom. Juana decides the baby must see the local doctor. They take the baby to him because they know that the doctor will never come to them. The doctor is lazy, selfish, and greedy, but they think he has the know-how to make the baby better. When they bring the baby to him, the doctor refuses to treat the baby because he knows the parents have no money to pay him, and he hates the indigenous people anyway. He would be lowering himself if he took care of one of them. He couldn't care less if the baby dies. Because of this, Kino feels he must get some money to insure the safety of the family. He has to be able to provide health care.

Kino earns a living by diving for pearls. On his next dive he finds "The Pearl of the World." It is very large, beautiful, and worth a ton of money. Because he lives in a small community, everyone knows within minutes that he has found this very valuable pearl. Suddenly, everybody wants to cash in on Kino's find. The doctor, for instance, comes to their house and "treats" the baby for the scorpion bite even though the baby is almost well. He gives medicine to the Coyotito that makes him very sick. This is so the doctor can then "save" the baby and the grateful parents that now are rich because Kino has found the pearl, will pay him handsomely. He can also brag about it.

Kino himself realizes what money can do for the family. They can all have new clothes. He decides to buy himself a rifle. And best of all, he will send Coyotito to school. If his son can learn to read, he will be able to find out everything they need to know. He will have someone to rely on for information -- an educated son. Whereas before he found the pearl he was satisfied because he had accepted his station in life, now he wants more.

That night a burglar comes in while they are asleep and tries to steal the pearl. But Kino has hidden the pearl in a new place under his sleeping mat, and he hears the intruder come in. He stabs the intruder with his knife in the dark, but he doesn't kill him, and the intruder runs away. By now the song Kino hears in his head is a song of evil. People want to steal his pearl! He has to defend himself.

Juana wants to throw away the pearl because it has brought bad luck. But Kino has by now invested himself emotionally in ownership of the pearl. The next morning he carries the pearl to the pearl dealers to sell it. He knows it is worth at least 50,000, but the dealers try to cheat him. They tell him it is almost worthless. Angry, Kino tells them he will take his pearl to the Capitol to sell. Realizing they took too hard a line with Kino and are about to lose out on the profit, the dealers hire thugs to steal the pearl from Kino.

By now Juana is convinced that ownership of the pearl is a disaster for the family. She gets up in the night, tiptoes, and takes the pearl. She carries it outside, down to the water. She is just about to throw it into the sea when Kino catches her and beats her up in a rage. He hits her in the mouth with his fist and when she falls, he kicks her. A short while later Kino kills one of the thugs when he attacks him on the beach for the pearl. The pearl rolls out on the sand beside a rock where Kino lies unconscious. Juana sees the pearl lying there, retrieves it, and gives it to Kino when he wakes up. She knows the authorities will discover the dead body and come after Kino and that they have to run away. First, they hide at Kino's brother Juan Tomas's house where they make plans to go to the city. Kino's boat has been ruined, so they have to flee on foot with the baby. They start out with a bag of beans and water in a canteen.

Soon they realize that the pearl dealers have hired trackers to find them and take the pearl. They have to climb up into the mountains to escape the trackers. Kino urges Juana to hide out with the baby and let him go on alone. They will be safer without him, he thinks. But Juana refuses. She insists that she and the baby must stay with him. They get very low on water, but they finally find some towards the end of the day. They are exhausted, but they can see the trackers down below them and so they cannot rest. Kino finds a cave for them to hide in, and he deliberately makes tracks that will mislead and fool the trackers. That night Kino sees the trackers' camp from his spot up high. He sees two of them are sleeping and a third tracker is on guard duty watching. The watcher has a rifle. Kino decides his only course is to kill them. He will surprise the watcher first, kill him and get his rifle, then kill the others. He sneaks up on them. He kills the watcher and gets his rifle. He shoots at the others. But the terrible irony and tragedy is that one of the bullets fires into the cave where Juana and Coyotito are. Accidentally, he shoots the top of the baby's head off. Of course, it ruins everything -- their life together and any hope they had in the pearl's value. In the end, Kino with Juana at his side throws the pearl into the sea.