It is a story of what a beautiful pearl did to a poor pearl diver Kino, his wife, Juana, and their baby son, (Coyotito). Like John Steinbeck’s other great works, this story also ended with extremely sad occurrences. I think the renown author uses this book to tell us that we are living in an imperfect world where good fortune brings disastrous things to good people.
It does not look like the author has much respect for doctor and priest. He paints a very unflattering image on these two characters in the book. The town doctor refused to treat Coyotito for a spider sting because he would not receive any payments. The town priest visited the poor family not until he learned of the family’s new fortune. The same doctor made the house calls to treat Coyotito after he heard of Kino’s valuable pearl.
The pearl buyers did not fare well either in the book. They colluded among themselves to rig the prices on the pearls that the poor divers brought to them for sale.
Then there were unknown bandits who attempted to rub Kino of his "Pearl of the World" outright.
In the book, the Nobel Prize winner also tells us the benefits of education. Through the lustrous pearl, Kino saw "My son will read and open the books, and my son will write and will know writing. And my son will make numbers, and these things will make us free because he will know - he will know and through him we will know."
Through Juana’s inner thought on her husband, the author tells us of the unforgiving Mother Nature. Juana knew that ". . . the mountain would stand while the man broke himself; that the sea would surge while the man drowned in it."
I save the best to the last. This is what the author has said of a seaweed poultice Juana made for a scorpion bite on their son’s shoulder:
"Which was as good a remedy as any and probably better than the doctor could have done. But the remedy lacked his authority because it was simple and didn’t cost anything." - Ayee
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