The Pearl - Summary Notes

Characters

• Kino

  • Black hair

  • Brown face

  • Warm bright eyes

  • Thin, rough moustache

  • Coyotitos father

  • Juanas husband

  • Indian blood (Indigenous blood) - Mexican Indian

  • Inable to speak Spanish

  • Eats corn-cakes for breakfast

  • Has a hard life

  • Young & poor

• Juana (mother)

  • Long, black hair

  • Coyotitos mother

  • Kinos wife

  • Quiet

  • Patient

• Coyotito (Kino & Juanas son)

• Juan Tomas

  • Kinos brother

  • Father to 4 children

  • Apolonias husband

• Apolonia

  • Juan Tomass wife

  • Mother to 4 children

  • fat

• Servant

  • Dark

  • Obedient

• Doctor

  • Spanish - Spanish Mexican

  • Fat

  • Lazy

  • Avaricious, greedy & apathetic

  • Speaks Spanish

  • Has a large stone house

  • Eats hot chocolate & cookies for breakfast

  • Is from a family that came to Mexico 400 years ago

1. Parents see the scorpion

2. The baby laughs at the scorpion

3. The scorpion sees Kino

4. The baby shakes the rope

5. The scorpion falls on the baby & bites him

6. The parents go to see the doctor

7. The doctor refuses to help the parents

• Kinos town ~

Summary

It’s a regular morning at Kino’s little shack in Mexico at first, until he spots a scorpion on the rope of Coyotito’s hanging box. As he goes to scoop it up, Coyotito shakes the rope and the scorpion bites him on his shoulder. Juana, Kino’s wife, insists they visit a doctor, and so they set foot towards the town with stone houses where most rich people resided. The neighbours & people nearby followed them on their path to the doctor’s office. Once they knocked on the door, a servant opened the gate and muttered something in the new language, it being Spanish, the doctor refused their request as he was an avaricious & greedy man, therefore, he didn’t care if Coyotito survived or not unless they had the money to pay for his treatment. Kino’s family, disappointed & in despair headed to the beach where the pearlers were busy at work. Whilst Kino set up the canoe, Jauna took some plants from the sea and placed them on Coyotito’s shoulder to help heal it. Once the canoe was set, Jauna and Coyotito went on board as Kino pushed the boat even deeper. Kino jumped into the sea and collected the largest oysters he could possibly find. He went up to the surface once again and started cracking open some of the oysters until his eyes fell on a massive oyster. He opened it desperately and saw a pearl the size of an egg of a seabird, that glistened in the morning sun. The other fishermen and pearlers all looked amazed at Kino’s discovery and envied him. All of a sudden Coyotito’s red and inflamed shoulder was back to normal again. Once back home, the doctor was at their house with medicine for their baby. Juana and Kino reluctantly agreed and the doctor inspected Coyotito and fed him some white medicine. The medicine ended up sickening Coyotito once more and the doctor came in again. He gave Coyotito more medicine and requested his payment, knowing that Kino has the pearl, Kino planned to pay him the following day, after selling the pearl. Kino quickly hid the pearl after the doctor left it under his bed. Throughout the night Kino heard some rustling, alas, he jumped up with his knife in his hand and attacked the thing, but then something crashed against his head and Jauna started cleaning the blood from his head. The pearl was putting them in perilous situations. The next day, Kino and his family got dressed in their nicest clothes to sell the pearl. The people of the neighbourhood followed them as the made it to the town and the pearl buyers waited. Once they arrived at the pearlers office, they were offered 1000 pesos for the pearl, yet Kino thought the pearl was worth more, the other pearlers discussed their prices, the highest bid was 1500 pesos but Kino still thought it was too little. That night, Kino was attacked by the evil again, and wounded once more. Jauna cleaned the wound and everyone went back to sleep again, until Jauna woke up at the crack of dawn to throw the pearl back into the sea but, Kino spotted her and tracked her down, he hit her in the face kicked her angrily but as they walked up the beach again, Kino was attacked for the third time, this time he killed the man and that morning Kino, Jauna and Coyotito planned to escape out of the town to the city to find a better price for the pearl but not before having their house burned down by the evil. The family rushed to Kino’s brother, Juan Tomas, and stayed at his house for the night. The following morning, Kino and his family went north, to the city. They walked up mountains and trekked in the mightiest of winds. They came to a halt when Kino heard trackers, searching for them. The family hid in a cave but as the night approached, the trackers came nearer and nearer,. Kino started planning to attack. Once the two men were asleep and the other one wasn’t looking he was going to reach for his knife when Coyotito started crying in pain. Kino plunged onto the men and attacked them with all his might killing them all. He then climbed up the cave to find Coyotito dead. Juana and Kino returned back to their neighbourhood, and the first thing they did was throw the pearl back into the ocean, once and for all.