reading log

The Pearl-John Steinbeck
Published in 1947

Kino an improvised but also brave native who makes a living diving for pearls off the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. Kino lives with his wife Juana and his son Coyotito, who unfortunately gets stung by a scorpion within the first few pages of the book, his mother then calls for the doctor but their race and poverty work against them. The doctor would not treat Coyotito so Kino went out with his wife and baby pearl diving in the hopes of hitting the jackpot. Kino finally found the big pearl and at the same time Coyotito mysteriously heals himself.

word soon travel led through the town that Kino had hit the mother lode and dollar signs immediately start running through everyone's brains as they think they all think about how to get in on Kino's new- found wealth. After the doctor had heard the word he made his sincere apologies for being a racist jerk, he then goes to heal Coyotito but actually just ends up poisoning him and then and then cures him in a course of a few hours. With the intentions of finding the hidden pearl (but perilously when Kino had found it he buried it underground so that no one could find it.) Kino awakes in the middle of the night to find an intruder trying to steal his pearls the intruder then smashes Kino on the head before leaving. His wife calls the nurse and she insist that the pearl is pure evil and they better get rid of it, but Kino refuses.

The next day Kino goes to sell the pearl with many people eagerly watching over his shoulder but unfortunately people were offering him more than a third of what the pearl was worth, he decides to forget the buyers offers and goes straight to the capital. Kino is a home person so going to the north island was kind of a big deal Juana again tries to stop him, but Kino refuses to listen to her so Juana is helpless, but is she? Kino wakes up in  the middle of the night to find his find about 2 seconds away from chucking the pearl in the ocean. Kino then resorts in using his fist and starts beating his wife up. as Kino makes his way back to the house someone attacks him and their hut goes up in flame, Kino kills his attacker and he and his wife had to watch their hut burn down.

As the couple hit the road the next night they discover that trackers are on their tail. In a chase sequence. Kino tries to hide his family in the mountains as the trackers pursue them. Finally they rest in some cave above a little stream. The trackers stop deciding it is time for some action. Kino tells Juana to keep the baby quiet and makes his way down to the trackers. As he is about to attack he hear Coyotito cries out one of the men pulls out a rifle, just as he shoots in the babies direct Kino pulls a chuck Norris on the trackers and kills all three of them. Victory was his but no it wasn't as he heard a cry of death, coming from the cave. Everybody remembered the families sad return, as they walk into the town Kino and his wife are full of despair. Juana carries a bloody blanket with the remains of their son ( whose head was blown off in the rifle incident) and the couple walks down to the beach. Kino flings the pearl out to the sea and it disappears.

while reading this novel it really makes me angry when people judge others because of their color or that they don.t have much money which is so unfortunate because it happens to the best of people the ones that deserve it the most but when Kino had found the pearl he thought he was in luck, but he never knew that the whole time the pearl was making everything worse. I really enjoyed reading this book because it give me an understanding of just how unfair and cruel it was back in those days, and just how much money meant to people especially the ones that needed it the most.