Kino accuses the dealer of cheating him, so the dealer instructs Kino to ask around for other appraisals, which are even worse than the first. The first dealer Kino visits assesses the pearl at a mere 1000 pesos, declaring it too big and clumsy to be worth anything more, though it is clearly more valuable than he lets on. The next day, Kino and Juana, followed by their neighbors, go to visit the pearl dealers. Juana begs, to no avail, that they get rid of the pearl.

That night, after dark, Kino hears noises in the house and manages to strike a thief looking for the pearl with his knife, but is also struck in return. Kino promises to pay the doctor after selling the pearl, which the doctor feigns not to have heard about. Within the hour, Coyotito indeed becomes ill and the doctor administers a second treatment to cure him. He administers a first treatment and predicts that the poison will strike within the hour. Then the doctor, inspired by the news of the pearl, arrives in order to treat the baby. The priest visits the brush house to remind Kino and Juana to thank God. When Juan Tomas asks Kino what he will do as a rich man, he responds that he and Juana will be married in a church, that they will have new clothes, that he will have a rifle, and that his son will receive an education. News of Kino’s pearl spreads rapidly through the town, inspiring desire and envy in everyone who hears of it. Upon returning to the canoe, Kino opens this oyster last and finds within it the most perfect pearl in the world. Kino dives down to the seafloor and finds one oyster lying alone, gleaming from within. Kino and Juana set off in their canoe to search for pearls. The servant informs Kino that the doctor will not be able to see them and Kino punches the gate, infuriated by the doctor’s evident discrimination. When the servant reports their arrival at his gate, the doctor, lounging indulgently in bed, is insulted by the mere notion that he would “cure insect bites for ‘little Indians’” without compensation. Kino, Juana, Coyotito, and their neighbors proceed together to the city.

In the midst of Kino and Juana’s morning routine, Coyotito is stung by a scorpion that has fallen into his hanging box.Īware of how poisonous the scorpion’s sting is, Juana orders that the doctor be gotten and when the doctor refuses to come to them, insists they go to the doctor themselves. It begins in the brush house of Kino, Juana, and their baby, Coyotito, a family of Mexican Native Americans.

The Pearl takes place in a small village on the outskirts of La Paz, California.

The pearl book john steinbeck