The Pearl

In the early to mid 1900s, women played a very submissive and passive role in families allowing men to make the important decisions regarding finances and family values. Steinbeck based his novella The Pearl on this idea. Steinbeck also based most of his novels and novellas on his own childhood experiences, which included a rural setting with core family values. Juana is the main feminine character in this story and plays a very similar role to a housewife in the early 1900s. She prepares meals, cleans the house, and cares for Coyotito when he is sick, just as housewives did back then. In The Pearl, written by John Steinbeck, Juana plays a role of an extremely efficient housewife that is family oriented, an authority, and fairly intelligent.

Her respect for Kino is this novella is hard to surpass. She cooks him breakfast every morning and lets him finish before she even starts eating. Juana honors Kino’s presence and doesn’t want to disturb him while he is eating:

“When Kino had finished, Juana came back to the fire and ate her breakfast. They had spoken once, but there is no need for speech if it is only a habit anyway. Kino sighed with satisfaction and that was conversation” (Steinbeck 4).

Kino expects Juana to repeat this process every morning without any reconciliation. Her continued respect is shown throughout The Pearl. Not only does Juana respect Kino, she is also ever determined and dedicated to her entire family’s well being. When Coyotito is ill, Juana expresses her concern regarding her child’s wellbeing in the following quote:

“This was Juana’s first baby—this was nearly everything there was in Juana’s world. And Kino saw her determination and the music of the family sounded in his head with a steely tone” (Steinbeck 7).

As the story moves forward, Juana needs to start acting like an authority by trusting in what she believes is

Juana tries to figure out what will cure Coyotito’s sickness. When Coyotito first gets stung by the scorpion, Juana, “put her lips down over the puncture and sucked hard and spat and sucked again while Coyotito screamed” (Steinbeck 6). This was extremely courageous and she didn’t think twice about doing it, even though it wasn’t Kino’s idea. Later on in the canoe, Juana has yet another great idea and she screamed it out, “The doctor, she said. Go to get the doctor” (Steinbeck 7). As Juana becomes more assertive, the perception of women dramatically changes in The Pearl. Steinbeck starts to show Juana’s significance and importance in the story within this quote:

“She who was obedient and respectful and cheerful and patient, she could arch her back in child pain with hardly a cry. She could stand fatigue and hunger almost better than Kino himself. In the canoe she was like a strong man.” (Steinbeck