The Pearl

John Steinbeck’s novel, The Pearl, takes place in the early 1900s in La Paz, Mexico, where people of Spanish descent have oppressed the natives for over 400 years. Kino and Juana are an Indigenous couple who reside in La Paz with their son, Coyotito. At the beginning of the story they find “The Pearl of the World”, which they hope can lift them and generations to come out of poverty through education. Kino, Juana, and people in their village watch themselves and others in their community be cheated by a self-absorbed priest, a scheming doctor, and greedy pearl buyers. However, there is little that they can do to stop this, due to their lack of education. The wall between the rich and the poor is education as demonstrated by the priest, the

At first, when baby Coyotito gets stung by a scorpion, the doctor refused to treat him. However, after the doctor heard about the finding of the pearl, he came back to try to treat Coyotito in hopes of getting the pearl. However, the doctor could not treat Coyotito because he was already healed from Juana’s poultice had already healed Coyotito. The doctor already knew this but he told Kino and Juana that Coyotito would be sick soon so he gave Coyotito a tablet to make him throw up so that Kino and Juana would believe that the poison is still in Coyotito. This was done so that the doctor would have to go back and reverse what he had already given Coyotito. The doctor also has a few other tricks to make Kino and Juana believe that Coyotito was sick. One of the tricks was that the doctor shows Kino that Coyotito’s eyelid was blue, as it is supposed to be, but he tries to convince them that “The poison has gone inward and it will strike soon.” Unsure of of whether or not the eyelid was always a little blue, “the trap was set” and Kino “couldn’t take the chance”. (31) He did not have the knowledge to contradict the doctor so, he had to give in and let him treat Coyotito and