The Pearl Part 2

The Pearl Part 2

                I’m going to be blunt and say the end of this book is just plain depressing, and completely broke my heart. While going through Kino and Juana’s adventure with the pearl I just assumed that the book would have a happy ending. I was wrong. In the second half of The Pearl everything took a turn for the worse: Kino gets attacked outside of his house, causing Juana try to throw it into the ocean while Kino was sleeping, which provoke Kino to hit Juana for defying him. But as he tries to go back home after that event he gets mugged and ends up killing a man and his house gets burned down.

                As Kino’s house burns, his neighbors believe they’re in it, His family escapes to his brother’s house secretly where they get supplies to leave town to cash in the pearl. He is driven to such things again by the darkness of greed and the power of others wanting/jealousy of the pearl. These feeling have escalated throughout the town to the point where human lives are taken and they even send trackers after Kino and his family to kill them and recover the pearl. While attempting to escape the evil of the town and the trackers they face confrontation with the trackers when Steinbeck completely broke my heart.

                There was irony to the heart break that took place. During the fight Kino has with the trackers one of them slips through his fingers and gets up to his Juana and Coyotito, their son, and shoots his son in the head. I think that it’s ironic in a way that Coyotito gets killed over the pearl because the reason that Juana and Kino were looking for pearls when they found it, was so that they could pay the doctor to save Coyotito’s life after a scorpion bite.  So the very thing that was supposed to save his life ended up being the death of him.

After the death of their son, Kino and Juana simply return to their town and throw the pearl into the ocean. I have contradicting feelings about that moment for a couple reasons. I agree with it because after that point it crosses a line that was never meant to be crossed and still attempting to go on with the pearl is life threatening and there isn’t anything else to risk their lives for now that their son won’t be able to benefit from it. But on the other hand now it seems as if their son’s life was taken from them for nothing because they have nothing to show for it. They’ve got nothing else to lose at this point. But I think that it was probably the wise choice to simply return home and grieve with their family.

I thought this book had interesting insight on the human condition, but I despise the ending of this book. It left me with my mouth hanging open wondering if that really just happened.  The thing is the life of something as innocent as a baby being taken just disgusts me. That child had no choice or control of what happened around it yet it’s the one who had to pay the consequences. I think this book was worth reading once for its views, but I won’t be reading it again anytime soon.