The Black Pearl

Blas Salazar is Ramón’s father and the most famous dealer of pearls on the Vermilion Sea. Seen through Ramón’s adoring eyes, Blas is “…a tall man with skin turned a deep bronze color from the glare of the sea” (13). He is also physically strong, and his strength is the standard of masculinity that Ramón looks up to at the beginning of the novel: “Once I saw him take two men who were fighting and grasp them by the backs of their necks and lift them off the ground and bump their heads together” (13). This strength is still out of reach for the young protagonist, who desperately desires to be just like his father.

Blas is a prideful man who cares about what others think about him. The importance that Blas places on appearances extends to his son as well: “Being so big himself, he did not like to think that his son was puny nor that anyone else thought so” (11). He is similarly concerned with wealth, status, and his reputation as a businessman; when the other pearl dealers of the region mock Blas by reminding him of his failed attempt to sell a pearl in Mexico City, he gives the pearl to the church purely to spite them. This gift is in reality more of a bribe. Blas thinks highly of himself and is hellbent on ensuring the wealth and longevity of the Salazar bloodline; he therefore believes that his gift to the Madonna has bought the Salazar family Heaven’s good will. His pride thus morphs into hubris as he convinces himself of his invincibility, forgetting to respect the ocean and its many dangers.

Gaspar Ruiz arrives in La Paz a month prior to the events of the novel; he claims that he is from Seville in Spain, and therefore everyone calls him the Sevillano. Ruiz wishes to be the hero of his own story, and O’Dell even models him after stereotypical portrayals of Greek heroes, complete with figurative “armor”:

He was tall and his shoulders were so wide and powerful that they seemed to be armored in steel instead of muscle. His hair, which was gold-colored, grew thick on his head like a helmet. He had blue eyes, so blue and handsome that any girl would have envied them. His face was handsome, too, except that around his mouth there always lurked the shadow of a sneer (18).

Ruiz is thus the physical embodiment of masculinity, both strong and impossibly handsome. At the peak of his strength, Ruiz can stay underwater for over three minutes.

However, despite his outward appearance and his talents, Ruiz is more of a Greek villain than a hero. Covered in tattoos based on his false stories, Ruiz weaves an entirely different persona for himself. In truth, Ruiz is only a liar and a braggart trying to escape his utterly ordinary life and his “many fights in Culiacán, one of them fatal” (26). Ruiz himself seems to believe his own lies, convinced of his own superiority over everyone and everything around him. This narcissism, coupled with Ruiz’s hubris and lack of respect for nature, results in his death. The irony of Ruiz’s death is profound; while the tattoo on his arm depicts his supposed triumph over an octopus, Ruiz dies a foolish death, dragged to the depths of the ocean by a snapped rope. This fate alludes to and closely parallels the death of Moby Dick’s Captain Ahab—another figure who arrogantly tries to conquer nature.

Soto Luzon is an indigenous man who owns a red canoe. He sells pearls to Blas and comes to town every three months with a single, good quality pearl. Ramón describes him as having “an Indian’s thin legs but a powerful chest and thick arms that could wield a paddle for hours and not grow tired” (27).

Luzon becomes Ramón’s diving teacher, teaching him how to navigate the ocean and stay safe while searching for pearls. He also tells Ramón about the Manta Diablo and the pact that his family has with it. His relationship with the Manta Diablo is symbiotic, as he lives alongside it in the lagoon. This reflects his status as the novel’s primary indigenous character; he is used as a foil to Blas to showcase the differences in their characters and cultures, especially with regards to nature. Though other characters ridicule Luzon for his superstitions, he has the most sustainable relationship with the environment of them all.