The Pearl

Hearing a faint noise, Kino wakes up. He watches silently as Juana removes the pearl from where he buried it under the fireplace; she then leaves. Filled with anger, he follows her towards the shore. When she hears him coming, she begins to run. Kino catches up to her before she can throw the pearl into the water; he then punches and kicks her. His anger turns to disgust and he leaves to return home. On his way, Kino is attacked in the darkness. He stabs with his knife, killing someone, but falls to the ground as someone else searches him for the pearl, which rolls out of his grasp.

Juana is not angry with Kino, whom she views as “half insane and half god” (64). As she makes her way up the path, she spots the pearl lying behind a rock near Kino and the man he killed. She moves the dead man’s body into the weeds and then tends to Kino. She gives the pearl back to him, reasoning that their old life is lost forever, so they might as well run away with the pearl. Kino asks her to bring