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Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Pearl, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Community
Good vs. Evil
Race, Tradition, and Oppression
Value and Wealth
Nature
Summary
Analysis
The narrator describes the town, located on an estuary. Canoes line the beach, constructed according to an old, secret method. Sea animals and algae populate the floor of the ocean, and dogs stalk its shore.
Passages like this emphasize the town’s sense of unity between past and present, between humans and nature, and between humans and animals.
Themes
An “uncertain air” hangs over the Gulf. Its haziness, the narrator suggests, might account for the Gulf peoples’ trust in imagination.
The natural setting of the Gulf is an important character throughout the novel. Here it’s suggested that it even has the power to subtly determine the mindset of its residents.
Themes
Kino and Juana walk to the beach, in the direction of their canoe. Kino had inherited the canoe from his father, who inherited it from his own father. It keeps the family from starving, and is described as Kino’s only valuable possession.
On Kino’s blanket, Juana sets down Coyotito, who’s calmed but still swollen. Juana treats his sting with seaweed, which is effective but not as authoritative as a doctor’s treatment.
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The narrator notes that Juana has directed her prayers not toward Coyotito’s survival, but toward Kino’s finding a pearl with which to pay a doctor, because her mind is “as unsubstantial as the mirage of the Gulf.”
Here, as elsewhere in the novel, the narrator steps back and judges Kino’s people, suggesting their simplicity and ignorance.
Themes
Kino and Juana take off in the canoe, and look down at the oyster bed, which, it’s suggested, funded the power and wars of the King of Spain.
Kino and Juana are entering the very system of wealth and evaluation that historically allowed for the Europeans to displace their own people.
Themes
The narrator describes that a pearl is created through an “accident,” when a grain of sand irritates an oyster’s flesh, and that to find one is to be in God’s favor.
The value of a pearl is arbitrary. Created accidentally, it’s nothing but cement-coated sand. Only God’s will, and not the seeker’s, can assure that the seeker will find one.
Themes
Kino dives into the water with his basket. Filling it with oysters, he hears in his head the song of his ancestors and, quieter, the Song of the Pearl that Might Be.
The mingling of the ancient song with the song of the pearl represents the larger mingling at work, between Kino’s traditional values and the values of the white Europeans.
Themes
Young and able, Kino stays for a long time underwater, carefully selecting the largest and most promising oysters.
Kino’s own qualities—his strength and fitness— do have some impact on his success in this pearl-seeking venture.
Themes
He finds one oyster lying alone, with a partly opened shell, revealing a gleam within. Kino’s heart beats excitedly and he hears loudly the Song of the Pearl.
The great consequence of this pearl is immediately tangible.
Themes
Kino reaches the water’s surface and places that final oyster at the bottom of the canoe. Both Kino and Juana try not to get too attached or dwell on Kino’s apparent excitement. Kino opens all the small oysters first, saving the hopeful one for last.
Kino and Juana understand one another without vocalized expression. They can both feel something great but, superstitiously, don’t want to ruin it by acknowledging it.
Themes
When it comes time to open the promising oyster, Kino hesitates, afraid its glint was an illusion, but Juana encourages him.
Kino’s fear that the pearl’s been an illusion confirms the narrator’s description of the Gulf people’s (sometimes deceptive) trust in imagination.
Themes
Kino hears the Song of the Pearl that Might Be resonant and warm and sees dream forms in his lucky find. Juana comes to look at the pearl, which Kino holds in the hand with which he had punched the doctor’s gate.
Now Kino imagines all that the pearl might bring their family—it reflects his hopes and dreams. The pearl’s location in Kino’s injured hand draws attention to the contrast between Kino’s previous sense of powerlessness and his newly gained sense of power.
Themes
Juana goes over to check on Coyotito and finds that the swelling of his shoulder has gone down. Kino clenches the pearl and howls.
Kino and Juana’s situation seems to be in a trend of improvement: they’ve found a great pearl, and Coyotito appears to be healing.
Themes
Men in neighboring canoes paddle quickly toward Kino’s.
The neighbors are never far away.
Themes
