The Pearl

The Pearl, a novella by John Steinbeck in 1947, is a simple but powerful parable about human greed and the sometime impossibility of the underclass to get ahead, as the system is rigged. It seems especially poignant now.

The story concerns Kino, a fisherman on the western coast of Mexico. The only thing he has is his boat, which is his livelihood: "It was at once property and source of food, for a man with a boat can guarantee a woman that she will eat something. It is the bulwark against starvation."

Kino's wife is Juana and their baby is Coyotito. They are Indians, looked down upon by the Spanish in the community. When the baby is stung by a scorpion, the doctor refuses to even see them. "The doctor was not of his people. This doctor was of a race which for nearly four hundred years had beaten and starved and despised Kino's race, and frightened it too, so that the indigene came humbly to the door."

But then Kino lives out every fisherman's fantasy--he finds a pearl. But not only a pearl, but a monstrously large one, which everyone calls "The Pearl of the World." This would seem to be a great moment, but almost immediately Kino can feel the well wishes tainted with envy. He buries it, moves it, and has to guard his shack. The doctor suddenly appears to treat the baby, and asks for payment. Kino, of course, has to sell the pearl, for in his economy there is no such thing as borrowing against it.

He goes to the nearest town and is told it is worthless, but of course this is a shell game as the jewelers are in collusion. He is determined to take his pearl and go to the capital city, but before he does he catches Juana trying to throw it in the sea. His rage comes out and he strikes her, and heading home he is attacked and forced to kill a man. The two go home to find their shack in flames, and they go into the jungle to hide.

Some of this seems pretty obvious--I once asked a college professor why Steinbeck isn't as taught as much as say, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, or Faulkner, and she said there really isn't much to say about Steinbeck--he doesn't hide things, and says it like it is--it's all black and white. The Pearl is a parable and doesn't overreach, which is why it's ideal for school assignments. But it is a lovely book.

There are moments that remind us of other works, particularly his hot-tempered works on the downtrodden migrant workers. "'We do know that we are cheated from birth to the overcharge on our coffins. But we survive.'" And he can create lovely word pictures, such as the moment that Kino finds the pearl. "Kino lifted the flesh, and there it lay, the great pearl, perfect as the moon. It captured the light and refined it and gave it back in silver incandescence. It was as large as a sea-gull's egg. It was the greatest pearl in the world."