My Essay

The Pearl (Question 2)

In the beginning of the novel, the pearl is portrayed as something bright and beautiful, but as the novel continues, it begins to change its meaning.

After Coyotito is stung by the scorpion, his family rushes to the doctor’s house and asks to see him. Unfortunately, the pearls that Kino brings to pay the doctor are misshapen, ugly and valueless, so they are immediately turned away. Fearing that Coyotito might die, Kino and Juana are in desperate need for something with greater value. That’s when Kino gets the idea to go out to the sea and look for pearls.
When Kino first finds the pearl he is thrilled. Not only because he is now able to pay for Coyotito’s medical treatment, but also because the pearl gives him a new sense of hope. In the pearl he sees a rifle, him and Juana getting married in the church with new clothes and Coyotito in school learning to read and write. Thanks to the pearl, Kino was feeling excited for the future.

The other time the pearl changes its meaning is when Kino is attacked. This time when Kino thinks about buying a rifle, in the pearl he sees a dark body on the ground with shining blood dripping from its throat. When he thinks about getting married in the church, he sees Juana with her beaten face crawling home through the night. And instead of seeing Coyotito learning to read, he sees his face, thick and feverish from the medicine.
The change between what Kino saw in the pearl before and what he was seeing now was quite drastic. Now that the pearl was being portrayed as something evil, Kino started to feel uneasy.

At the very end of the novel, Kino sees how evil the pearl truly is and he brings it to the ocean, throwing it in without hesitation. 

The change from the hope of finding a pearl, to finally finding one and then it turning out to be evil really added a lot of drama and emotion to the story.