The Pearl: Comprehending Kino's Character Flaws

The Pearl:Comprehending Kino’s Character Flaws

Everyone has flaws-from being too afraid to not caring at all. The Pearl focuses on a poor Indian family which consists of three members: Kino, a husband, father, and fisherman, Juana, his wife and loving mother; and Coyotito their infant son. This indigent family lives in a small brush hut along the Gulf of Mexico by the town of La Paz. One day Coyotito, is bitten by a scorpion; a scorpion sting can be deadly to a baby.With luck on their side, Kino finds a pearl the size of a seagull’s egg;but misfortune finds him as well.With all of the drastic decisions his life forces Kino to make ,he tends to makes the wrong choices.His choices make Kino seem Stubborn, Ruthless and Angry.

To begin with,Kino

I will go, perhaps even to the Capital “.Kino decides that the pearl isn’t worth enough to be sold to the buyers.He thinks it is as good idea to go to the Capital even though he had Coyotito,a very ill baby boy.In the book they tell us that a scorpion stings Coyotito, resulting in some very serious side effects, like swelling, fever, tightened throat,cramps in the stomach and then in Coyotito’s case-death.So even thought Coyotito is halfway to death , Kino wants to adventure to the Capital off of some false hope he has.He also does not realize what he does until he does it .Steinbeck explains “Kino’s face [becomes] as cold and as deadly as steel.Deliberately he [throws] the lever and he [raises]the gun and [aims] deliberately and [fires].Coming up to this point , kino only has one objective:to get the rifle from the tracker on the horse .With the rifle he will then kill the other two trackers and be able to safely journey to the Capital .Kino is way too intent with his task that he attains this ‘robot-like’ persona. He does not even realize the general area where the tracker had previously shot his gun in, which was in the direction of the cave Juana and Coyotito

Finally,Kino is a man who lets his emotions get to his head, rather than trying to figure out why he feels a certain way.Kino is not a character to be thinking out his actions before doing them.The author explains that “Then ,without warning he [strikes] the gate a crushing blow with his fist.He [looks] down in wonder at his split knuckles and at the blood that [flows]down between his fingers”(Steinbeck,12).So, the people of the coast to go to the doctors home, all together,to get the doctor to treat Coyotito of his bite he attains from a scorpion.The people of the coast are all for the most part pearl fishers , not really making a lot of income when comparing them to the people living in the town , whose career vary as they clearly have much more education.The doctors servant, a clear native like Kino and the rest of the coast people answers the door and Kino asks him if the doctor will treat Coyotito.The servant asks the doctor who rudely spats out about how he never gets paid for his work.The servant asks Kino if he has any money and he pulls out 8, ugly, misshapen, flat, pearls.The doctor then tells the servant to lie to Kino and tell him that he had to go out to a serious case.Kino knowing that this is a lie does not bother to think about what he does, he punches the door of the doctors home and walks away.He also has a lot of regrets at the end of the story.Kino looks at the pearl for the last time,the narrator explains “and the pearl was ugly;it was