The novel The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, takes place in a small village in city of La Paz, Mexico. This village is located on a Gulf, which gives its villagers livelihood. The villagers along the coast of the Gulf thrive on the fish from the Gulf, and the riches from the pearls.

The main character in the story, Kino, is a Mexican-Indian pearl diver. He is married to his wife, Juana. At the very beginning of the novel, Coyotito, the baby of Kino and Juana, got bitten by a scorpion. The village doctor refuses to treat the baby�s scorpion bite because of the lack of money. This wealthy doctor likes to promote illness and ignorance. Although his great wealth came from treating the illness of people, his weight came from their cruelty.

Coyotito is later wrapped in a blanket and taken into a canoe as Kino goes pearl diving. While diving for pearls, Kino finds the "Pearl of the World". Kino believes that this pearl is the key to Coyotito�s health and better life as he begins to rest and the scorpion poison withdraws from his body. The pearl brought the family great wealth and Juana now looked forward to a formal wedding in the church now that they had enough money. However, there are many superstitions that persuade Juana to believe that the pearl is evil. An example of one of these superstitions is when the priest who had never wanted to see the family now came to visit to see the pearl. Another example is when the doctor hears of Kino having the pearl and now goes to treat the baby, Coyotito. The doctor gives him some sort of medicine, which makes him ill. After this incident, Kino begins to fear the welfare of his family because of the presence of the pearl. He hides the pearl, and stabs a man who attempts to enter his cabin in the night. After this, Juana begs Kino to throw the pearl away.

Later, Kino, Juana, Coyotito, and some villagers to go La Paz to attempt to sell the pearl. One of the pearl dealers in the city offers Kino a small amount for the pearl, so he does not sell it and returns to the village with the pearl still in his possession. Juana fears that the pearl is evil, so she attempts to get rid of it while Kino is asleep, Kino catches her, and beats her.

Kino then kills a man who was attempting to steal the pearl. They attempt to take Kino�s prized canoe to begin their trip to the capital, but find a hole in it. Juana returns to their cabin for Coyotito and finds that it was up in flames. Knowing he had killed a man, Kino now knows he has to hide. He takes Juana and Coyotito to his brother, Juan Tomas�s house. Juan Tomas explains to the community that Kino, Juana, and Coyotito had died in the fire and that the pearl had been stolen. The family then leaves the village.

They walked all night and during the day they would hide. Along the way, Kino quiets Juana when he hears a sound in the distance. He watches as three trackers pass them. He knows they will come back, so they leave for the mountains to try to lose them. Kino hides Juana and Coyotito in a cave near a pool of water. Ironically, the trackers also settle near the pool. Coyotito was making noise as Kino tried to steal the trackers� gun from the campsite, but the daylight would expose him too much. He took a leap for the gun and was able to kill two out of three of the trackers. Kino fires a shot, and hears Juana yell from the cave as her baby is killed by the bullet. Juana carried the dead baby back to La Paz. Kino then threw the pearl back into the ocean.

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