The Pearl

In his epigraph to The Pearl, Steinbeck writes, “If this story is a parable, perhaps everyone takes his own meaning from it and reads his own life into it.” Indeed, the pearl’s vague symbolism means that each character’s—and each reader’s—reaction to it seems more a function of the nature of the person involved than of the pearl itself. For most characters, the pearl simply brings out greed and ambition. To those few who are sensitive to the current of greed surrounding the pearl, however, the pearl is a powerful symbol of evil and ill fortune. Juana is one such character, as is Juan Tomás, who quickly recognizes the “devil in th[e] pearl.”

At every turn, Steinbeck provides clues as to what will happen in the narrative, although sometimes his clues are obscure. For instance, Coyotito’s name, which means “little coyote,” hints at the fact that Coyotito is eventually mistaken for a baby coyote by the trackers. More concretely, in Chapter 2 the narrator discusses the native’s concept of “the Pearl That Might Be,” foreshadowing Kino’s discovery of “the Pearl of the World.” Additionally, Juana suggests that the pearl is evil long before it has visited its full measure of evil upon them. Near the end of Chapter 3, Juana even suggests that the pearl will destroy their son, as it ultimately does.