Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors
used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
The Pearl
Because The Pearl is a parable, the meaning
of the pearl itself—the novella’s central symbol—is never explicitly
defined. Nevertheless, though the nature of the pearl’s symbolism
is left to each reader’s interpretation, this symbolism seems to
shift over the course of the work. At first, the pearl represents
a stroke of divine providence. Kino’s people have a prophecy about
a great “Pearl That Might Be,” a perfect pearl that exists as a
perfect possibility. Kino and Juana’s discovery of the pearl seems
to fulfill this prophecy, and it fills them with hope for Coyotito’s
future and for the possibility of a life free from the shackles
of colonial oppression. The discovery of the pearl seems a happy
accident, one that counterbalances the tragic accident of Coyotito’s
scorpion sting.
Once the town finds out about the pearl, however, the
object begins to make everyone who beholds it, including Kino, greedy. The
neighbors call it “the Pearl of the World,” and while that title originally
seems to refer to the pearl’s great size and beauty, it also underscores
the fact that having the pearl brings the outside world’s destructive
influence into Kino’s simple life. As the dealers begin lowballing
him, Kino ceases to view the pearl with optimistic delight and instead
focuses on its sale with determined ambition. The pearl’s association
with good fortune and hope weakens, and the pearl becomes associated
more strongly with human plans and desires. Juana and Juan Tomás
begin to view the pearl as a threat rather than a blessing.
The pearl elicits more and more greed on Kino’s part,
as he begins to devote all his energies and possessions to protecting
it (recalling the biblical parable of the pearl of great price).
It thus comes to symbolize the destructive nature of materialism.
The implication is that Kino’s acquisition of material wealth isn’t
enough to save him from the colonists’ oppression, even though such
wealth is the foundation of the colonists’ capitalist system. In
fact, Kino’s shift in focus from his spiritual well-being to his
material status seems to represent the colonists’ ultimate triumph.
The way the pearl is depicted through the course of the
novella mirrors the changes that Kino himself undergoes. At first,
the pearl is a simple and beautiful object of nature. Once it becomes
entangled with notions of material value, however, it becomes destructive and
dangerous. The pearl is an object of natural beauty and goodness
that draws out the evil inherent in mankind.
The Scorpion
The scorpion that stings Coyotito in Chapter 1 symbolizes
a seemingly arbitrary evil that, because it has nothing to do with
human agency, must come from the gods. Biblically, the scorpion
generally represents the destruction of innocence, and the fact
that Coyotito is a baby compounds the Christian symbolism of the
event. Coyotito is touched by evil, and this natural destruction
of innocence repeats itself in the novella in the destruction of
Kino’s innocence by his ambition and greed and in the destruction
of the natives’ traditional, natural way of life by the colonists.
Kino’s Canoe
A means of making a living—both pearls and food—that has
been passed down for generations, the canoe that Kino uses represents
his link to cultural tradition. This culture is deeply spiritual,
so it is significant that Kino uses the canoe to find the pearl,
which is provided by a divine power that has nothing to do with
human agency. It is also significant that Kino’s possession of the
pearl leads directly to the canoe’s destruction, in Chapter 5,
an event that symbolizes Kino’s devastating decision to break with
his cultural heritage because he wishes to pursue material gain.
