The Pearl

The pearl symbolizes power and money and we learned how important those things were to the characters in The Pearl. The pearl brought out the selfishness in the characters in the book, with the exception of Kino and Juana.

At first the doctor thinks of Kino and Juana’s people as animals, but once Kino found the pearl, the doctor changed how he reacted to them. The doctor was willing to do anything to get the pearl. The priest expected Kino to share the money with the church. Even though he wanted the money from the pearl for the church, he didn’t have the right to ask them for it. The townspeople believed that they should have the pearl because they had more money than Kino and that they were more worthy of the pearl. I believe that, unlike the townspeople, the neighbors really liked Kino and Juana and want the best for them. The neighbors hoped that the pearl wouldn’t go to their heads, changing who they were and making them greedy. I believe that Juana was grateful for the pearl because she knew now that she could make her child healthy. The pearl made Kino happy because he knew he could now give his family things that he could not have given them before.