“It is not good to want a thing too much. It sometimes drives the luck away. You must want it just enough, and you must be very tactful with Gods or the gods.”
Kino wanted the pearl “too much.” Ancient beliefs of his culture stressed that if one wanted something too much, “it sometimes drives the luck away.” A primary folk saying of his people stressed that, “you must be tactful with Gods or the gods,” This adage highlights the inherent conflict of this story, which is that the villagers were attempting to appease the forces underlying both their ancient folk teachings and the Christian beliefs. This conflict is brought forward in John Steinbeck’s, novella, The Pearl,as Juana (Kino’s wife) uses both prayer and magic to convince both sets of gods to help her husband dive for and find the most treasured pearl in the world. The couple believed that they must find and secure this rare treasure to secure modern medical treatment, which they believed could save their infant son from a scorpion bite. The validity of this belief is at the central core of this story, as they later find out that they had the means to cure their son by using traditional natural folk remedies.
Steinbeck noted in the opening page, that his story is a parable, and as such, people would have to find their own meanings in it in accordance with their views about life. Last week our Classic Book Club (in Midlothian, Virginia), met in an attempt to discern the treasured deeper meanings of The Pearl, and to discover if we could somehow apply some of these to our own lives. This was not the first discussion of Steinbeck’s work, but we found it to be his most interesting one to talk about thus far. You can find previous discussions of some of his other books on previous blogs on this site. Half of the 12 men and women in our Club had never read the book before (including me). Interestingly several, who had read it before,had also taught it years ago in high school or college. Those teachers reported that their students enjoyed the book. As senior readers they also liked it, but found a more skeptical tone in it than their young students. I pointed out that Steinbeck has been applying increasing doses of skepticism from his earliest notable book, Of Mice and Men (1937 ) to his last one, Travels with Charlie (1965). As The Pearl (1947) is in the middle of his published works, a fair share of cynical tones and themes can be found here.
One thing that is different about The Pearl from Steinbeck’s other important books is that it does not give specific contextual clues which define the time or characters. Since he spent time in the Sea of Cortez and later wrote about indigenous people of Mexico, we may assume that he based his story on folk legends that he heard when he was conducting research in that area. However, it is these contextual uncertainties that make this story harder to critique than his other time-based novels, and it also makes discovering the richest Treasures of The Pearl that much harder to dive for.
As a parable, readers need to look to Joseph Campbell in his books such as,. The Hero’s Journey and The Power of Myth to help interpret the lessons the author intends us to learn from this form of literature. Campbell defines myths as organizations of symbolic forms, images, and narratives that are metaphors of the possibilities of human experience. In such stories, the hero is either chooses to embark on, is called upon, or forced unwillingly into the realm of adventures to meet a difficult, but necessary challenge. As part of the cycle, he is then tested, suffers setbacks, collects allies and fortifications, triumphs in some way, and then returns to a starting point with some added power, knowledge, and/or wealth. Campbell also said that myths are “symbolic stories that illuminate specific social, spiritual, or cultural values,” The stories may or may not be associated with a particular culture, but myth literature, he concluded, highlights “the inner elements and common points of reference across the entire human species.”
If The Pearl is based on a Mexican folktale, then we may assume that it symbolizes struggles between generations of indigenous people who accepted natural folk wisdom, and the beliefs and customs later brought by Christian missionaries and European and American Colonizers. This story highlights the idea that once highly valued ancient wisdom was steadily losing its influence with the ethnic people; yet they were not quite ready to fully accept the tenants of the modern religion, or the culture being imposed on them by outsiders. As the missionaries were trying to force Christian teachings on the villagers, the indigenous people were desperately trying to hold onto their ancient songs and ways. This idea was symbolized by Juana, who could only remember three notes of the ancient music of her ancestors and her childhood. Another important ancient symbol is Kino’s canoe, which had helped to provide sustenance fishing for his family, and had been handed down to him by his grandparents. He found that it had been destroyed after he found the Pearl. But, was it killed” by the villagers, the missionaries, or the mercenaries? We don’t find out. But it hardly matters since Steinbeck’s message in The Pearl is that the ancient ways of living were being torn apart from both inside and outside forces.
The journey of The Pearl involves a reluctant hero (Kino) and his wife (Juana) who go against the beliefs of their culture and the expectations of the modern missionaries and merchants outside of their community to fulfill their self-chosen quest. The Pearl is different from the typical model of the hero’s journey, in that it is difficult to decide whether either the traditional or modern set of values support the heroes efforts to achieve their purpose. After reading this book, it is hard to decide whether their Journey was needed at all, or misguided. The basic dilemma is that they believe that they were forced to leave their community to get the full value of the world’s most treasured Pearl. The. By any value system, including those of the hero’s journey, Kino and Juana gained this treasure and its consequent wealth and fame by using magic:, which is an illegitimate shortcut to achieve success under both traditional and modern practices. In our book club discussion I felt that this was an important element, signalling that Steinbeck was not admonishing against hard work and rising above your means. Instead, I think he was saying that success must be gained by putting in legitimate effort and sacrifices. The difficulties of this situation were set in motion as the modern doctor would not treat their child from the scorpion bite until he found out that the native couple had obtained the Pearl. As we see, the entire ethnic and modern community became envious of Kino’s and Juana’s fortune. Everyone becomes is a suspect in schemes of trying to swindle or violently steal their pearl from them. It’s questionable if they really needed the Pearl in the first place, as Juana already had the needed medicinal folk knowledge and skill to heal their child.
Obtaining the pearl was not the end of the journey for the couple;it was just the beginning. For the most part, they were affected by the greed that comes with the acquisition of unnatural wealth and fame. Our book club members associated this greed with people in our society who win millions of dollar in the lottery: Success goes to their head and they wind up losing more than they have gained. We noted that Kino and Juana’s actions were also condemned by Christian teachings. The most striking support for this message may be found in the parable of Matthew 13: 45-46 where Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a
merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” Steinbeck’s reversal of the Bible verse is that the pearl finder had to give up everything he valued in an attempt to seek its full value. After the Kino and Juana found the Pearl, they were not able to enjoy the simple but rich joys of community life they once had taken for granted, Instead they had to spend their entire time and energy trying to protect their treasure. One of our participants also reminded us that the Bible verse: 1 Timothy: 6-10 teaches that “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils.” This passage certainly adds relevance to this story and has value in any culture or tradition. With such strong warnings from both traditional folk communities and modern Biblical wisdom, Kino and Juana were bound to fail in their mission to get the full value for their Pearl. Subsequently they returned from their heroic journey without achieving their stated goal. We find them diminished in the end, but perhaps in a more enlightened state than they were before they started. Would they be able to apply the knowledge and tough trials they experienced to help themselves to recover from their deep losses? Would they even be accepted in their village and allowed to live there safely? In the best possible case, would they be able to use the knowledge gained through their misfortunes to assist their community in some way? Steinbeck does not provide readers with any clues to answer these questions, as he warned us earlier that each of us must “take our own meaning from it.” Write me with your opinions to get involved in this discussion.
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Dr. Murray Ellison received a Master’s in Education from Temple University (1973), a Master’s Degree of Arts in English Literature from Virginia Commonwealth University (2015), and a Doctorate in Education at Virginia Tech (1988). He is married and has three adult daughters and a new grand-daughter! He ‘retired’ as the Virginia Director of Community Corrections for the Department of Correctional Education in 2009. Included in his ‘after-retirement activities,’ he is the founder and chief editor of this literary blog, and he is an editor for the International Correctional Education Journal. He is the Co-Editor of the 2016 book of poetry, Mystic Verses, by Acharya Shambhushivananda, and is an Editor for The First Mennonite Church of Richmond’s Newsletter. He serves as a board member and volunteer tour guide for the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond Virginia. Mainly, however, for the last several years, he has taught literature classes for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Richmond. Effective August 2018, he started teaching English Writing & Research Classes at the Richard Bland College of William & Mary University. Finally, in his ‘spare time,’ he tutors two school youth, does occasional professional editing and coördinates both The Midlothian, Virginia, Classic Book Club and the VCU Working Titles Book Club. Contact Murray at ellisonms2@vcu.edu, or leave a note at the bottom of the post.
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When you referred to Kino as a hero, I would venture to say that Juana also is a hero. She is the one who actually saved her child’s life and helped Kino to realize how useless the Pearl was to their happiness.
Hi Ann
I certainly agree that if Kino could be considered as a hero in this story, then Juana would also be one. In this post, I questioned whether the call they heard to go on their journey was legitimate, or even necessary.