the pearl questions
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ch.1 What unexpected movement causes the scorpion to strike Coyotito?
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The baby's laughter makes the rope shake
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ch.1 Whose idea is it to send for the doctor?
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Juana's
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ch.1 Why do the neighbors follow Kino and Juana into the town?
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They want to see what will happen
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ch.1 What does Kino offer as payment for the doctor's treatment?
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Eight small, misshapen seed pearls (basically worthless)
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ch.1 How does Kino show his anger at the doctor?
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He strikes the gate with his fist. First blood to flow in story; Solid gate = symbol of established order and authority - the Europeans control over the Indians. Kino's striking the gate represents defiance against authority
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ch.1 Steinbeck introduces his major characters and their setting in this first chapter. What details suggest that Kino and Juana are good people who live in harmony with their world?
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Kino hears the Song of the Family. Kino and Juana look at each other and at their child with love. They are in harmony and they are content
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ch.1 Kino's songs are used to reveal his emotions. For example, the Song of the Family says to Kino: \"this is the Whole.\" What do you think the world whole signifies here?
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His world is complete - happy - perfect
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ch.1 A new song intrudes into the Song of the Family when the scorpion appears above the hanging box. A. What does Kino identify the scorpion with? B. What event does the scorpion bite set into motion?
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A. Evil B. The visit to the doctor
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ch.1 The doctor is introduced in this chapter. A. How does he contrast with Kino in appearance, in way of life, and in values? B. What details does Steinbeck use to make the doctor seem evil?
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A. Appearance - Kino - young, strong, healthy; Doctor - elegantly dressed but fat Way of Life - Kino - poverty - simple way of life; Doctor - wealthy, fancy furnishings Values - Kino - honest, kind, hard-working, unselfish, life centers around his family; Doctor - stingy, selfish, biased toward the Indians, lazy, life centers around getting wealth and fulfilling his pleasures B. Clumsy operations (including abortions), cruel attitude toward Indians, greed
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ch.1 A. What larger social conflict has existed for centuries between the doctor's people and Kino's? B. How is this larger conflict underscored by the doctor's saying, \"I am a doctor, not a veterinary\"?
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A.The doctor's race (the Europeans) \"for nearly four hundred years had beaten, starved, robbed, and despised Kino's race.\" - the Indians native to Mexico **Cortez landed in Mexico in 1519 and conquered the Aztecs** B.This statement shows the doctor's contempt (hatred) for Kino's race; he regards them as animals
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ch.2 What is the effect of the haze that hangs over the Gulf of California?
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People cannot trust what they see
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ch.2 What is Kino's sole valuable possession?
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His canoe
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ch.2 What is Kino's occupation?
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He is a fisherman and a pearl diver (not deep-sea!!!)
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ch.2 Describe his equipment.
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A rock, a basket, and two ropes (one tied to the stone and one the basket)
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ch.2 How does Juana cure Coyotito?
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With a seaweed poultice
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ch.2 In this chapter, Steinbeck describes the story's setting. How has the setting become part of the people's way of seeing and thinking?
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Mirages make people trust illusion and things of imagination rather than their eyes. The setting is hazy, reflecting the uncertain future of Kino's family
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ch.2 A. Why does Juana feel that it is \"not good to want a thing too much\"? B. What does this reveal about the villagers' attitude toward life?
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A. It drives the thing away B. They accept their lives and believe in divine control over human existences
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ch.2 Two of Kino's and Juana's desires seem to be fulfilled at the end of this chapter. One is the finding of the pearl. A. What other \"miracle\" has accompanied the discovery of the pearl? B. Do you think that Kino links the two events?
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A. Coyotito is getting better (free, homemade remedy works) B. Why or why not? Kino might feel that he has now wrested (pulled) incredible luck from the gods, for both events are near-miracles
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ch.3 What name has been given to Kino's pearl?
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Pearl of the World
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ch.3 What does Kino wish to buy for himself?
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Harpoon and rifle
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ch.3 What are his plans for his son?
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Send him to school
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ch.3 Who are the two outsiders who come to Kino's brush house?
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Priest and doctor (and doctor's servant)
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ch.3 Why does Kino change the hiding place for his pearl?
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He senses evil
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ch.3 The poison of the scorpion infected Coyotito in the first chapter, but another kind of poison now infects the town. Steinbeck describes this evil with a metaphor: \"the town swelled and puffed with the pressure of it.\" How would you describe what is actually happening in the town?
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The town is infected with greed (avarice). The town turns evil
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ch.3 What are the reactions of these people to Kino's discovery: the priest, the shopkeepers, the doctor, the beggars, the pearl buyers?
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They all think of what the pearl could do for them
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ch.3 How do Kino's dreams for the pearl differ from those of the townspeople?
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His dreams center around Coyotito's future and the family's well-being
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ch.3 Why do you think Kino hears the evil song when the first outsider, the priest, comes to see the pearl?
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The priest reminds Kino of his ignorance and of his people's subjugation (subjects of the Europeans - not equals). Priest brings in the evil song
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ch.3 After the priest leaves, we read of the first changes taking place in Kino: \"He had broken through the horizons,\" and he \"was already making a hard skin for himself against the world.\" A. What do these metaphors mean? B. How would you explain what is causing the change in Kino?
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A. He possesses the possibility of escaped from his oppressive world but knows people will try to stop him. He is beginning to protect himself against those people B. Kino feels the envy and antagonism of others now that he has the pear. He is different now that he owns the pearl, and others treat him differently as well. Because of he has the pearl, \"he became curiously every man's enemy\"
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ch.3 A. Why does the doctor come to Kino's house after refusing to see the baby that morning? B. What do you think he actually does to the baby?
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A. Greed. He wants the pearl B. He probably gives Coyotito a drug to induce vomiting so he can frighten the parents into doing what he wants
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ch.3 What experiences make Kino realize that his innocence and lack of knowledge have put him at the mercy of other people?
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The visits from the priest and the doctor (especially the doctor) have made him realize that his lack of education and his lack of experience with the real world have put him at a great disadvantage
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ch.4 Who is the only man Kino trusts?
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His brother Juan Tomás
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ch.4 How much is Kino offered for his pearl?
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1,500 pesos
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ch.4 Where does Kino hide the pearl?
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Third hiding place - under a stone in the fire hole
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ch.4 Why does Juana believe the pearl is evil?
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She believes it will destroy the family
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ch.4 What is Kino's plan to sell the pearl?
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Go to the capital (Mexico City) capital = building
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ch.4 What details reveal how the pearl buyers have deceived the pearl divers for centuries?
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There is only one pearl buyer with \"many hands\"/the price is set ahead of time/Indians tried twice to get more money for their pearls and failed/buyers pretend they are not in collusion
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ch.4 The pearl buyer's face is described as \"fatherly and benign,\" but one detail—the way the buyer plays tricks with a coin—reveals the true nature of his character. A. What does this detail suggest about the pearl buyer? B. After Kino shows him the pearl, what happens to the coin? C. How does this show the reader—but not Kino—the buyer's true reaction?
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A. He also plays tricks with the pearl sellers B. The pearl buyer's hand misses and the coin falls into his lap C. This shows he is startle by the beauty and the size of the pearl
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ch.4 By the end of the chapter, how has Kino broken \"walls\" and stepped out of \"known and trusted patterns\"?
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He has defied the pearl buyers and has refused their absurd offers; he has decided to go to the capital to sell his
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ch.5 Why does Juana remove the pearl from its hiding place?
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To throw it into the sea
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ch.5 What happens to the pearl during Kino's struggle with his attackers?
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The pearl falls in the pathway
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ch.5 How do his enemies prevent Kino's flight over the sea?
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They knock a hole in his canoe
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ch.5 Why are Kino and Juana forced to flee?
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Kino has killed a man
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ch.5 At the opening of the novel, Kino and Juana were \"one thing and one purpose.\" But the pearl has changed all this. What event dramatizes how greatly they have been divided?
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Kino hits and kicks Juana when she tries to throw away the earl into the sea (Gulf)
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ch.5 Steinbeck frequently uses animal imagery in this story to suggest a cruel world where people prey on one another. What animals are Kino and Juana compared to in the scene on the beach?
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Kino is compared to a dog (bared teeth) and a snake. Juana is compared to a sheep
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ch.5 The turning point of a story is that moment when the fate of the main character is sealed, when the events of the story must turn in one direction or another. What event marks the turning point of this novel?
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Kino kills a man
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ch.5 Kino says that the pearl has become his \"soul.\" A. What do you think \"soul\" means here? B. If Kino really believes this at this point in the story, what does it reveal about him?
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A. Kino sees the pearl as a way to escape poverty and oppression. The pearl represents the quest for freedom and for identity B.Kino has changed (dynamic character). He identifies his soul with a material objet (the pearl). In the beginning of the story, the family has the \"whole\"
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ch.6 How does Kino attempt to erase his trail?
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He walks in wheel ruts and sweeps his tracks
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ch.6 Who are Kino's pursuers?
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Two trackers on foot and one man on a horse
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ch.6 How does Kino try to lose them?
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He moves in a zigzag path toward the mountains
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ch.6 Where do Kino and Juana find shelter in the mountains?
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In a shallow cave above a little pool
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ch.6 Why does Kino decide to attack his pursuers?
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He realizes that in the morning the family will be found and killed
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ch.6 In the midst of his perilous journey, Kino looks into the pearl for \"his vision.\" But the pearl reflects only nightmares. What does each nightmare reveal about what has happened to Kino?
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\"Huddled dark body,\" Juana's beaten face, Coyotito's face feverish from medicine reveal Kino has been brutalized and has brought suffering on his family
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ch.6 Is Kino in any way responsible for his little son's death? Why or why not?
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Yes - he killed and had to flee/no - he is a victim of a series of events beyond his control
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ch.6 A. What is significant about the fact that the Song of the Family becomes \"a battle cry\" when Kino and Juana return with the pearl and the body of their son? B. What images now make the pair seem noble and powerful?
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A. They will fight the forces that destroyed their family B. They walk side by side. Juana is \"as remote and removed and Heaven\" and Kino is \"as dangerous as a rising storm.\" they both seem \"removed from human experience.\"
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ch.6 A. How does the melody of the pearl in chapter 2 compare with what Kino now sees in the pearl? B. What has caused Kino to associate the pearl with evil?
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A. It was \"clear and beautiful.\" but now it is \"gray and ulcerous\" B. Kino has killed four men, beaten his wife, lost his son, and his canoe
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ch.6 Kino at first saw the pearl as a means of gaining a kind of freedom. A. What would you say he finally gains from his tragic experience? B. How does Kino change? C. What does his final act reveal about his values?
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A.He has learned about himself and good and evil; he has gained wisdom and a new inner power (he now owns a rifle) B. He was originally innocent and happy; he gains experience, knows triumph and sorrow, becomes heroic and powerful C.He values Juana as a equal. He is unlikely to feel submissive to society (the Europeans) and more
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ch.6 Why do you think Kino and Juana throw the pearl away?
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The pearl is no longer the source of Kino's visions, his soul or his life. He renounces (rejects) the values of his oppressors (the Europeans). It is an act of defiance and an act of triumph; it belongs in the sea. It is a symbolic act.
