I chose to write my essay on the profound amount of selfishness and greed displayed by
some of the characters in The Pearl.
The person who I feel is the most selfish is the doctor. After the baby, Coyotito, is
stung by the scorpion and Kino takes him to the doctor, the doctor refuses to treat
Coyotito because they don't have any money. The doctor makes the statement to his
servant, "Has he any money? No, they never have any money. I, I alone in the world am
supposed to work for nothing- and I am tired of it." The doctor is refusing to spend a
few seconds of his time to look at the baby's wound, which he knows could be fatal,
simply because they cannot pay him immediately.
The doctor shows his selfishness again, after learning that Kino has found a large
pearl. When the doctor sees that Coyotito is improving, he says to Kino, "Sometimes, my
friend, the scorpion sting has a curious effect. There will be apparent improvement, and
then without warning - pouf!" Then he poisons Coyotito and tells Kino he will return in
an hour. When the doctor returns he gives Coyotito the anecdote and then asks when he
will get paid.
The next show of greed comes from the dealer that Kino was going to sell the pearl to.
The dealer tells Kino that his pearl is large and clumsy, and that no one would buy it.
Then he offers Kino one thousand pesos, but Kino knows that the pearl is worth fifty
thousand pesos. When Kino doesn't agree to sell the pearl for a thousand pesos the
dealer tells his servant to go find three other dealers. When the other dealers get
there, two of them say that they wouldn't give Kino anything for it and the third one
offers him five hundred pesos for it. It is obvious that the dealers had pre arranged
this so they could take advantage of Kino, and make a very large profit. It must take a
very greedy person to take advantage of a person who had the misfortune of being born
into a poor family, and couldn't afford an education.
The next problem the pearl causes Kino is that he is attacked. The night after the
dealers tried to cheat him, Kino heard a noise outside his straw house. When he tried to
go outside his wife, Juana, tried to stop him, but it didn't work. When he got outside,
Juana heard a struggle, so she put down Coyotito, picked up a stone from the fireplace,
and ran outside. When she got there it was to late, though. Kino was laying on the
ground, bleeding from his head and he had a large cut that went from his ear to his chin.
When Juana realized how much trouble the pearl was causing, she decided to get rid of
it. She got up in the middle of the night when she thought Kino was asleep, and took the
pearl from the fireplace. Kino wasn't sleeping though, and as Juana went toward the
water, Kino went after her. He caught up with her just before she threw the pearl and he
took it from her and started back to their house. Before he got there he was attacked
again. This time by two people. Kino stabbed one with his knife, but the other one
struck him to the ground and searched him for the pearl. The pearl had fallen and laid
in the pathway, though. Juana saw the pearl and picked it up and as she walked further
she saw Kino laying on the ground with a dead body next to him. She gave Kino his pearl
and told him that he had killed a man and that they had to leave immediately.
By now, the pearl has caused the death of one person, turned everyone in town against
Kino, and caused his family a lot of pain. All because of others jealousy toward Kino's
new found wealth.
In the end, Kino and Juana finally decide to get rid of the pearl. They took it to the
edge of the sea and Kino threw the pearl with all his strength. This finally put and end
to all of their pain and suffering
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