On page 129 of the notes in the version of The Pearl which I read, the editor writes that "the artist probes the central mystery of life as he sees it, the paradox of how evil comes out of good, the tear at the heart of laughter, the dream doomed to disappointment in the moment of dreaming, the despair conjoined with hope, with which humanity, if it is wise, must learn to live."
This paradox is realized by the story of Kino and Juana because the great pearl they found, which promised so much for them, ended up only making their lives worse because of the greed of their fellows. Kino dreamed of marrying Juana, buying new clothes and a rifle, and sending his infant son Coyotito to school, where he would learn knowledge which could be passed on to the rest of his people. Sadly, this dream was indeed "doomed to disappointment." During the family's trek to the capital to sell the pearl, a team of trackers shot Coyotito, thinking the child was a young coyote howling.
The pearl should have brought the family prosperity, but instead, it robbed them of their hut (burned down by people searching for the pearl), their livelihood (someone prevented their escape by breaking their canoe) and most importantly, their son. This great loss could never be filled by the marriage, the new clothes, and the rifle the pearl could still have given the family. Furthermore, the pearl morphed Kino into a monster. He beat Juana when she tried to return the pearl to the sea, he killed a man who tried to steal the pearl from him, and he killed all J three of the trackers. While some of his violence can be justified by self-defence, it was the pearl that forced him into these situations.
Juana understood the paradox of how evil can come from good long before Kino. On page 54, after Kino is attacked (presumably because of the pearl) and before he attempts to sell the pearl, she warns him of the danger the pearl brings: "'This thing is evil,' she cried harshly. 'This pearl is like a sin! It will destroy us,' and her voice rose shrilly. 'Throw it away, Kino....'" Sadly, her predictions were found to be true with Kino's murders, the destruction of their hut and canoe, and Coyotito's death.
I think the fact that the couple returned from their ill-fated trek side-by-side, rather than Kino in front of Juana, is symbolic of Kino attaining the understanding of the good/evil paradox that Juana had before. Juana's face was "hard and lined and leathery with fatigue" because of her futile attempts to show her husband the paradox. Kino's "lips were thin and his jaws tight" out of disappointment in himself for being so headstrong about the pearl. He has learned that the dominant social order will not allow rebellion without a fight, and more often than not, the dominant order wins. Their defeat shows in their jerky movements, "like well-made wooden dolls". Finally, Kino's advancement to Juana's level of understanding of the paradox is verified when he throws the pearl back into the ocean himself. If Juana had done it, his learning would have been unconfirmed.
So, how does The Pearl relate to the concept, "When a character acts selflessly against the prevailing vice(s) of the dominant social order, true virtue exhibits itself"? The outcome of the story is foreshadowed by Juan Tomás' account of the pearl divers who pooled their findings and sent a single one of their number to sell them at the capital, and earn more money than if they sold them in La Paz. This man was never seen or heard from again, and the town priest characterized the incident as punishment for the divers to attempt to "'leave their station'".
Of course, this is a fabrication created by the dominant social order in The Pearl, the colonists. Their primary vice is greed, exemplified by the doctor's refusal to treat Coyotito for free, and the pearl buyers' attempts to cheat Kino. They allow themselves to rule over and take advantage of the natives by keeping them ignorant, and using examples like the priest's to keep them as a lower class of society. With their low status, the natives could also be guilty of greed; it is entirely possible that it was members of Kino's own people who burnt down his hut, broke his canoe, and searched for the pearl in the middle of the night.
Kino's actions were selfish, even if they weren't necessarily bad. He planned to sell the pearl for his family's material gain; he could have planned to equally distribute the wealth among the natives, but there's nothing especially wrong about his preferred course of action. However, he intended for his son to be able to educate all the natives while he went to school, so this could be interpreted as a selfless action. Regardless, while it could be argued that Kino exhibited the virtue of standing strong in the face of oppression and manipulation by guarding the pearl and attempting to sell it at the capital, his struggle also revealed a darker side of him. Kino kills four people over the course of the book in the process of guarding the pearl and his family, who have become a target thanks to the pearl. His obsession with the pearl also leads him to beat his wife when she attempts to throw it away. This corruption seems to outweigh any virtue his struggle depicted.
No comments:
Post a Comment