The Pearl Study Guide

General Questions
1. Who wrote The Pearl?

2. What is a parable?

3. What is the oral tradition?

4. What is materialism?

Study Questions -Chapter 1

5. What is the purpose of the introduction? How is the story a metaphor?

6. What significance does repetition have in the lives of Kino and Juana?

7. Describe the songs Kino hears in his head. What do they represent?

8. Compare Kino's and Juana's reactions to the scorpion.

9. Describe the doctor's reaction to Kino's request.

Class Discussion Questions -Chapter 1

10. What details suggest that Kino and Juana are good people who live in harmony with their
world?

11. What does the world "whole" represent when Kino hears the "Song of the Family?"
12. What events does the bite of the scorpion set into motion?

13. What does the scorpion represent?

14. How does the doctor contrast with Kino in appearance, lifestyle, values, and culture?

15. What conflict exists between Kino’s people and the doctor’s people?

16. What does the doctor say and do that shows the conflict?

Study Questions -Chapter 2

17. How is the air described? At night? During the day? How is it a metaphor?

18. What is Kino's most valuable possession and why?

19. What new songs does Kino hear in this chapter?

20. Describe Juana's and Kino's reactions to the oyster.

Class Discussion Questions -Chapter 2

21. How is the setting a part of the people’s ways of seeing and thinking?

22. Why does Juana feel that it is "not good to want a thing too much?"

23. What does this reveal about the people’s values?

24. What "miracle" accompanies the discovery of the pearl?

25. Does Kino link the two events? Why or why not?

Study Questions -Chapter 3

26. How is the town described? How does the town react to Kino’s news?

27. How are Kino and Juana ignorant about the effect of their discovery on the town?

28. What songs does Kino hear in this chapter?

29. When does he hear them?

30. What does Kino see in the pearl?

31. What does the description of the scene with the thief and Kino suggest has happened to
Kino?

32. Contrast Kino's and Juana's reactions to the pearl at the end of the chapter.

Class Discussion Questions -Chapter 3

33. How is the town infected with a poison, just as Coyotito was?

34. How do the priest, the shopkeeper, the doctor, the beggars, and the pearl buyers each read to
Kino’s discovery?

35. How do Kino’s dreams for the pearl differ from the townspeople’s?
36. Why does Kino hear the evil song when the priest appears?

37. How does Kino change because of the pearl?

38. What experiences make Kino realize his innocence and ignorance have put him at the mercy
of others?

Study Questions -Chapter 4

39. Why are the pearl buyers excited about Kino's pearl?

40. What does Steinbeck mean when he says that a great deal can be learned about a man from
the tilt of his hat?

41. What happened when the Indians attempted to market their pearls collectively, as a group?

42. What is the significance of squinting the eyes?

43. In the office, how does Kino see the pearl?

44. Why must Kino go to the capital?

Class Discussion Questions -Chapter 4

45. In what ways have the pearl buyers deceived the natives for centuries?

46. What reaction shows that the pearl buyer is astounded by the beauty and the size of the
pearl?
47. In contrast to the first paragraph in this chapter, how has Kino broken "walls" and
"patterns?"

Study Guide -Chapter 5

48. How has the pearl caused the relationship between Kino and Juana to deteriorate?

49. In the light of Juana's views on men and women, note other differences based on the
characters of Kino and Juana.

50. How does Juana react to the murder?

51. Why is the destruction of the canoe such a terrible crime?

Class Discussion Questions -Chapter 5

52. What event Kino and Juana are no longer "one thing and one purpose?"

53. What is the "turning point" in the novel where Juana realizes that the past is gone forever?

54. What does Kino mean when he says the pearl has become his soul? What does this reveal
about him?

Study Questions -Chapter 6

55. What songs does Kino hear in this chapter?

56. When does he hear them?

57. What does Kino see in the pearl now?

58. Compare Kino's and Juana's reactions to the trackers.

59. How does the landscape contrast with the landscape at the beginning of the story?

60. How is the tracker's reaction to Coyotito's cry ironic?

61. How is Coyotito's death revealed?

62. How has the granting of Kino's wish become an irony?

Class Discussion Questions -Chapter 6

63. What do the visions in the pearl show about what has happen to Kino?

64. Is Kino responsible for Coyotito’s death? Why or why not?

65. How are Kino and Juana portrayed as noble and powerful when they return?

66. What does Kino gain from the pearl?

67. Why do Kino and Juana throw the pearl away?