The Pearl: chapter 6

• Steinbeck in his novel, The Pearl, portrays humans as being inherently greedy. Show the validity of this Kino and Juana walk through the town deliberately avoiding the centre of the town for they know that walking through the centre can easily give them away. When they come to the edge of the city, they turn toward Loreto: northwards, where the Miraculous Virgin is stationed. Kino is glad that the wind is blowing away the sand on which they have stepped. Therefore, the trackers will see no trails of them. They meet no other person on their way. However, Kino is worried that their footprints could be noticed when the wind disappears but is comforted by the fact that they are a long way from the town.

  They walk the whole night at the same pace. They start hearing weird animal sounds: "coyotes cry and laugh in the brush, owls screech and hiss over their heads" (P. 96). Some large animals are frightened away by their presence and Kino touches his knife to assure him of their security.

  The music of the pearl singing in his mind is triumphant and that of the family underlies it. After walking the whole night, he decides to look for a place to rest. He finds a good place, where the narrator supposes that deer had lain. He sweeps footprints from the way they had used and a cart pulled by oxen helps him lose the traces. Juana goes to sleep after serving him the corn cakes Apolonia had given them. Kino sits watching some ants moving on his foot. When Juana awakens, Kino talks to her about the things she already knows. He warns her about trees that could blind her and bring evil.

  Juana claims that the dealers could have been right about the value of the pearl but Kino argues that they would not have attempted to steal it if it were valueless. Juana then wants to know who attacked Kino but he also does not know. When Kino looks into the pearl, he sees things that make him frantic. He sees a body of a man lying on the ground with blood oozing from his neck. He also sees Juana, whose face is beaten, crawling home through the night. Apart from these two images, he also sees Coyotito's face looking thick and feverish as a result of the medicine. However, he does not tell Juana the truth about whatever he sees. Instead, he lies to him that he would buy a rifle, they would be married in the church and that their son must learn how to read. These visions are followed by the music of the pearl, which sounds sinister. It is interwoven with that of evil.

  The sun is too hot. Kino and Juana move into the lacy brush for protection. He then goes to sleep while she plays with Coyotito. A strange dream comes to him. In the dream, he screams in a guttural voice and his hands move as if he were fighting somebody. He then wakes up suddenly while moaning but still very restless. He asks her to keep the baby silent as he listens keenly for any sounds. He feels for his knife and it assures him of security as he had done an uncountable number of times before. When he peers along the way they had come, he sees the trackers for the first time. They are three; two on foot and one on a horseback. The two examine the ground once in a while for any traces of Kino and Juana. The third one carries a rifle with him. Kino knows that they are from the inland and are as good as hounds when it comes to following the trail of anything.

  He gets his knife ready in case they found the place he had swept. His plan is to attack the man with the rifle first. He digs some pits of the ground to help him leap without his feet slipping. When they come near him, he can only see their feet from his hiding place. He also notices their white clothes. They study the swept place very keenly before turning to study the horse. The trackers move ahead, still studying the ground. Kino is distraught and knows that they will be back.

  Kino does not bother to clear the twigs, displaced stones and scuffed places because they are too many. He slides back to the hiding place, where Juana and the baby hide. He is sure that the trackers will trace them and find them. He suggests giving himself to them but Juana reminds him that they will kill him. This changes his mind and he resolves to run to the mountains. They gather their items and run away into the mountains like all other animals do whenever something is after them. Kino does not bother to cover their tracks.

  The land they pass through on their way to the mountains has no water and is full of animals and plants usually associated with arid areas: cacti, deep-rooted brush, dry grass between stones, horned toads and a jack-rabbit. Kino runs to the mountain knowing that the trackers will come back once they realize that they had lost their path. He knows that they will kill them because there will be no use taking them back home. The music of evil comes to his mind. The pounding of his heart is what gives the music both rhythm and undertone. It is secret and poisonous to him. He also hears the ringing of rattles of snakes.

  After putting what he thinks is enough distance between him and the trackers, he decides to rest. He climbs on a huge boulder to ensure that no one is in the vicinity. He cannot see any of the trackers. He notices that Juana's ankles are cut and scratched by the sharp stones on their way. He suggests that Juana should hide as he continues with the journey with a view to losing them in the mountains. Juana is supposed to use this opportunity to go northwards to Loreto or Santa Rosalia. He would follow her later when he manages to escape them. He says that this is the only way since he can only be faster when he is alone. However, she rejects this proposal. Kino initially thinks that this refusal is as a result of fear but realizes that there is no fear in her eyes. This knowledge gives him strength and he is no longer afraid. Their flight is not a flight of panic anymore.

  As they continue with their escape, Kino tries his best to lose the trackers by jumping from one ledge to the other. He also moves in zigzags and changes direction once in a while. He leaves signs in order to lead the trackers in the wrong direction and then walks on bare rock towards the mountain to make it impossible for them to notice his footsteps.

  He sees a cleft ahead of them and is sure that both water and a safe passage through the smooth stone must be there. He is, however, worried that the trackers will also think about it the moment they see it. All the same, they make their way towards the cleft. Not surprisingly, they find water in the cleft. They notice that it is a place where all types of animals meet to drink water. Juana goes down on her knees and washes Coyotito's face before replenishing her water bottle. She then gives the baby some water to drink but he cries after the drink. So, she gives him her breast and is soon gurgling playfully. Kino also drinks a lot of water since he is very thirsty. He then walks off to the edge of the step and stares into the distance. He sees two of the trackers. They look tiny due to the distance. According to his approximation, they will be at the cleft by evening. So, he proposes that they should go west.

  Kino looks at the stone shoulder behind the cleft and sees some erosion caves lying thirty feet up on the shoulder.  He clambers towards them and looks into them. They are secure enough because he cannot be seen from outside. He goes back to Juana and tells her to go to the caves. Kino leaves the traces they had left on the sand uncovered and climbs a hundred feet on the next bench before coming down again. He intends to mislead the trackers into climbing the bench in order to give them time to run away. He goes to a cave next to where Juana is. He believes that this plan will work only if the baby does not cry. He asks Juana to ensure that he does not cry. He lies at the entrance of the cave waiting for the trackers to come. They take long to arrive and when they finally do, he notices that all of them are on foot because the horse cannot climb the steep slope.

  They get to the cleft at dusk and Kino can see them from a distance. They see the route he had used to climb up the cliff. The man with the rifle decides to rest and the other two squat next to him so that Kino can clearly see that they are smoking. They then start to eat as they murmur softly. Darkness soon engulfs the whole place. When animals that usually came to the place for water come, they feel the presence of men and disappear. The baby wants to make noise but Juana struggles with him to ensure that he is silent. She covers his head with a shawl.

  A match is lit from the spot where the trackers are stationed. It helps Kino see them and retain their image in his eyes even when the match goes off. He sees two of the men sleeping while the third one watches with the rifle between his knees. He goes back to the cave and tells Juana that it is possible for them to outwit the trackers. She fears that they will kill him but he is not worried about his own death. His plan is to first get to the man with the rifle and kill him in order to make it easier to deal with the other two who are unarmed. However, he advises her that in case they kill him, she should hide until they are gone then go to Loreto. He removes his ragged clothes to avoid being seen since they are white and then hooks his amulate neck-string on the handle of his knife, leaving it hanging in front of him so that both of his hands are free.

  Juana moves to the entrance of the cave and whispers both magic and prayer against the evil things human beings do. She notices the man on watch smoking. On the other hand, Kino, edges slowly on the rock shoulder. He moves on his belly so that his fingers and toes have a firm grip on the rock against which he moves. He moves his neck-string to the back so that it does not make noise as it comes against the rock for any sound including the movement of pebbles can alert the watchers. There is a lot of noise from frogs, birds and cicadas. In his mind, the music of the enemy is low but that of the family is very loud. He moves in this manner until he is at the bottom. He then crouches behind a short palm tree and breathes heavily to rid his body of fatigue.

  He is separated from the trackers by only twenty feet. He loosens his knife handle from the amulet and prepares to attack, but the moon comes out and he sinks back to the bush. He can see the watcher clearly but not the two sleepers. When the watcher lights a cigarette, the match helps illuminate his figure and Kino knows that he should not wait anymore. He plans to leap and attack him. Just as he prepares to attack, a murmuring cry is heard and one of the sleepers wishes to know what it is. The sleepers suggest that a coyote bitch could be nursing its litter. When the watcher hears the cry for the second time, he cocks his rifle and shoots in the direction of the cry. He believes that will stop the coyote from crying.

  The shot is fired while Kino is in mid-flight. His knife strikes the watcher through the neck into his chest and he snatches the rifle from him as he retrieves the knife from his body. He then strikes the head of the sitting man and kills him. The third man scampers away and tries to climb the cliff but Kino strikes him and he falls into the pool of water. He follows him and shoots between his eyes. When he is through with the killing of the three men, he hears a cry of death and notices that something is wrong.

  The narrator says that everyone remembers their return. Some were present while others were only told what happened on that day. It is late in the afternoon when people hear about their return. They hurry to witness their coming. Kino walks ahead of Juana. He carries a rifle across his arm. Juana, on the other hand, carries a bundle in her blood-crusted shawl across her neck. Both of them seem removed from human experience as they have gone through a lot of pain and overcome it. The people only stare at them as they pass. They do not even greet them. Juan Tomas tries to greet them but they do not notice his greetings. They walk passed their burnt house all the way to the shore. They don't even bother about their broken canoe. Kino rummages through his clothes and jerks out the pearl. Looking through it, he notices that it is grey and ulcerous. Evil faces emerge from it and he sees the light of burning. He sees the frantic eyes of the man in the pool and that of Coyotito lying in the cave with the top of his head having been shot away in the surface of the pearl.

  The pearl looks ugly and its music distorted. When he hands it to Juana, she refuses to throw it away and asks Kino to do it. He flings it with all his energy and it falls on the water, splashing it. It settles at the bottom of the sea. Its music becomes a whisper before it also disappears.