John Steinbeck · 1947 · survival

John Steinbeck's 1947 novella, from a folk tale he heard at La Paz in 1940. Kino dives for pearls on the Gulf of California, his baby son is stung by a scorpion, and the doctor will not come for a man with no money. Then he brings up the Pearl of the World, and everything that follows is the town deciding what to do about it.

1. 1
   La Paz

   A brush house on the beach, a canoe inherited from his father, and a scorpion in the hanging box where the baby sleeps. The doctor turns them away at his gate, and Kino goes out on the tide because he has nothing else to try.

2. 2
   The Gulf

   He brings up an oyster the size of a fist with a pearl in it as large as a gull's egg - and by nightfall the whole town knows, the priest calls, the doctor arrives uninvited, and someone comes for it in the dark.

3. 3
   The mountains

   The buyers offer a fraction of its worth, so Kino sets out for the capital to sell it honestly. His canoe is holed and his house burned first. Three trackers follow them into the hills, and a rifle goes off at a noise in a cave.

4. 4
   La Paz

   They walk back into town side by side carrying a small bundle, past everyone who watched them leave - and Kino throws the pearl as far out into the Gulf as he can, and it settles into the sand among the weeds.