Plot Points
This is the inciting incident of the story.
What is when Kino finds "the greatest pearl?"
The quote, "He scattered the old women like chickens," contains an example of this figurative language device (Steinbeck 28).
What is a simile?
The pearl symbolizes this.
What is hope, wealth, and the corruption of greed?
These are the three main characters of the story
Who are Kino, Juana, and Coyotito?
Coyotito being stung by the scorpion belongs here on Freytag's Pyramid.
What is exposition?
"The coin winked into sight" is an example of this device (Steinbeck 48).
What is personification?
The procession through La Paz foreshadows this event.
What is the tragic shooting of Coyotito?
This person looks down on Kino for speaking the "old language."
Who is the doctor's servant?
This is the main conflict of the novel.
Man vs. Self; Kino vs. his own greed
"The shrill, keening cry of Apolonia" is an example of this device (Steinbeck 64).
What is onomatopoeia?
This is what the canoe symbolizes.
What is familial ties, tradition, Kino's connection to the village, and/or Kino and Juana's old life?
These people are the perpetrators of Coyotito's death.
Who are the trackers?
This an example of Kino potentially being an unreliable narrator.
What is Kino being "attacked" his first night with the pearl, despite no body or evidence of a person being present?
This quote, "he says a scorpion stung it," contains an example of this figurative language device (Steinbeck 11).
What is alliteration?
This is the importance of the baby's name.
What is foreshadowing?
This is the first person to tell Kino to get rid of the pearl, and his sister-in-law.
Who is Apolonia?
These are example of people exploiting Kino's insecurities.
What are when the doctor convinces Kino to let Coyotito be treated with medicine, when the pearl buyer holds up the magnifying glass to show Kino the "cracks" in the pearl, and when Kino himself insists the pearl is not evil and he will beat it because he is a man?
This is an example of a motif in The Pearl.
What is music? OR what are the songs?
The quote, "the music of the pearl was triumphant in Kino's head, and the quiet melody of the family underlay it, and they wove themselves into the soft padding of sandaled feet in the dust" supports that music can symbolize this (Steinbeck 69-70).
What is Kino's last hope to fulfill his dreams?
This is why the doctor, the buyers, and the priest do not have names.
Why do these characters represent the colonial upper class of people who repress Kino and his village?