The Pearl

Did The Pearl come out before The Lord of the Rings? Because I swear I was reading a prototype for Gollum’s origin story. At the very least, it felt like it. An inspiration of sorts.

A poor Man finds “Pearl of the World” and immediately thinks his life’s problems are solved. His child can finally become literate, and he and his wife can at last get married in a church. Basic human dignity stuff.

Much to his dismay, the universe has other plans. The local Pearl buyers started colluding to lowball him, strangers started raiding his home and burning it down, a local doctor who underwent a suspicious 180. This is the same doctor who refused to treat his child who got stung by a scorpion on the pretext of being “too busy” saving an elderly woman of old age (read: he didn’t care because Kino was poor and couldn’t pay him for treatment). Suddenly, the doctor is all smiles and medical care, though any reader with half a brain realizes he's essentially poisoning the kid just to "cure" him later and play the savior.

My thoughts: Is it an inherent danger to oneself to be poor and uneducated? Or is the onus always on others to extend genuine kindness and generosity?

I guess the parable of this little novella is to beware of sudden kindness. Only after Kino found the Pearl of the World, and when the rumours spread across town like wildfire, did the Villagers, neighbours, and Doctor bother to acknowledge his existence. But all with their own agenda and motives.

The main takeaway I got is that nothing ruins a life quite like getting everything you ever wished for. Just like how Kino found the Pearl and treated it like a jewel, when the jewel was indeed his wife and kid, his family. Only after the kid’s death does he realise this, which was after he had lost literally everything.

Second Steinbeck book for me but the impact of “Of mice and men” was too memorable that this pales in comparison.