What Does The Pearl Symbolize

What various things does the pearl symbolize, what does it mean to Kino at different stages of the novel, and what does it mean to different members of the community? These questions are what the author didn’t really intend to give us a straight answer to in the novel but instead makes us readers find out on our own. The pearl is a valuable item indeed but it is far from symbolizing wealth to me. The pearl in fact symbolizes corruption and hope to me, to Kino it symbolizes opportunity in the beginning and tragedy at the end, and to the townspeople it only symbolizes wealth. If you were confronted by the same pearl would you have picked it up knowing that the pearl represented so many things to many different people? I know for sure I wouldn’t,
In chapter 3 it says, “"My son will read and open the books, and my son will write and will know writing. And my son will make numbers, and these things will make us free because he will know - he will know and through him we will know." Kino proudly said these things because he knew what the pearl had done for him, the pearl had given him a chance to finally live a life out of poverty. The pearl had also made him start thinking and hoping about the future. This is the reason the pearl was viewed as a symbol of hope for
Kino and Juana watched it go, winking and glimmering under the setting sun. They saw the little splash in the distance, and they stood side by side watching the place for a long time”. Why did Kino see the pearl as tragedy though? The reason Kino saw the pearl as tragedy is most likely because of everything that happened to him and his family while in possession of the pearl. By “everything” I definitely mean Juana being beat in chapter 5 and his own son, Coyotito, dying in chapter 6. Losing a family member is the most unfavorable feeling someone can have, Juana also felt this when she was being beat and believed that she lost Kino to the pearl, so she in fact felt the same feeling twice when she lost Coyotito. The pearl has brought nothing but tragedy to the family ever since it has been discovered by