 The Pearl Ch. 1-2 Reading 7 Ramirez

Baja California

European settlers in Mexico since Cortéz in 1519 – from Spain and France

Father Eusebio Kino created missions through Mexico; converted Indians to Catholicism

Before Kino, Indians did not want Catholicism

La Paz, Baja California

“La Paz” = “Peace”

Indians of Mexico

Young man

Early Morning on the Gulf

Brush House

Brush houses are built from bundles of thin sticks

Stray Animals

“The ants were busy on the ground, big black ones with shiny bodies, and little dusty quick ants.”

“ Kino watched with the detachment of God while a dusty ant frantically tried to escape the sand trap an ant lion had dug for him.”

The Scorpion Nature? (Nature is both good and bad) Fate? (The baby is destined to suffer because of … God, its race, karma, ?) Luck? (Sometimes you have good luck; sometimes you have bad luck) Punishment? (Kino or Juana has done something bad)

Foreshadowing  Kino falls into a trap of misfortune when his baby is stung by a scorpion  Hint: Will God be concerned with his fate?

The decision to go to the doctor  “the iron in his patient, fragile wife”  “her eyes as cold as the eyes of a lioness”  “And Kino saw her determination and the music of the family sounded in his head with a steely tone.”

“… the city of stone and plaster began, the city of harsh outer walls …

“… and inner cool gardens where a little cool water played …”

“… and the bougainvillaea crusted the walls with purple and brick-red and white.”

“The four beggars in front of the church knew everything in the town.

 “They knew every little scandal and some very big crimes … And they knew the doctor. They knew his ignorance, his cruelty, his avarice, his appetites, his sins. They knew his clumsy abortions and the little brown pennies he gave sparingly for alms. They had seen his corpses go into the church.”

At the Doctor’s Door  Right hand: Raised to strike the door (as if to hit a man)  Left hand: Removes his hat (respect, submission)

“On his lap was a silver tray with a silver chocolate pot and a tiny cup of eggshell china, so delicate that it looked silly when he lifted it with his big hand …”

 “I am a doctor, not a veterinary.”

“Although the morning was young, the hazy mirage was up.

“The uncertain air that magnified some things and blotted out others hung over the whole Gulf so that all sights were unreal and vision could not be trusted.

“There was no certainty in seeing, no proof that what you saw as there or not there.”

Seagull Egg

Pearl Divers