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CHAPTER 5: Summary

Kino awakes in the middle of the night to find that Juana is not on their sleeping mat. She has

moved the fireplace stone and is walking out the door when Kino rises to follow her. Fury buildsin him at his wife's betrayal. When she reaches the beach and raises her arm to throw the pearl

 back into the sea, Kino attacks her. He grabs the pearl from her and hits her in the face and kicks

her in the side. He looks down at her as if to hurt her again and she faces him, unafraid. His facefills with disgust and he turns to walk back to their hut with the pearl in his hand.As Kino walks back to his hut, a man attacks him. Kino stabs the attacker with his knife, but the

 pearl is knocked from his hand. Juana tends her wounds at the sea and then walks back up the path. In the moonlight that gleams between clouds, she sees the pearl shining and picks it up. She

considers taking it back to the sea again, but the moon peeks around the edge of a cloud againand she sees two men lying in the path. The attacker is dead, and Kino is barely conscious. He

tells her that he was attacked and he killed only to defend himself, but they both know that it willnot matter. They must leave and save themselves because their old peaceful life has ended. Juana

goes to their hut to gather Coyotito and all the corn they have. Kino goes to put his canoe in thewater, but a great hole has been made in the shell of the canoe. Kino hears the Song of Evil all

around him. Now he and Juana must find other means of escape. It doesn't occur to him to stealone of his neighbors' canoes. He is hurrying up the path to his hut as the morning comes when he

sees that it's on fire. Juana meets him on the path and explains that the floor of the hut had beendug up and while she was inside, someone torched the hut. She doesn't know who did it.

 Neighbors run out of their brush huts quickly to see what is happening, and in the distraction,Kino and Juana make their way to the hut of Juan Tomas. Outside they can hear Apolonia

wailing in mourning because everyone believes that the family has burned with their hut.Apolonia returns to her hut to put on her best head shawl for the formal lament, and Kino

whispers to her to bring her husband and tell no one else where they are. When Juan comes in,Kino explains that he has killed a man in a fight and he and his family have no way to escape

 because his canoe has been ruined. Juan agrees to hide them for a day so that they can leave inthe cover of darkness. He warns Kino that the pearl is evil and hopes that perhaps he can sell it

and pass on the evil. Juan goes out of his hut with his neighbors and Kino and Juana can hear theneighbors raking the ashes for bones. When Kino's boat is found, Juan tells his neighbors that

  perhaps Kino went along the coast to escape the evil that the pearl brought. Juan tells other neighbors that perhaps Kino found another boat and went out onto the sea. A wind blows up that

day and convinces those who think Kino took the sea route of escape that Kino could not havesurvived the force of those winds on the water.

Juan brings borrowed supplies from each of the neighbors he visits, and gives them all to Kinofor his journey. Among the supplies is a heavy knife with a long blade that will work as a tool or 

a weapon. Kino keeps that close to him. Juan warns that there will be search parties along thesouth shore, and Kino decides that they will seek out the cities of the North. The wind that has

 blown up will cover their tracks, and they prepare to set out. Juan asks if Kino will not give upthe pearl, and Kino says, "This pearl has become my soul . . . If I give it up, I shall lose my soul."

Chapter 5: 2nd Summary

Kino senses movement near him, but it is only Juana who arises silently from beside him. Kinosees her near the hanging box where Coyotito lay, and then watches her go out the doorway.

Kino begins to feel a great sense of rage as he hears her footsteps going toward the shore; Juanais going to throw the pearl back into the ocean. Kino chases Juana, then strikes her in the face

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with his clenched fist and kicks her in the side. He then turns away from her and walks up the beach. Juana knows that when Kino said that he is a man, he meant that he was "half-insane and

half-god" and knows as a woman that "the mountain would stand while the man broke himself;that the sea would surge while the man drowned in it."

While walking on the beach, men accost Kino in search of the pearl, which is knocked from his

hand and lands on the pathway. Juana soon sees Kino limping toward her with a stranger whosethroat has been slit. She finds the pearl for Kino, and tells him that they must go away beforedaylight. Kino says that he struck to save his life, but Juana says that this does not matter. He

orders her to get Coyotito and all of the corn they have. Kino finds his canoe with a splinteredhole in the bottom. He rushes home to find Juana and Coyotito, but Juana tells Kino that their 

house was torn up and the floor dug, and someone set fire to the outside.Juana and Coyotito go to Juan Tomas and Apolonia. When Kino tells about the man he has

killed, Juan Tomas says that it is the pearl and he should have sold it. Kino begs his brother tohide them until nightfall. Kino tells Juan Tomas that he will head north. Kino says that he will

not give up the pearl, because "if I give it up I shall lose my soul."Analysis:

Steinbeck builds a sense of paranoia and imminent tragedy for Juana and Kino during thischapter, in which anonymous enemies threaten their safety. The men who attack Kino are never 

named and their origins are never revealed; although Kino suspects that they are the agents of the  pearl dealers. This anonymity is significant, for the men who assault Kino symbolize a more

generalized evil' than the specific villainy of the pearl dealer or the doctor.

This continues the string of various calamities that occur to Juana and Kino; they lose their boatand their home while defending themselves. These two losses are significant, for the canoe

symbolizes the ability that Kino has to provide for and protect his family and the homesymbolizes the idea of the family that once gave Kino great comfort. By this point in the story,

Juan Tomas joins Juana in warning Kino of the problems of the pearl, but Juana's predictions of disaster have already been partially fulfilled. When Juan Tomas tells Kino "go with God" when

Kino prepares to venture to the capital, this statement has a sense of impending doom; Steinbeck makes it very clear that a tragic end for Kino and Juana is imminent.

Steinbeck also makes the explicit point that the greatest damage caused by the pearl is the changethat it effects within Kino. The caring father and partner of the first chapter at this point in the

story attacks Juana when she attempts to take the pearl. Juana realizes the change in her husbandfrom a normal man to one with a questionable grip on sanity. It is ironic that, when Kino declares

that he is a man, he begins to act "half insane and half god," thus negating the qualities thatdefine him as a man. Steinbeck creates a tone of futility about Kino's enterprise; as the rational

and level-headed Juana realizes, Kino is a man raging against an obstacle as insurmountable as amountain or a storm, and his struggles will only cause him to destroy himself.

Kino even finds himself capable of murder to defend himself; whether Kino is capable of a morecold-blooded killing still remains questionable. Kino's comment that the pearl has become his

soul is the defining statement of his condition. It shows that Kino has ceased to be in some levelhuman; he cannot consider normal human needs and emotions, but defiantly focuses on the pearl.

The reaction of the community to the tragedies that occur to Kino and Juana is significant. Whilethe neighbors followed every detail of Kino's life once the pearl promised to bring him fortune

and renown, during this time his neighbors remain silent. Only Juan Tomas and Apolonia hideJuana and Kino but do so reluctantly. While Kino's neighbors have commented on all of the

events in previous chapters, they do not manifest any reaction to the attacks on Kino and Juana.