The Pearl Essay

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to sell the pearl for what it is worth. During their journey there were trackers that began to follow them, but they had was to confuse the trackers so they never would find them. One night there was a terrible accident and one of the trackers shoots a gun in the direction where he heard a cry, and he kills Coyotito. “And then Kino’s brain cleared from its red concentration and he knew the sound- the keening moaning, riding hysterical cry from the little cave in the side of the stone mountain, the cry of death,”(87.) After Kino was done fighting off the trackers, he realizes what has happened. The crying was his son dying and there was nothing he could do about it. The pearl had led his family to flee the village and now it has led to his son’s death.

Kino is a tragic hero because he shows all of the characteristics of one according to Aristotle’s definition. He has his rise to fame when he finds the very large pearl, making him a hero because it is going to save his family. With the pearl in his life he starts to develop a flaw; his life revolves around Coyotito, he would do anything for him, and to try and make his life better than what he has. His flaw leads him to make rash decisions causing him to lose the one person he was trying to help, Coyotito. Kino’s flaw was something that he could not control and was something that he thought he was doing right. All of the work he put into trying to save his family left them writhing in pain and loss.