When Coyotito, an infant, is stung by a scorpion, Kino, his father, must find a way to pay the town doctor to treat him. The doctor denies Kino, an indigenous fisherman, out of racism, which enrages him. Shortly thereafter, Kino discovers an enormous, lucid pearl which he is ready to sell to pay the doctor. Everyone calls it "the Pearl of the World," and many people begin to covet it. That very night Kino is attacked in his own home. Determined to get rid of the pearl, the following morning he takes it to the pearl auction in town; however, the auction is actually a corrupt sham and always has been. The buyers normally fake auction each pearl and pretend bid against each other, but in reality they are all paid a salary by a single man, they all turn the pearls over to him and he resells them outside the village, thus cheating the locals. The corrupt pearl buyers try to convince Kino that the pearl is the equivalent of "fools gold" and they refuse to pay any more than incredibly low amounts of money. Kino decides to go over the mountains to the capital to find a better price. Juana, Kino's wife, sees that the pearl brings darkness and greed, and sneaks out of the house late at night to throw it back into the ocean. When Kino catches her, he furiously attacks her and leaves her on the beach.

1. The Pearl
Listening
Task -
Chapter 3

2. Question 1
This is an example
of an extended
metaphor, what does
it show about the
town?

3. Question 2
What does each of
the professions
think of when they
hear the news of
the pearls
discovery?

4. Question 3
What do the pearl
buyers do in the
city? What is the
worst possible result
for their business?

5. Question 4
What did the
pearl stir up
in the town?

6. Question 5
What does Kino see
in the pearl?
Record a section or
quote to illustrate
this scene.

7. Question 6
What things
does Kino
desire?

8. Question 7
Humans are
always…?

9. Question 8
What does
Kino dream of
for Coyotito?

10. Question 9
What two options
does the town
foresee for
Kino?

11. Question 10
Who arrives
and how does
he view ‘these
people’?

12. Question 11
How would
Coyotito’s imagined
future fix or
improve the current
situation?

13. Question 12
Who visits
the house
first?

14. Question 13
What do plans
do? What risks
does it bring?

15. Question 14
Who visits
the house
second?

16. Question 15
What does the
doctor suggest
of Coyotito’s
wound?

17. Question 16
What does the
doctor give to
Coyotito? What
prediction does
he make?

18. Question 17
What does
Kino do with
the pearl?

19. Question 18
What is described
in this section?
What purpose does
it serve for the
story?

20. Question 19
What changes in
Coyotito? What
song rises?

21. Question 20
What does the
doctor ask of
Kino? What do we
suspect about the
doctor, as
readers, at this

22. Question 21
What do Kino’s
involuntary eye
movement reveal
to the doctor?

23. Question 22
What song and
what sound
raises Kino’s
attention?

24. Question 23
What happens
in the dark
of night?

25. Question 24
What does
Juana ask of
Kino at this
point?

26. Question 25
What effect does
the pearl have
on Kino at this
point?

27. Question 26
What is the final
line of the chapter?
What does it
foreshadow about the
remainder of the
novella?