Just elements of possible answers - these should just help you think …
The Pearl
Chapter 1
1)atmosphere of calm, beauty, harmony - family is central
2)Ritual of morning awakening : aware of any noise, waves, music, animals, is like an animal, instinct + reactions
3) Fundamental aspect of the concept of America as the New World; a world of fresh possibilities in human life => gives a new dimension to the novel
4)Song = heritage of the local people. Only Kino's people have songs = rich creative people with a personal culture before Spanish conquest. They represent their vision, the interpretation of their lives. Song of the Family: good cones from sound of waves comfortable sound of Juana's daily household tastes = familiar way of life of the family = safety, warmth, sanctity, linking the family to Song of the Evil + the Enemy: savage, dangerous - scorpion - moment of danger which threatens to destroy the family.
5)Indian Gods are distant, remote, uncaring about life - indifferent affinity between human + natural exists which is brutal and fatalistic. Ant = symbol of life.
6)The family's whole world: unity + security of the family's world; vision of the wholeness of life.
7)Kino = the monster (man), he decides, defends = the hunter, is served first. Juana = submitted to Kino, trustful, faithful but not salve - she can decide too (cf. Baby sting). Coyotito = his parent's future, hope, fruit of love.
8)She believes in both old religion (ancient magic) of her people + Christianity of the Spaniards. Her reaction = instinctive, she knows what is good for her baby , mother, protector (animal - like) - determined.
9)Fate = Evil
10)Unity, solidarity in joy + sadness they share everything = a big family.
11)Town = a prison = cold, walls, stone + plaster, aged birds. Village = freedom.
12)Witnesses of the suffering of mankind - silent observers of life.
13)He has lost his personality, refuse his first condition - sign of power. A lot of people who exploit those of the same race = a traitor - racism. He changes because he's ashamed + sympathises with Kino - disgusted by the doctor's attitude.
14)Cruel, greedy, evil, merciless, criminal (kills people) - Race of Spaniards - conquerors of Mexico. Rapacious, avaricious, abuses + despises Indians unconscious tension between Indian - Mexicans and Spaniards. People have learned to disguise the antagonism they feel for the oppressor. Apartment = rich, expensive, delicate. Doctor =fat, cruel, despising - not delicate, his wife had money - he had a mistress, dissatisfied with life.
15)Kino - light - Coyotito - Juana - music - dawn - light ants - music - other houses - sun - streak => Coyotito - scorpion. Action is stored down when scorpion Bites.
Chapter 2
1)food, money, keep a family = capital - link to the past of the Gulf people - tradition… - Symbol of social wealth - heritage - Kino = tender.
2)Sea bottom = rich, lively, beautiful, graceful.
Beach = feed on dead corpse, bodies rejected by the sea.
3)Dreamlike atmosphere. People can think that their world mingles with the world of the spirit. Things are unreal, world of illusion - impressionist description. Associated with deception (p 18)
4)Page 24: "It is perfect as the noon". - light of pure incandescence. Kino in trance - sees dream forms on its glowing surface - Kino does not see the objective loveliness of the pearl but his own secret desires mirrored in the perfect illusion of the pearl.
5)Contrast illusory promise of the pearl with reality of life which surrounds it. Aura of death: pearl is plucked from the dying flesh of the oyster. The pearl is held by Kino in the hand he has smashed against the doctor's gate. Flesh of the knuckles = grey. Torn + dying flesh of reality = reminder of harsh conditions of Kino's past life + premonition of suffering + death that will come in the future.
6)Page 24: Juana's medicine = better + cheaper but thus not recognised by doctors.
7)Things trusted + believed in may turn out to be illusions. Their world is ambiguous.
8)
9)When searching oysters: Song of the Pearl that Might Be. Music swells with the actual discovery of the great pearl. Beautiful because of its promise for a new life. It mingles with the Song of the Family.
Function:1) first appearance = announces a fresh thematic development.
Can mingle: song Pearl - Family
song Family - Evil
2) to weave a distinctive pattern cut of the events of the story. = musical
equivalent of the ideas of the novel (cf. Cinema!)
10)Gods = ambiguous. It was luck to find a pearl "a little pat…" but luck cannot be forced. "It is not good to want a thing too much". (superstition). Gods might take their revenge.
Indian world = identifiable with natural world, old Indian gods = like big symbols of nature: sea + mountain: capable of inspiring fear + sense of warship.
Chapter 3
1)
2)Jealousy, envy / shopkeeper priest beggars doctor.
3)Enemy, loneliness, outcast segregation - isolated - a prey.
4)
5)17th cent. Jesuit missionary: worked among Golf Indians. His name = goodness, generosity, courage.
6)Avaricious; Abuses social position - uses his spiritual authority to keep the Indians in their place. In sermons; sinful consequences of change. Debased religion - Christianity = pert of the system which promotes interest of the rich and powerful: corrupted by materialism (buy masses to go to heaven).
7)Success => jealousy => attack: Gods do not like success unless it is by accident; they take revenge if man acts on his own - but Kino marmot destroy his plans because they have become reality.
8)Big fish eat small fish/hanks eat nice: it is part of the nature of life: inevitable process of living + dying (not very moral) - slaughter.
9)Destroy it - break it - Family is in dangers - attack. Kino is mad - she is more realistic.
10)She trusts him: he doesn't want to lose his chance of freedom. => They are ONE.
Chapter 4
1)One pearl buyer has control of all, divided into representatives - no real competition - monopolises the market - do not pay a fair price.
2)Fisherman didn't go out to drive, to work. This day = comparable to the day of Coyotito's birth. "2 days of Kino sold the pearl" = a calendar - put on nice dress (marriage). (p45)
3)Indians always cheated by agents.
4)A soldier sent by God to guard some part of the Universe must not try to change the place allocated by God or => anarchy, danger. Not change FATE, people are predestined. (p.47-48)
5)Stout kind face hides his real nature. Eyes = cruel (hawk) performs trick with coin: it disappears and appears like magic = suggests cunning, dishonesty in the man's real nature.(p.49)
6)Eyes of hawks - buyers = organised to cheat Kino: circling of wolves - hover of vultures. Surrounded by evil. Kino refuses to sell - hunters have lost their prey. (p.50-52)
7)(p.52) Universal, impersonal nature of evil suggests fatalism. Kino = depressed, Juana gives him courage Individual is helpless against evil. (p.57) "Dark creeping things" anonymous - impersonal create a sense of inescapable, impending doom. Evil is everywhere.
8)He has cut off his own head. Has challenged the order of things - has lost his world, not gained another. (p.54-55). Kino has defied the whole structure, whole way of life => different danger hot starvation! (p.55)
9)From Juana. His family sustains him in his isolation and estrangement. (p.52-56).
Chapter 5
1)It destroys the family - Juana betrays Kino's confidence - she's unfaithful, she betrays him.
2)He is half insane -half god - man thinks he can defy God but he'll be the loser.
3)When Kino challenger the economic and social structure of his society, he has the support of Juana. He leads the revolution and she follows. She pleads for her family to change his mind but agrees in the end + gives him strength - She trusts Kino as a man.
Man = godlike, he would not accept defeat without a struggle. He way willing to pitch his strength against insurmountable (insuperable) obstacles, although the attempt might destroy.
Juana = as a woman can't understand the nature of Kino's determination to fight against the whole structure of life, but can accept such a quality. As a woman she completes her husband.
She represents the qualities of reason, caution, sense of preservation. Man = courage + imagination, The two: dependent on each other.
4)He is attacked - kills a man.
Family has to go away - Old life is gone - not possible to look back.
5)She ties her life to Kino - Fate.
6)Making a canoe is magic - Destruction of his heritage. A canoe can not protect itself. He is reduced to a tracked down animal.
7)He has lost everything - outcast - nobody wants him now - He's killed a man.
8)It's the only thing he has. It's Fate, his life, his soul, himself.
Chapter 6
1)Journey across desert = physical test of the family's endurance + ability to survive. Sort of exodus of people seeking the promised land (= the capital where they'll sell the pearl + achieve dreams. Kind of pilgrimage)
2)Rifle: power, liberation => dead man.
Marriage: in church => Juana beaten.
Coyotito: school, hope for future => sick because of doctor. Music of family => music of evil. (p.72)
3)Shares the fate of Kino - fear of fortune if they are separated, if the trackers find one and not the other. She gives strength to Kino, completes him.(p.78)
4)Pool = place of life + place of killing. (p.80)
Like sea bottom, estuary + mountain pool = group of images which suggests a microcosmic picture of life, a small self - contained world which mirrors the larger universe as a whole, including the world of man.(p.82)
5)As his parents go through their suffering, Coyotito seems to grow in awareness. Not passive. He seems to be watching and remembering everything that takes place. He has a wordless understanding of his universe. He responds appropriately to the emotional states of his parents.
During the harsh march through desert, Coyotito seems to lose his joyful innocence. "He knows". "The baby's solemn face."
6)Coyotito = little coyote (p.86)
7)Death seems to be due to malignant chance. Nobody is responsible. Stupid absurd death.
8)They are equal, they have suffered.
9)They have learned wisdom. They seem to have looked into the secret meaning of life but their knowledge sets them apart. They become remote + immune, removed from ordinary existence. It is as though their Knowledge cannot be expressed, communicated. Silence = silence of pain, of Knowledge.
10)Grey, ulcerous, evil faces - ugly - malignant - distorted insane music. (p.89). It reflects his fate, his soul, his experience + exposes human desires ad fears. It shows what is already in men's minds. At the beginning: lovely => draws to dream - Transmutations of pearl do not indicate that it is (en soi - fondementalement) inherently evil.