Chapter 6

The end is near! No not like the end of the world, but the end of Kino and Juana’s story. Kino and Juana flee in the night with Coyotito while the town sleeps, trying not to make any trace of their journey. They go and go and go all night until they camp on the roadside when the sun rises. Juana rest until noon as Kino stays awake, completely aware of everything. She wakes up and asks Kino about the worth of the pearl, maybe he was too blinded and the pearl is not worth anymore than the dealer offered. But he tells her that if that were the case, than he would not have been attacked for it.

The next part is what stood out to me most in the book. Kino knows that he lied to Juana. He told her that he sees them getting a harpoon and rifle, a proper wedding, and education for Coyotito; but in reality, all he sees is blood. He sees his body on the ground, Coyotito looking as if he were sick, and Juana heading home a beaten mess. That’s powerful, to lie and continue on the same path for greed and not the well-being of your loved ones.

As they go forth and then take another rest, Juana can not sleep. She stays awake while Kino rest. He awakes in a huff and commands them to be quiet. He leaves them and steadily goes forward until he sees three men who appear to be trackers. He watches them grow near and gets ready to attack by grasping his knife; Juana quiets Coyotito as she also realizes what’s going on. For a quick moment it seemed as if they were about to discover Juana and Coyotito, but they lose their trail.

Kino hurries back to Juana and tells her to get everything they need to leave, it’s only a matter of time before they come back. But he breaks down and thinks that this is all pointless and hopeless and that he doesn’t want to run anymore. Immediately Juana snaps at him, he gives up on them and she tells him she will resent him for this. He gains his sense and thinks that he can lose them if he brings them to the mountains.

They go on, irresponsibly leaving tracks. Kino tries to tell Juana that when they take a break, he should keep going. That way the trackers will follow him and she and Coyotito will be safe. But she’s not hearing it, she refuses to split up. They find a cave with a waterfall and refill their supply and clean Coyotito. As Kino looks out, he notices the men hurrying up toward them! Kino attempts to make a diversion trail to draw them away from the cave, so that they pass his wife and child.

However by evening they make camp at the pool on the cave and eat. Juana keeps Coyotito quiet the whole time, even though she is very scared. Kino notices that two of the men are asleep and that the third is his chance to get his family away safely. He tells Juana he must try to kill the man, for his family. She is so scared but he convinces her, and tells her to run to the nearest town should he die. At this point he strips to avoid being noticed. I’m biting my nails right now, I don’t know if he is going to live or if they’re all going to die or not.

He takes out his knife, ready to attack. But just as he is about to the moon shines and he knows his shot was blown. He now waits for the man to turn his head. But suddenly, Coyotito starts crying! Coyotito cries so loud that he wakes one of the men. They wonder whether it is a human or coyote cry, but they fire a shot toward the cries anyways to quiet it. In that moment Kino takes his opportunity and lunges at the watchmen with the knife and takes his rifle. He knocks the other man out with a hard blow of the butt of the gun. The third man runs up the cliff as Kino watches. He aims and shoots him with the first shot. When he gets to him, he shows him no mercy. He shoots him right in between the eyes, no remorse.

All of a sudden everything seems to have went smoothly, they can escape now! But before relief can even settle in his mind, he feels the uneasy silence and then suddenly hears wails from his wife. He rushes to her, to see a scene that would make the strongest man drop to his knees. The shot that the watchmen fired had struck Coyotito in the head, killing him instantly.

The next day, Kino and Juana return back to the town, with Coyotito’s body in a sack over Juana’s shoulder. They don’t greet anyone, even as they stare. Juan can only raise his hand as he is speechless. They continue toward the shore. When they arrive, they both stare at the pearl in Kino’s hand. All the horrible memories flash in front of Kino until he is so angry he takes and throws it into the ocean as far as he can and he and Juana stare at the spot it splashes in as the sun sets.

The ending had to be one of the most unexpected endings I have ever read. It shows that greed doesn’t bring anything but evil. Now Kino and Juana are homeless, and have no canoe for Kino to fish or search for pearls. Most of all, they lost Coyotito, their infant son. In the moral aspect, the pearl was the most evil thing that can happen to them, as even if they wouldn’t have found it, they still would have lost Coyotito. This story is very sad in the end, however not all is lost as they still have their lives, even though their innocence and lifestyle can never be revisited.