Kino throws the pearl back into the sea

Kino throws the pearl back into the sea is the final, decisive action of John Steinbeck's novella, an act of renunciation that closes the tragic arc of the story. After the death of his son Coyotito, Kino, accompanied by his wife Juana, returns to the shore of La Paz and hurls the great pearl into the Gulf. The gesture is not merely the disposal of an object but a symbolic rejection of the greed, violence, and false hope the pearl came to represent, and it marks the couple's return to a shared, grief-stricken acceptance of their original poverty and loss.

The Return to the Shore

Kino and Juana walk side by side through the stone and plaster city and down among the brush houses, carrying Coyotito's body wrapped in Juana's shawl, which is crusted with dried blood. They pass the burned square where their house had been without looking at it, and they do not look toward Kino's broken canoe. When they reach the water's edge, they stop and stare out over the Gulf. Kino lays down the rifle he had taken from the dead tracker, digs among his clothes, and holds the great pearl in his hand.

The Pearl's Transformed Appearance

Looking into the pearl's surface, Kino no longer sees the dream forms of a better future. Instead, the pearl appears gray and ulcerous. Evil faces peer from it into his eyes, and he sees the light of burning. In the surface of the pearl he sees the frantic eyes of the man he killed in the pool, and he sees Coyotito lying in the little cave with the top of his head shot away. The pearl is ugly, gray like a malignant growth. Kino hears the music of the pearl, distorted and insane.

The Act of Throwing

Kino's hand shakes a little. He turns slowly to Juana and holds the pearl out to her. She stands beside him, still holding her dead bundle over her shoulder. She looks at the pearl in his hand for a moment, then looks into Kino's eyes and says softly, "No, you." Kino draws back his arm and flings the pearl with all his might. Kino and Juana watch it go, winking and glimmering under the setting sun. They see the little splash in the distance, and they stand side by side watching the place for a long time.

The Pearl's Final Resting Place

The pearl settles into the lovely green water and drops toward the bottom. The waving branches of the algae call to it and beckon to it. The lights on its surface are green and lovely. It settles down to the sand bottom among the fern-like plants. Above, the surface of the water is a green mirror. The pearl lies on the floor of the sea. A crab scampering over the bottom raises a little cloud of sand, and when it settles the pearl is gone. The music of the pearl drifts to a whisper and disappears.

Significance and Thematic Weight

This act fulfills Juana's earlier plea, made after the first night attack, when she cried, "Throw it away, Kino. Let us break it between stones. Let us bury it and forget the place. Let us throw it back into the sea. It has brought evil." Kino had refused then, striking her when she tried to do it herself. Now, after the death of their son, he performs the act himself, and Juana's refusal to take the pearl from him—her "No, you"—allows him to reclaim some part of his damaged manhood. The throwing of the pearl is not a happy ending but a stoically resolved one: Kino and Juana are reconciled to live their poor lives with gratefulness, having learned that the pearl could not buy back what it had destroyed.