Song of the Pearl That Might Be

The Song of the Pearl That Might Be is a subtle, recurring melody that first emerges in Kino's consciousness as he works the oyster beds, embodying the fragile hope that a single lucky find could transform his family's impoverished existence. Unlike the established songs of his people—the Song of the Family, the Song of Evil—this melody is not inherited from the past but is born in the moment of possibility, a private tune that "hardly perceptible, but always there, sweet and secret and clinging, almost hiding in the counter-melody" of the undersea. It represents the gamble of luck against the odds, the prayer that the gods might favor a desperate need.

Origin and First Appearance

The song first stirs as Kino fills his basket with oysters, his heart pounding from holding his breath. The melody is intimately tied to the physical act of diving: "the beat of the song was his pounding heart as it ate the oxygen from his held breath, and the melody of the song was the gray-green water and the little scuttling animals and the clouds of fish that flitted by and were gone." Above in the canoe, Juana is "making the magic of prayer, her face set rigid and her muscles hard to force the luck," and because her need for the pearl to cure Coyotito's scorpion sting is so great, "the little secret melody of the pearl that might be was stronger this morning. Whole phrases of it came clearly and softly into the Song of the Undersea." When Kino spots a large oyster lying alone under an overhang and sees "a ghostly gleam" in its lip-like muscle, "the melody of the maybe pearl shrilled in his ears."

Transformation into Triumph and Obsession

After Kino opens the oyster and beholds the great pearl—"perfect as the moon," as large as a sea-gull's egg—"the secret melody of the maybe pearl broke clear and beautiful, rich and warm and lovely, glowing and gloating and triumphant." The song merges with the Song of the Family, "so that one beautified the other," and as Kino envisions a future of marriage in the church, new clothes, a rifle, and education for Coyotito, "the music of the pearl rose like a chorus of trumpets in his ears." Yet the same melody that once promised deliverance soon becomes entangled with the Song of Evil. When the priest visits, Kino hears the evil song "shrilling against the music of the pearl." After the first night attack, the pearl's music cozens his brain with "its music of promise and delight, its guarantee of the future, of comfort, of security," but Juana recognizes the truth: "This pearl is like a sin! It will destroy us."

Descent into Sinister Dissonance

As Kino refuses the pearl buyers' collusive offer and decides to flee to the capital, the song remains triumphant in his head, woven with "the quiet melody of the family" as they walk through the night. But when he looks into the pearl for his rifle, he sees instead "a huddled dark body on the ground with shining blood dripping from its throat"; when he seeks the vision of marriage, he sees Juana "with her beaten face crawling home through the night"; when he tries to picture Coyotito learning to read, he sees the baby's face "thick and feverish from the medicine." At this point, "the music of the pearl had become sinister in his ears, and it was interwoven with the music of evil." During the final confrontation with the trackers, the Song of the Family itself transforms into "as fierce and sharp and feline as the snarl of a female puma," driving Kino down the mountain to kill.

Final Dissolution

After Kino kills the three trackers and discovers that Coyotito has been shot, he and Juana return to La Paz. Standing at the water's edge, Kino looks into the pearl and sees only ugliness: "gray and ulcerous," with evil faces, the light of burning, the frantic eyes of the man in the pool, and Coyotito "lying in the little cave with the top of his head shot away." He hears "the music of the pearl, distorted and insane." He offers the pearl to Juana, but she refuses, and he flings it into the Gulf. As the pearl sinks to the sand bottom and a crab's movement covers it, "the music of the pearl drifted to a whisper and disappeared." The song that began as a secret hope ends in silence, its promise annihilated by the very violence and loss it set in motion.