In the novella The Pearl, the main character, Kino, is a tragic hero. According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. Kino is a tragic hero because he finds a pearl and value of the pearl causes him to rise in social class. Kinos flaw is that his whole life is revolved around the success and the well being of his son, Coyotito, and in the end that flaw leads Kino to lose the one person he was trying to help.
At the beginning of the book, Kino and his family were simply a part of the lower class and had a reasonably normal life. Kino had a wife name Juana and a son named Coyotito. One day Kino went out with his canoe and during his time out on the water he found a pearl. “ In the surface of the great pearl he could see dreams form. He picked the pearl from the dying flesh and help it in his palm, and he turned it over and saw that its curve was perfect,”(19.
) Kino knew that the pearl that he had found was going to save his family. This moment was the start of Kino’s rise in social class. Everyone in their village found out about Kino’s great discovery, “ All manner of people grew interested in Kino- people with things to sell and people with favors to ask,”(23. ) Everyone else knew the value of the pearl and the power that Kino now had. They knew Kino’s family would become wealthy if they sold it so people were asking favors.
The village people were not the only ones that knew the kind of power the pearl gave Kino, the wealthy did too. The pearl gave Kino hope about the future of his family; he has visions of he could afford when he sells the pearl. In the pearl, he saw his son getting an education and having more than he ever would. He saw his son rise from the pot that they all lived in.
With education, him and his people will no longer be oppressed by the townspeople and taken advantage of. As the book went on it soon became clear that the pearl was not so bright and would only bring darkness. What Kino didn’t know was that the pearl was only going to wreck havoc on their family. Kino knew what he wanted to do with the pearl, and that was sell it. “ But Kino’s face was set, and his mind and his will were set.
‘ This is our chance,’ he said. ‘ Our son must go to school. He must break out of the pot that holds us in,’” (39. ) Kino knew that is was their first and probably last chance to help Coyotito and get him an education. This is where you start to see Kino’s flaw; his whole life revolves around the well being of his son, Coyotito.
Throughout the novella Kino goes through so much to keep the pearl save and sell it for what it is worth. He is doing all of this just for his son so that he gets an education. Kino’s life starts to collapse when him and his family have to flee the village. There are a couple reasons why they had to leave; Kino had killed a man and they were going to the capital to sell the pearl for what it is worth.
During their journey there were trackers that began to follow them, but they had was to confuse the trackers so they never would find them. One night there was a terrible accident and one of the trackers shoots a gun in the direction where he heard a cry, and he kills Coyotito. And then Kino’s brain cleared from its red concentration and he knew the sound- the keening moaning, riding hysterical cry from the little cave in the side of the stone mountain, the cry of death,”(87. ) After Kino was done fighting off the trackers, he realizes what has happened.
The crying was his son dying and there was nothing he could do about it. The pearl had led his family to flee the village and now it has led to his son’s death. Kino is a tragic hero because he shows all of the characteristics of one according to Aristotle’s definition. He has his rise to fame when he finds the very large pearl, making him a hero because it is going to save his family.
With the pearl in his life he starts to develop a flaw; his life revolves around Coyotito, he would do anything for him, and to try and make his life better than what he has. His flaw leads him to make rash decisions causing him to lose the one person he was trying to help, Coyotito. Kino’s flaw was something that he could not control and was something that he thought he was doing right. All of the work he put into trying to save his family left them writhing in pain and loss.
