It is clear from this excellent novel that the pair pay
the highest possible price, though as we progress it also becomes clear that it is Kino
who drags the pair on into the ever-increasing path of destruction and death that the
pearl leads him to embark on. Note the way in which the pearl becomes so important to
Kino that he says it is as important to him as his
soul:
"This
pearl has become my soul," said Kino. "If I give it up I shall lose my
soul."
Ironically, of course,
this is completely true, as when he does give up the pearl, he has already lost his
soul, metaphorically speaking, in the form of his son. This is the priceless price that
the pair pay for the pearl, and note how the pair are described on their return to their
village and the sea:
Her face was hard and lined and leathery with
fatigue and with the tightness with which she fought fatigue. And her wide eyes stared
inward on herself. She was as remote and as removed as Heaven. Kino's lips were thin and
his jaws tight, and the people say that he carried fear with him, that he was as
dangerous as a rising storm. The people say that the two seemed to be removed from human
experience; that they had gone through pain and had come out on the other side; that
there was almost a magical protection about
them.
They have, losing their
son, metaphorically lost their souls, which is why Juana and Kino appear to be "removed
from human experience."
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