John Steinbeck based the novella ‘The Pearl’ on Mexican culture and politics. It draws from local folklore to demonstrate an era of economic hardship, class segregation, exploitation, colonialism, and imperialism in Mexico and how the characters‘ actions were shaped by these.
The Porfiriato
The historical backdrop of John Steinbeck’s ‘The Pearl‘ is the Porfiriato, which is the name by which the era of Porfirio Diaz’s rule in Mexico in the 19th and early 20th centuries is captured. The word was coined by the historian Daniel Cosio Villegas. Diaz seized power in 1876 through a coup and declared that he was going to pursue a policy of ‘order and progress’. He attracted foreign investment to Mexico and maintained social and political order, using force if it ever came to that.
During this period, there were remarkable economic, technological, social, and cultural changes. By the time he was approaching his 80th birthday in 1910, having retained power since 1884, he still had not set up any clear plans to give up power and hand it over to a successor. The sham elections conducted in 1910 are generally considered to be the end of this era, as violence broke out, and Diaz was left with no option but to resign and go into exile. Following this, Mexico went through a ten-year duration of civil war, which has come to be known as the Mexican Revolution.
Steinbeck was fascinated by all this history as he was with all things Mexican, and they inevitably influenced his life and writing. The political and social conditions of Mexico during these times are thus part of the historical context of the novella. According to an article by Melinda Knight,
The Mexican Revolution was the product of widespread anger about the policies that favored hacendados, industrialists, and foreign capitalists. Zapata’s demand for land reform, principles he later incorporated in his 1911 Plan de Ayala, directly opposed the appropriation of land previously held communally by indigenous peoples. Although Zapata was assassinated in 1919 and did not live to see the success of the revolution, his ideas influenced Mexico for the next century. In ‘The Pearl‘, Steinbeck’s protagonist Kino shows readers the effects of disenfranchisement and lack of opportunity for indigenous peoples and others excluded from wealth and power under Díaz and earlier governing systems. The Porfiriato thus forms the historical backdrop for Steinbeck’s ‘The Pearl.’
Excerpt from Melinda Knight’s essay in Critical Insights
Edward Ricketts’s Friendship
Another important historical context to this narrative is Steinbeck’s friendship with Edward Ricketts. Ricketts was a marine biologist, and according to Melinda Knight the relationship between these two constitutes a “major historical context necessary to understand…The Pearl”.
To quote Melinda Knights again: ‘Steinbeck was interested in marine science even before he met Ricketts; and some scholars have proposed that Steinbeck was “at heart a scientist,” viewing “human beings as part of a group that had to be considered, ultimately, within a general ecological perspective”’. Ricketts served as inspiration for characters in a lot of Steinbeck’s works.
The two men met in 1930 and discovered that they shared similar interests in thinking about individual and group patterns of behavior. They were both working on their masterpieces at the same time. They collaborated on a handbook for non-specialists about marine life in San Francisco Bay, even though the project did not go through. But it laid the ground for a more ambitious collecting expedition they undertook in 1940 to the Gulf of California. They collected specimens at some thirty stations along the route. ‘Sea of Cortez,’ published in 1941, was the result of that expedition.
Ten years later, Steinbeck published the narrative under his name as ‘The Log from the Sea of Cortez.’ The narrative in ‘Sea of Cortez‘ also contains philosophical digressions and, most important, the gem of the story that became ‘The Pearl of the World,’ which first appeared in the December 1945 issue of ‘Woman’s Home Companion‘ and later issued in book form as simply ‘The Pearl‘ in 1947. As Knight observed in her article, ‘The book appears to be as much about Mexico as it is about a study of marine biology, for every chapter describes the location and the people who inhabited it, very much in the spirit of the grand narratives of an earlier time.’
The Fable of the Pearl
The other relevant historical context to the story is the Mexican folktale of the pearl. In this folktale, to quote Melinda Knight for the last time,
‘an Indian boy knew the value of the pearl and dreamed of being drunk all the time, of marrying whom he chose, and buying his way out of purgatory and moving closer to paradise, along with some of his dead relatives. The Indian boy in the legend tries to sell the pearl but is offered far less than it is worth; in fact, no one will give him a fair price, the same way no one paid for the lands confiscated from indigenous peoples throughout Mexico. The brokers are all, in effect, in cahoots. In despair, he takes the pearl to the beach and hides it under a rock but then is clubbed by greedy men and tortured again when he runs away. Finally, he throws the pearl back into the ocean, and he “was a free man again with his soul in danger and his food and shelter insecure“.
This folktale is basically the core of the story of ‘The Pearl,’ which Steinbeck recreates, bringing his own ingenuity to bear on it, whereby it came alive with fresh vitality and political implications.
FAQs
Is ‘The Pearl‘ a true story?
No, ‘The Pearl‘ by John Steinbeck is not a true story. It is a fictitious story loosely based on a Mexican fable. However, the setting of the story draws on real history.
What does Coyotito represent in ‘The Pearl‘?
Coyotito represents hope in ‘The Pearl.’ He is seen as a future messiah that will bring about the emancipation of his people from the exploitation of the Europeans, which is also one of the main themes in ‘The Pearl‘.
What does the priest symbolize in ‘The Pearl‘?
The priest symbolizes the religious exploitation of the imperialists. He uses religion as a tool to further subjugate the indigenous people and exploit them.
Is the town La Paz in John Steinbeck’s ‘The Pearl‘ a real place?
Yes, La Paz is a real place. It is the capital city of Baja California Sur, a state in Mexico. John Steinbeck’s depiction of La Paz in ‘The Pearl‘ is from the 19th Century and early 20th Century realities of the city.
What is the nationality of Kino in ‘The Pearl’?
The character Kino in ‘The Pearl‘ is a Mexican-Indian. He is from one of the indigenous tribes of Mexico. While there are many distinct indigenous tribes in Mexico, the specific tribe of Kino is not mentioned in the story.
