ACTIVITY #2 — Characterization
Juana’s main function is Kino’s wife. As a member of a primitive race, the woman is the helpmate of the man. She prepares Kino’s breakfast for him while he sits outside the brush house, and she attends to Coyotito’s needs at the same time. When scorpion bites Coyotito, there suddenly emerges a new and different Juana, because before she seems to be completely subservient to her husband. But now, even thought she prays both to some primitive gods and also to the virgin May springs to the baby’s aid, grabbing him up and sucking the poison from his wound. She is much more effective and practical than Kino, who expends his fury by grinding the scorpion to a pulp. Juana is much more efficient as she takes control and to the astonishment of the entire Village, she wants a doctor to come to cure the baby, a thing unheard of because the doctor has never visited the peasant village, so he will not come. She decides that they must take Coyotito to the doctor.
Later her hatred for the pearl is apparent because she knows that the pearl threatens her family and, thus, it threatens her entire existence. Juana like the other natives too, is a product of two civilizations. She is filled with superstitious belief, as is noted when the scorpion bites Coyotito, and when she prays, she invokes the help of her native gods. When Juana discovers that Kino has formed the pearl of the world, she pretends that she does not see this wonderful object because she fears that if she looks and shows too much pleasure. She believes that it is not good to want a thing too much. It sometimes drives the luck away. Likewise, she is instinctively afraid of many thins – the evil figures lurking is the dark, the evil powers of the pearl, and many other unknown fear. When her husband is attacked at the night, she picks up a stone and attacks the "evil ones" with all of her fury. Not all of her actions, however, are based on superstitions. When Coyotito is wounded, she knows that the poultice made from seaweed will be beneficial to him. While Juana will revolt from the authority of her husband, as seen when she attempts to throw the pearl back into the Gulf. When Kino asserts his power and strikes her, she does not complain – in fact, she accepts his beating of her proper and in the right order of things. Although the things that Juana had been appearance and actions, we can see that she is important in the novel, because her actions and reactions to the character some time can make the plot turn to another way. Also her appearance and manner can make this novel more colorful and more interesting.
I wouldn’t like to be the main character in this novel as Juana had, because it’s hard and sad. I don’t like that she seems at first to be completely subservient to her husband and without any life of her own, and she seems to be only the hard working and loyal wife to a simple fisherman, and she also not complain about he lowly state. Later on, when Kino has found the Pearl of the World. She began to fear and shows too much pleasure that a woman can’t hold it. Moreover, she needs to thought all those painful things in the novel.
Even though I wouldn’t like to be the main character, I’d like the main character for a friend, because Juana is the prototype of the primitive native wife – strong, loyal, obedient, independent, and courageous when the occasion demands such qualities. In the novel, we can see that Juana is not merely the obeying, subservient wife when her baby was bitten. Instead, there is a determination and an assertiveness which is not usual in women of this type, also she has a fierce and passionate parental love for her son. Thus, she uses old and ancient knowledge in order to help her son. Finally, she possesses all of the values which allow this type of person to endure in spite of all obstacles.