The Pearl, Chapter 1 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Where does Chapter 1 of The Pearl open?

   • Correct answer: Inside Kino's brush house at dawn
   • On the deck of a pearl-diving canoe
   • Inside the doctor's courtyard
   • In the town square of La Paz

   After the short prologue, the story opens in the near dark inside Kino's brush house, where Kino wakes beside Juana while Coyotito sleeps in his hanging box.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What creature stings Coyotito in Chapter 1?

   • A centipede
   • A rattlesnake
   • A tarantula
   • Correct answer: A scorpion

   A scorpion crawls down the rope of the baby's hanging cradle and stings him on the shoulder.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What does Juana do immediately after Coyotito is stung?

   • She faints from shock
   • She runs to fetch a neighbor's folk healer
   • Correct answer: She sucks the poison from the wound
   • She plunges the baby into the cold sea

   Juana puts her lips over the puncture, sucks the poison out and spits, and sucks again while Coyotito screams; then she sends Kino for the doctor.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What unusual demand does Juana make after the scorpion sting?

   • That Kino sell all of his pearls immediately
   • Correct answer: That they take the baby to the doctor
   • That Kino fight the scorpion's cousin creatures
   • That the family move to the town

   Juana says, "Go to get the doctor," and when the neighbors say he would not come, she answers, "Then we will go to him"; the doctor never came to the brush houses.

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5. 5

   Question 5. How does the doctor respond when told Kino is at the gate with a poisoned baby?

   • He hurries to the gate to examine the baby
   • Correct answer: He sneers that he is a doctor, not a veterinary
   • He orders the servant to carry the baby inside at once
   • He promises to come as soon as he finishes his chocolate

   The doctor asks whether he has nothing better to do than "cure insect bites for ‘little Indians’" and says, "I am a doctor, not a veterinary," as if Kino's people were animals.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What does Kino do when the gate is closed in his face?

   • Correct answer: He strikes the gate one crushing blow and splits his knuckles
   • He weeps quietly and follows the neighbors back home
   • He climbs over the wall and forces his way inside
   • He pounds the iron knocker until the servant returns

   Humiliated and enraged, Kino strikes the gate a single crushing blow with his fist, then stares in wonder at his split knuckles and the blood running down between his fingers.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What is the 'Song of the Family' in Chapter 1?

   • A shared song the neighbors sing across the brush fence every morning
   • A savage, secret melody Kino hears whenever an enemy threatens his family
   • Correct answer: A personal song in Kino's head that says this is safety, warmth and the Whole
   • A prayer Juana whispers over the hanging box to guard against evil

   In Kino's head there is a personal song he would have called the Song of the Family; at its height it says "this is safety, this is warmth, this is the Whole."

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8. 8

   Question 8. Why does Kino feel weak, afraid and angry as he comes to the doctor's gate?

   • He is ashamed that his eight seed pearls are nearly worthless
   • The doctor's servant refuses to speak with him in the old language
   • The doctor has already sent word that he has gone out
   • Correct answer: The doctor's race has beaten and robbed his people for centuries

   As Kino reaches the gate, the narrator explains that the doctor's race had for "nearly four hundred years" beaten, starved, robbed and despised Kino's race, so near one of them Kino feels "weak and afraid and angry at the same time."

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these events happen in Chapter 1 of The Pearl?

   • A scorpion stings Coyotito on the shoulder.

     Happened

     When the laughing Coyotito shakes the rope, the scorpion falls on his shoulder and stings him.

   • Kino catches the scorpion before it can reach the baby.

     Didn't happen

     The scorpion falls past Kino's fingers and stings Coyotito; only then does Kino catch it and crush it.

   • Juana demands that they take the baby to the doctor.

     Happened

     Juana says, "Go to get the doctor," and when the neighbors say he would not come, she decides they will go to him.

   • The doctor treats Coyotito and accepts payment in seed pearls.

     Didn't happen

     The servant passes the paper of seed pearls back with word that "The doctor has gone out"; the doctor never sees the baby.

   • The neighbors of the brush-house village follow Kino and Juana up the road.

     Happened

     Juan Tomás, Apolonia and the other neighbors follow Kino and Juana in a procession into the center of the town.

   • Kino strikes the closed gate of the doctor's house and splits his knuckles.

     Happened

     Standing at the shut gate, Kino strikes it "a crushing blow with his fist" and looks down in wonder at his split knuckles.

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10. 10

    Question 10. In Chapter 1 the doctor says, 'I am a doctor, not a veterinary.' What does 'veterinary' mean here, and why is the word cruel?

    • A children's doctor; he is implying that he refuses to treat infants
    • A pharmacist; he is implying that he cannot mix an antidote for the poison
    • Correct answer: An animal doctor; he is implying that Kino's people are no better than animals
    • A retired soldier; he is implying that he no longer accepts new patients

    A veterinary (today we say veterinarian) is an animal doctor. By using the word for a baby stung by a scorpion, the doctor treats Coyotito and Kino's whole people as animals.

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11. 11

    Question 11. Steinbeck says the neighbors made 'a quick soft-footed procession' into the center of the town. What is a procession?

    • A formal statement of one's sins or beliefs, often made aloud before others
    • The condition of owning or controlling property, such as land, goods, or money
    • A large audience of people gathered in one place to watch a performance
    • Correct answer: A group of people moving forward together in an orderly, often solemn manner

    A procession is a group of people moving forward together in an orderly way, often with a ceremonial or solemn feel. Here the whole neighborhood moves as one body behind Kino and Juana toward the doctor's gate.

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12. 12

    Question 12. Kino watches an ant with what the narrator calls 'the detachment of God.' What does 'detachment' mean?

    • The feeling that a person or thing is beneath consideration or worthless
    • Correct answer: A state of being uninvolved or emotionally distant from what one watches
    • A strong feeling of affection or loyalty that binds one person to another
    • A small group of soldiers sent away from the main force for a special duty

    Detachment is the state of standing apart, watching without being involved or moved. Kino watches the ant and the ant lion the way a god might watch men: seeing everything, feeling nothing, taking no side.

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