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Coyotito
The doctor is the ultimate embodiment of evil and greed in The Pearl. The opposite of what one would expect of a doctor, whose job is to care for others, he is selfish, indulgent, and malevolent, and cares only about his own wealth and pleasure. He lives alone (his wife is dead) and lies in bed all day, eating candies and chocolate. When he is first asked to care for Coyotito, he refuses and cruelly proclaims that he is not a “veterinarian.” As soon as he hears of Kino’s pearl, however, he falsely claims that he always intended to treat the baby. It is not clear, then, whether the treatment he uses on Coyotito is effective, or if he just manipulates Coyotito’s condition to worsen and then improve, making himself look good. All he cares about is getting Kino’s pearl and it can be assumed, given that he watches Kino’s eyes so closely to see if they indicate the pearl’s location, that he is responsible for at least one of the violent nighttime theft attempts in Kino's house.
The doctor Quotes in The Pearl
The The Pearl quotes below are all either spoken by The doctor or refer to The doctor. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1 Quotes
This doctor was of a race which for nearly four hundred years had beaten and starved and robbed and despised Kino’s race, and frightened it too, so that the indigene came humbly to the door.
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The perfect morning is irreparably broken when Coyotito is stung on the shoulder by a scorpion. Though Juana quickly sucks out the poison, Kino and Juana fear for their baby's life. Determined to have him healed, Juana declares that they will bring Coyotito to the doctor. In this quote, the narrator notes that the doctor is of a different race than Kino, Juana, and Coyotito. He is a white descendant of Europeans who brutally colonized the lands on which Kino's ancestors have lived for thousands of years. As a result, the doctor has money and influence whereas Kino's people have Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asp
Chapter 2 Quotes
She gathered some brown seaweed and made a flat damp poultice of it, and this she applied to the baby’s swollen shoulder, which was as good a remedy as any and probably better than the doctor could have done. But the remedy lacked his authority because it was simple and didn’t cost anything.
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Having been turned away from the doctor's home, Juana creates a poultice from seaweed to soothe the baby's sting. In this quote, the narrator notes that while this remedy is likely just as effective as the doctor's treatment would have been, Juana views it as unsatisfactory because it was hastily created by her and not by an expensive white doctor with a degree. This point of view represents the influence that colonization has had on the indigenous people in La Paz. Though Juana and Kino's people have been living in the region for thousands of years, the sudden influx and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit b
Chapter 3 Quotes
And he could not take the chance of pitting his certain ignorance against this man’s possible knowledge. He was trapped as his people were always trapped, and would be until, as he had said, they could be sure that the things in the books were really in the books.
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The doctor hears about Kino's discovery of the pearl, and suddenly becomes interested in the young family with the injured baby. He goes to Kino's house, and asks to see Coyotito. He tells the worried parents that he has seen the attack of a scorpion sting many times before, and that Coyotito, though seemingly healing, is still in danger. In this quote, Kino is wary of the doctor's claims that Coyotito is still in danger of the scorpion's poison. Yet, he notes that he was "trapped," just as his people had been trapped by colonists for years. When the European Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus p
[The doctor] held the eyelid down. “See—it is blue.” And Kino, looking anxiously, saw that indeed it was a little blue. And he didn’t know whether or not it was always a little blue. But the trap was set. He couldn’t take the chance.
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After examining Coyotito, the doctor points to a blue vein in the baby's eyelid, and claims it to be the poison from the scorpion's sting. Kino, though worried about his son, is still unsure whether the doctor is making things up that he knows Juana and Kino will believe, or if the baby is actually sick.The doctor gives the baby a little bit of powder, claiming that the poison will "attack within the hour." Sure enough, the baby begins to vomit, and the doctor treats him again, saying he has saved Coyotito's life. The reader is left unsure as to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error
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The doctor Character Timeline in The Pearl
The timeline below shows where the character The doctor appears in The Pearl. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
Just as Kino is admiring her fortitude, Juana demands that the doctor be gotten.
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Her request, both wonderful and surprising (because the doctor never visits their neighborhood), spreads quickly through the neighbors. When word gets back that the...
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...there, who know everything about the town—the sins of its inhabitants, the bad ways of the doctor —pin Kino and Juana down as “poverty people,” and look on to see what will...
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At the doctor ’s gate, Kino hesitates, recalling that the doctor’s people had historically oppressed his own people....
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The Doctor , fleshy and stout, is in his bed, drinking chocolate in a Parisian dressing gown...
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When the servant tells the doctor about Kino and Juana, and Coyotito’s scorpion bite, the doctor becomes angry, insulted by the...
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The Doctor asks if Kino has any money, so the servant returns to the gate and asks...
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Chapter 3
When the doctor hears of Kino’s pearl, he openly declares that Kino is his client and that he...
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The doctor arrives at the brush house, proclaiming his intention to see the baby, with his servant...
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Kino replies that Coyotito is almost all better, but the doctor retorts that there often appears an improvement before a worsening. He shows his doctor’s bag,...
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Kino feels trapped between rage and fear, but finally lets the doctor enter. The doctor goes to Coyotito and points to the blueness of Coyotito’s wound, as...
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The doctor feeds Coyotito a capsule with white powder and gelatin, predicts that the poison will attack...
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When the doctor has gone, Kino wraps the pearl in a rag and hides it in the floor...
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...Kino to show him Coyotito’s stomach spasms and flushed face, which convince the couple that the doctor knew what he was talking about. The neighbors gather when they hear of the sickness.
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The doctor returns and declares that he is able to defeat the effect of the poison. He...
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Kino says that he will pay the doctor once he’s sold his pearl. The doctor feigns to not have heard about the pearl,...
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