When Kino and Juana’s baby is stung by a scorpion, their poverty means the local doctor refuses to help. Finding the ‘Pearl of the World’...

When Kino and Juana’s baby is stung by a scorpion, their poverty means the local doctor refuses to help. Finding the ‘Pearl of the World’ appears to be the change in fortune they desperately need but fate intervenes. John Steinbeck’s short parable reveals the darkness that wealth can instill.