Juana Quotes

An Analysis of Juana Loyalty is “giving or showing firm and constant support or allegiance to a person or institution,” according to the Oxford dictionary. Commitment has a lot of meanings to a lot of people, some negative, some good. To this female character in the novella The Pearl by John Steinback, it meant staying with her husband, whether it resulted in multiple deaths. Juana is mentally strong, loyal, and very intuitive. She will do anything to keep her loyalty.

Juana is mentally strong and resourceful. In chapter one, her baby, Coyotito, got sick and instead of declaring hopelessness, she “put her lips down over the puncture and sucked hard” (8). Sucking the poison out proves she is mentally strong because she is ready to risk her life for her baby’s life. Later in this chapter, despite the townsfolk telling her otherwise, she walks to see the doctor, believing he won’t see her, quoting “then we will go to him”(10). Juana going to the doctor herself shows she is ready to see if there’s even a chance her baby can be saved and won’t give in to death’s grip. In chapter two, Kino is tries to find a pearl for the doctor's payment. While he's doing that, she “gathered some brown seaweed and made a flat damp poultice of it” (20) for Coyotito’s swollen arm.

In chapter five, Kino attacks her after trying to throw away the pearl, saying “she would not resist or even protest.” (76). This shows that she will stay with him even after an attack by him. Afterward, it states, “there was no anger in her for Kino''(77). Her risking her life shows how she feels she must be with him. Finally, in chapter six, while escaping town, Kino tells Juana, “I will go on and you will hide” (101) out of fear that the trackers will kill her and Coyotito too; she refuses, stating, “we go with you” (101). Juana defying her husband’s will to leave him and hide is where she is loyal to him by feeling it’s better to stay with