As I was thinking Kino was finally going to successfully sell "the Pearl," the author once again struck me with how selfish and evil humans can be when faced with temptation or benefit, and there is barely any exception. Besides being attacked again, it turned out that even the pearl dealers worked together to try to cheat Kino by intentionally underestimating the price of "the Pearl." They want to take this opportunity to rip Kino off, but Kino is aware of their bad intentions, so he decides to go to the capital, where he believes there are "real" dealers who will give him a fair price for "the Pearl." However, except for Kino himself, everyone disagrees with this decision; they think it's too dangerous to go to a new place and that he should just accept the price the dealers in the village offered. Again, Juana (Kino’s wife) suggests that Kino throw away "the Pearl," but this time with even greater fear. Last time I stood with Kino—I thought he shouldn’t let the chance to make a fortune slip away from his hands. But now, I totally understand and feel Juana’s terror and worry as they’re in an even more dangerous situation. I feel that if Kino doesn’t give up "the Pearl," sooner or later, he and his family will die because of it, even though it was supposed to bring them a bright future.
What impressed me this time is the way the author conveys the characters' state of mind to readers. He makes readers notice the characters' emotional transitions without stating them directly, instead depicting changes in their behaviors and movements. That's a really impressive skill I’ve noted down.
The following are the parts I collected that show this technique.
“He rolled a coin back and forth over his knuckles and made it appear and disappear, made it spin and sparkle. The coin winked into sight and as quickly slipped out of sight, and the man did not even watch his own performance. The fingers did it all mechanically, precisely, while the man hummed to himself and peered out the door. Then he heard the tramp of feet of the approaching crowd, and the fingers of his right hand worked faster and faster until, as the figure of Kino filled the doorway, the coin flashed and disappeared.”
“And secretly, behind his desk, his right hand practiced with the coin.”
“But there was no sign, no movement, the face did not change, but the secret hand behind the desk missed in its precision. The coin stumbled over a knuckle and slipped silently into the dealer's lap.”
“And his right hand went behind the desk and pulled another coin from his pocket, and the coin rolled back and forth over the knuckles.”
We could tell from those texts that the character's state of mind gradually shifts from calm and relaxed to increasingly tense.
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