36 pages • 1 hour read
Scott O'DellThe Black Pearl
Fiction | Novella | Middle Grade | Published in 1967A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary
Five days later, Father Gallardo throws a large celebration, inviting people far and wide to come view the black pearl. The pearl now sits in the outstretched hands of the Madonna inside the church. During the celebration, the statue is brought down to the beach to bless the Salazar fleet.
After the Madonna is returned to the church, Ramón prays at her feet. As he leaves, the Sevillano approaches him and begins to brag that the pearl he found in Persia was larger. Ramón has changed, however, and does not get irritated with the other man like he once would have. The Sevillano attempts to get Ramón to tell him where he found the pearl to no avail. Soto Luzon then arrives and warns Ramón once more that the pearl belongs to Manta Diablo and not to the Madonna or the church. Blas is quick to write off Luzon, insisting that they will go to the lagoon to find more great pearls.
Chapter 11 Summary
The fleet sails to Isla Cerralvo that morning, but a vicious storm hits La Paz that night. Ramón and his mother worry for the fleet. The next morning, they go to the beach to wait for them to return. Father Gallardo meets them there, saying that the Madonna has watched over and protected the fleet from harm. Despite the long wait, only Luzon arrives; he tells Ramón that he will likely never see the fleet again. Ramón leaves in a rage but returns at nightfall to find his mother speaking with Father Gallardo, seeking comfort in the thought that the Madonna will protect Blas. The next morning, a bloody and exhausted Gaspar Ruiz washes ashore. He tells them that the entire fleet has been lost.
Chapter 12 Summary
The Sevillano is the only man out of the 32 divers in the Salazar fleet to survive. Father Gallardo holds a service for their dead. The town begins to gossip about the possible connection between the pearl’s arrival in La Paz and the terrible storm the night before.
Ramón’s faith in the Madonna is shaken, so he steals the black pearl from the church to return to the lagoon. On his way out of the church, the Sevillano sees him stealing the pearl but says nothing. Ramón almost confesses his theft to his mother and Father Gallardo but refrains from doing so. That night, with the pearl hidden in his shirt, Ramón takes a boat to the lagoon where the Manta Diablo lives.
Chapters 10-12 Analysis
This section of The Black Pearl contends with the different types of faith that manifest within the text. Though the myth of the Manta Diablo has been repeated by many throughout the course of the novel, Blas and Ramón are both quick to discredit it as soon as it stands in the way of economic gain. The juxtaposition between Blas’s faith in the Madonna and his dismissal of Luzon’s belief in the Manta Diablo speaks to his lack of awareness and hypocrisy. While his faith makes Blas a man respected and revered in La Paz, Luzon’s belief in the Manta Diablo leads the townspeople to shun him; Blas even describes him as “a crazy Indian” (61). Despite Luzon’s long business relationship with the Salazar family, Blas is quick to dismiss him on the grounds of his ethnicity and faith the moment that he believes Luzon stands in the way of his prosperity.
Luzon tries endlessly to warn Ramón to return the black pearl before disaster strikes, denying that it can ever belong to the Madonna or church: “You are still a boy and there is much that you do not know. Therefore I must tell you that the pearl does not belong to the Madonna nor to the church nor to the people who were singing. It belongs to the Manta Diablo and someday he will take it back. Of this I solemnly warn you” (60). Luzon thus challenges both Ramón and his Christian faith. Unlike the Sevillano, however, Luzon does not do this out of a lack of belief; his words reflect his own deep faith in the Manta Diablo as a legend passed down by his own family. Although other characters are quick to dismiss this as superstition, the novel validates at least some of Luzon’s fears, suggesting that his indigenous beliefs are no more irrational than the other characters’ Christianity.
Luzon’s character draws on the Cassandra archetype. In Greek myth, Cassandra was an oracle of Apollo who was cursed to tell prophecies but to be forever disbelieved. As Ramón and Blas continue to ignore Luzon, he becomes the harbinger of death. As the townsfolk wait for the fleet to return, Luzon pulls into the harbor on his red canoe and tells Ramón, “I have not seen the fleet…Nor will I ever see it again, nor will you, señor” (65).
Ramón is furious at Luzon and storms away without answering him, but his anger reflects his own uncertainty. From the moment that the Salazar fleet disappears, Ramón begins a struggle with his faith, torn between logic, faith in the Madonna, and belief in the Manta Diablo. Though these things are not inherently mutually exclusive, different characters in Ramón’s life appear to believe strictly in one or the other. Ruiz, Blas, and Luzon all stand in for different kinds of faith—faith in reason, the Christian God, and the Manta Diablo, respectively—and it is not until the end of the novel that Ramón decides that believing in all three is a possibility.
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By Scott O'Dell
