The Black Pearl

American author Scott O’Dell’s The Black Pearl is a young adult novel and bildungsroman (coming-of-age story) that was first published in 1967. The Black Pearl was a runner-up for the Newbery Medal, which recognizes distinguished American children’s literature. The work’s literary influences include Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, and John Steinbeck’s The Pearl—another novel set among the pearl divers of La Paz. Scott O’Dell is best known for historical children’s fiction and his novel Island of the Blue Dolphins, which won the 1961 Newbery award.

Plot Summary

The setting of The Black Pearl is La Paz—a town along the Baja peninsula on the coast of the Vermilion Sea. The novel begins shortly after its narrator Ramón Salazar’s 16th birthday, when he becomes business partners with his father Blas in the pearl trade. Blas is one of the town’s most famous pearl dealers and owns a fleet of ships that often depart to dive for pearls. Salazar’s strongest diver is Gaspar Ruiz, also known as “the Sevillano” to the townsfolk. The Sevillano is a liar and a braggart, often mocking Ramón for his weakness and inability to dive.

Ramón is eager to win this unspoken competition of strength to impress his father. Driven by his ambition, Ramón convinces Soto Luzon, an indigenous man and prolific pearl seller, to teach him how to dive for pearls. Luzon takes him to his lagoon and teaches him about the dangers of the ocean; he warns Ramón to stay quiet while he dives, because the Manta Diablo, a mythical evil and gigantic manta ray, lives in a cave in the lagoon. Ramón is desperate to find a giant pearl and disregards Luzon’s warnings. On the fourth day of diving, Ramón finds one—the “Pearl of Heaven”—while in the cave.

Luzon refuses to even touch the giant black pearl, insisting that Ramón return it to the sea. Ramón instead returns to La Paz, where he is met with a crowd of townsfolk desperate to catch a glimpse of the giant pearl. When the fleet returns, Blas attempts to sell the pearl for a great profit; however, the other dealers mock Blas about his previous failed attempt at selling a pearl in Mexico City, and Blas decides to give the pearl to the church to spite them.

By donating the pearl to the Madonna, Blas believes that he has traded temporary profit for the safety of his fleet and the prolonged wealth of the Salazar family. However, while out on their next expedition, the entire Salazar fleet sinks when a storm hits. Only the Sevillano survives, and Ramón wonders if the black pearl is truly cursed. He tries to return the pearl to the lagoon but is intercepted by Ruiz, who wants to steal the pearl himself.

Ruiz insists on going together to Guaymas to sell the pearl. On their way, a giant manta ray that Ramón believes to be the Manta Diablo begins stalking them. Eventually, the Sevillano harpoons the manta ray and attempts to kill it. In doing so, he is caught by a frayed rope and dragged down into the depths of the ocean to drown. Ramón returns to La Paz and gives the pearl back to the Madonna, putting it in the hands of the statue where he believes it belongs.