36 pages • 1 hour read
The Black Pearl
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Symbols & Motifs
Manta Diablo
The Manta Diablo is one of the most prominent motifs in the novel, and as Ramón’s character grows, its meaning as a symbol morphs and changes. At the beginning of the story, the Manta Diablo represents the childish fairy tales of yore that filled Ramón’s childhood. Ramón’s mother tells him stories about the Manta Diablo to scare him into behaving; similarly, older men in the town tell tales about their experiences with the manta to instill a respect of the sea into the younger generations. Here, the Manta Diablo acts as boogeyman—a harmless threat with which to teach children how to behave in the society that they live in.
Eager to be an adult and rid himself of his childish fantasies, Ramón begins to believe the Manta Diablo to be nothing more than a silly superstition. However, the Manta Diablo becomes a very real threat as Ramón begins to learn how to dive and how to face the sea on his own. It proves capable of exacting revenge on the people who speak ill of it and on those who steal from it, thus acting as a guardian of the ocean’s bounty in the face of human depredations. This lends credence to Luzon’s lore, which depicts the Manta Diablo as almost an omniscient deity not unlike the Madonna. According to indigenous belief, the Manta Diablo is a volatile but morally neutral god of the sea, capable of making deals in exchange for respect and reverence: “[H]e takes the shape of an octopus and seeks out those pearlers who have done him a wrong or spoken ill of him. It is also said that he takes the shape of a human and goes into La Paz and seeks his enemies there in the streets and sometimes even in the church” (33).
The Manta Diablo thus toes the line between ocean deity and the physical embodiment of the volatile sea. It represents that which is continuously changing, evolving and unable to be pinned down. Relatedly, the Manta Diablo also represents that which people do not completely understand, including the various ocean creatures that the Vermilion Sea contains, many of which remain a complete mystery to humans.
Pearls
The pearls in The Black Pearl represent the bounty that the ocean and nature have to offer. La Paz and the other towns along the coast of the Vermilion Sea rely on the ocean for their way of life. The sea provides for the people of La Paz and is the cornerstone of their lives: “For the town of La Paz lives by the finding and selling of pearls and therefore everyone in the town and the country around shares somehow in the fortunes of the sea” (47). Significantly, O’Dell does not touch upon how the sea feeds the people of La Paz—that is, how it provides them with the necessary resources with which they lead their lives. Instead, O’Dell frames this relationship between the townspeople of La Paz and the ocean as one centered around wealth and economics. Though the pearls are a naturally occurring gem, it is the manmade society itself that imbues them with financial value. The relationship between man and ocean thus becomes capitalistic in nature, and businesses like Salazar and Son begin to pillage the ocean.
This practice has begun to take a toll by the time the story begins. The subtle catalyst for the events of the novel is the growing lack of fine pearls; those that Salazar and the other pearl divers have been recovering have all been small and of mediocre quality. Blas even confesses to Ramón that their yields have been getting smaller and smaller. By viewing the ocean as a limitless resource (as opposed to a rich but finite source), the Salazars and other pearl dealers effectively work towards putting themselves out of business.
Soto Luzon’s relationship with pearls is entirely different; he views them as offerings from the sea. Instead of the parasitic relationship with the ocean that the Salazars and other pearl dealers have, Luzon thus has a symbiotic relationship with the lagoon. Despite being, according to Ramón, the finest pearl diver in the area, Luzon’s yields are small; when he comes to La Paz, he brings only a single pearl to sell, focusing not on quantity but quality. The pearls that he finds symbolize the possibility of humans living alongside nature rather than attempting to dominate and control it.
Superstition and the Spiritual
Superstition and faith are two sides of the same coin; both require a type of belief in the unseen. In the novel, superstition and belief are also both inherited objects—things that families pass down through oral tradition. Luzon’s symbiotic relationship with the Manta Diablo and the ocean, for example, is a legacy that he inherits from his father, as he explains: “No, I do not fear El Diablo. Nor did my father before me. Nor his father before him. For many years they had a pact with the Manta Diablo and now I keep this pact” (34).
These inherited beliefs significantly impact the way that people choose to live their lives, but also demonstrate how humans choose to understand their world. Luzon’s beliefs, for example, provide a logic for the way that he lives in the lagoon. His respect for the Manta Diablo sets up a symbiotic relationship with the ocean, his fear imbuing him with a cautious demeanor that keeps him safe.
In some cases, faith’s ability to help people understand their world spills over into an attempt to control it. When Blas gives the pearl to the church, he believes himself to be buying favor from God for the entire Salazar bloodline: “And for this gift of the great pearl, the greatest pearl ever found in all the Vermilion Sea, the House of Salazar shall be favored in Heaven, now and forever” (56). Blas’s spiritual faith is thus self-serving; rather than instilling in him any sense of awe or wonder at the world around him, it becomes another tool he uses to try to exploit nature.
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By Scott O'Dell
