No," he said. "I will fight this thing. I will win over it. We will have our chance." His fist pounded the sleeping mat. "No one shall take our good fortune from us," he said. His eyes softened then and he raised a gentle hand to Juana's shoulder. "Believe me," he said. "I am a man." And his face grew crafty.
"In the morning we will take our canoe and we will go over the sea and over the mountains to the capital, you and I. We will not be cheated. I am a man."
"Kino," she said huskily, "I am afraid. A man can be killed. Let us throw the pearl back into the sea."
"Hush," he said fiercely. "I am a man. Hush." And she was silent, for his voice was command. (4.86 – 4.89)
Kino illogically uses his masculinity to defend his actions.
And when they came to the water's edge they stopped and stared out over the Gulf. And then Kino laid the rifle down, and he dug among his clothes, and then he held the great pearl in his hand. He looked into its surface and it was gray and ulcerous. Evil faces peered from it into his eyes, and he saw the light of burning. And in the surface of the pearl he saw the frantic eyes of the man in the pool. And in the surface of the pearl he saw Coyotito lying in the little cave with the top of his head shot away. And the pearl was ugly; it was gray, like a malignant growth. And Kino heard the music of the pearl, distorted and insane. Kino's hand shook a little, and he turned slowly to Juana and held the pearl out to her. She stood beside him, still holding her dead bundle over her shoulder. She looked at the pearl in his hand for a moment and then she looked into Kino's eyes and said softly, "No, you." (6.103)
When Kino offers the pearl to Juana, it’s his way of apologizing. When Juana allows him to get rid of the pearl, it’s her way of forgiving him without compromising his masculinity.
"We do not know what prices are paid in other places," said Juan Tomás. "How can we know what is a fair price, if we do not know what the pearl buyer gets for the pearl in another place."
"That is true," said Kino, "but how can we know? We are here, we are not there." (4.14 – 4.15)
Men in power subjugate the natives of La Paz by taking advantage of their ignorance and intentionally keeping them in the dark.