News travels quickly in a small town, and it seems to go faster than people can spread it.
In chapter 3, we learn that a small town is “like a colonial animal,” and seems to have a mind and body of its own. The simile is appropriate, because it explains how news travels so fast. The people that make up the town are just part of that organism, losing control of it en masse.
How news travels through a town is a mystery not easily to be solved. News seems to move faster than small boys can scramble and dart to tell it, faster than women can call it over the fences. (ch 3)
A town has its own emotion, and no two towns are the same. Everyone knows about the pearl and Coyotito before his parents can even pass on the news. Before long, everyone knew that Kino had found the “Pearl of the World,” and everyone had advice on what he should do with it.
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