Like most of us at some point in our lives, Kino feels hopelessly trapped in his day-to-day existence. Sometimes, people get pretty desperate, yet no matter how hard they struggle they just can't escape from a life that grinds them down in the dirt every single hopeless, miserable day.

That's what Kino sees in the ant caught up in the trap. He works as hard as anyone else to provide for his family, but somehow it's never enough. He's destined to spend the rest of his life in penury, caught in a poverty trap set for him by the racial and cultural elite, who look down on the indigenous people and treat them like garbage. No wonder Kino is so desperate to find a pearl; he thinks it'll be the answer to all his prayers. But as he'll discover in due course, he's wasting his time, because there's ultimately no hope, no point in even trying to escape the mire of poverty and exploitation.

Kino watches “with the detachment of God” as an ant tries to escape the trap set for it by an ant lion (an insect that preys on ants). The narrator does not say if the ant manages to escape or not, but we see in this event the symbolism of the story, the fate of a human who is trapped while God watches on, not caring or interfering. Like the ant, Kino finds himself in a trap when he finds the pearl that he believes will make his fortune and give him a life that he never even dreamed about before. All around him, the “ant lions” in the forms of the priest, the doctor, and the pearl buyers (as well as the unknown assailant) are trying to drag him down into their trap to consume him. Kino manages to escape from the trap, but not without losing his baby son and his home.