In chapter six why does kino begin to act and feel like as he protects his family?

The family is being tracked as it travels in order to sell the pearl and get medical help for Coyotito. Kino realizes that he must protect his family from those who track them, but he still places the pearl and what the pearl can afford them as his prioroty. In the end, he realizes the pearl has no value........ its v value was lost with the life of his son.

Steinbeck explicitly compares Kino and Juana to animals being chased by hunters. Like animals, the pair attempts to escape their pursuers by seeking out a higher elevation. What puts Kino and Juana in close proximity to the trackers is the need to be near water, a need common to all mammals. Furthermore, Kino finds himself forced to strip off his clothes, distinctive symbols of his humanity, in order to surprise his pursuers. In reverting to this animalistic strategy, Kino inadvertently transforms his own son into an animal, leading to Coyotito’s death by an indiscriminate gunshot on the part of the trackers, who mistake the baby’s cry for that of a coyote. Coyotito’s name, which literally means “little coyote” in Spanish, foreshadows this transformation throughout the novella.