Cannery Row

by John Steinbeck

Book report

Author

John Steinbeck was born 1902 in Salinas, California. He is a descendant of old settlers. California itself - 'El Dorado,' the Golden Country-has occupied a central position in his work. The epic power and sweep of the American continent, the machine-waste and the abusing of their power (potential vs. product), are a basic theme in Steinbeck's writing. Steinbeck's family was middle-class. His father, John Ernst, was a prosperous miller and County official. His mother, Olive Hamilton, taught school at various locations in California. As a boy Steinbeck was a reader rather than a scholar; resenting academic disciplines, he nevertheless loved outdoor life. Later he began to read more often. His favourite authors were George Eliot, Thomas Hardy and Warren French which had a profound effect on his mind and imagination. In addition to this the most powerful shaping force on Steinbeck was not as some critics later seemed to imply Darwin or Marx, but the King James version of The Bible, to which Steinbeck himself has repeatedly pointed as the greatest influence on his work. Moreover he was educated in Stanford University and left after 6 years without taking any degree. Afterwards he led a roving life. He worked at ranches, laboured on road-gangs, assisted in a laboratory of a sugar-beet factories, and held a variety of other jobs as well. In 1925 Steinbeck came to New York City and worked first as a newspaperman. Few Year later he worked as a journalist for some magazines. Until, when he was a caretaker of an estate which was snow-bounded for eight months a year, he began seriously to write.

The literary world, however, did not burst into hallelujahs at first. Several manuscripts were rejected and not published. His first book, which was sold successfully was the short novel called "Cup of Gold". This book appeared in 1929, the year of the Big Crash. It was a time when a historical novel by an unknown novelist could not be expected to achieve much success. Therefore it was very surprising that few people took this book seriously. In fact it was sold 1,533 copies on the first printing. Bad luck came back after his tries to publish "Pastures of Heaven" in the year 1932. When the novel finally did appear, it moved fairly slowly. Otherwise the success of several short stories was a sign that the tide was at last turning in Steinbeck's favour. Gradually Steinbeck became a well known literary name. Steinbeck was secure in the knowledge that he could earn his living with his pen.

Steinbeck was awarded the "1962 Nobel Prize" in literature for his best known novel "The Grapes of Wrath" (1939), which treats the plight of 1930s Dust Bowl Farmers. Among Steinbeck's other novels are "Tortilla Flat" (1935), "Cannery Row" (1945), and the famous book "East of Eden" (1952). The best known novel he had written is "Of Mice and Men" which was published in the year 1937. "Of Mice and Men" proved even more successfully as a play than it had been as a novel; it won the "New York Drama Critic Circle's Award" on the first ballot, and was later made into a powerful motion picture. In addition to this he also wrote his most successful short stories like "The Red Pony" (1933) and "The Murder" (1938).

His works are marked by a compassionate understanding of the world's outsiders and disasters. As a rule his work is mainly sad and serious. The endings are usually tragic and there is very little, if any humour in the stories. John Steinbeck's strength lies mainly in describing simple people who he often took out of real life. According to that the events take place on an rural background and the people are closely attached to the earth on which they live and work. Steinbeck always wanted to write a realistic story. Therefore he insisted on using romantic and lyrical elements to make the contents of his novels more lively and realistic. So it isn't surprising that Steinbeck filled the novels with his own experiences of life. For instance before he wrote the book "Of Mice and Man" he had travelled around and lived in a migrant camp as well. He had followed the migrants and lived with them all the way from Oklahoma through the country.

He was a very successful writer and died 1968 in New York.

Plot Synopsis

The novel is actually a collection of short stories about the lives of some people who live on Cannery Row. Cannery Row, in Monterey, California, is an area around and including a sardine cannery. Furthermore it is also the people living there, and the smell, and the dreams. There's Doc, a marine biologist who's always ready to do something nice for his neighbours, Dora, the owner of the Bear Flag Restaurant, Mac, the leader of a group of homeless men and one of Doc's closest friends, Henri, an artist who's only interests are his boat and women, Lee Chong, who owns the only local grocery store, and Hazel, a mentally retarded man who is learning marine biology from Doc and is one of Mac's boys as well. There are many different little plots of Cannery Row, but the main one is this: Mac and the boys decide that the time has come to throw Doc a surprise party at his house, to show him how highly they think of him. They get the chance when Doc goes to collect some octopi several days away. He won't be back for few days. To get the money for the decorations, food and drinks, they go out and talk Doc into paying them if they collect frogs for him. Consequently Doc is going to pay for his own party. They collect over seven hundreds frogs and convince Lee Chong to use them as money to buy party supplies. That way when Doc comes home, Lee is able to trade them to Doc for money. The night Doc is supposed to come home, the boys decorate his house and invite everybody in Cannery Row to come. But the party is spoiled because, not only does Doc not show up, but a fight gets started between the guests and a few party crashing college kids. When Doc finally does come home, he finds his house totally devasteted. Mac and the boys are sorry about all this and shun themselves from society, but after a while, they decide to give a new party as a apology for the last one. Thankfully this one turns out much better.

Characterisation

Doc: Doc is the owner and operator of the Western Biological Laboratory. Doc is rather small, deceptively small, for he is wiry and very strong and when passionate anger comes on him he can be very fierce. He wears a beard and his face is half Christ and half satyr and his face tells always the truth. It is said that he has helped many out of a trouble and into another. Doc has the hands of a brain surgeon, and a cool warm mind. He tips his hat to dogs as he drives by and the dogs look up and smile at him. Furthermore he can kill anything for need but he could not even hurt a feeling for pleasure. He has one great fear, that of getting his head wet, so that summer or winter he ordinarily wears a rain hat. He will wade in a tide pool up to the chest without feeling damp, but a drop of rain water on his head makes him panicky. Over a period of years Doc dug himself into Cannery Row to an extent not even he suspected. He became the fountain of philosophy and science and art. In the laboratory there is often music played by the old record player. Doc would listen to any kind of nonsense and change it for you to a kind of wisdom. His mind had no horizon and his sympathy had no warp. He can talk to children, telling them very profound things so that they understand. He lives in a world of wonders, of excitement. In addition to that he is concupiscent as a rabbit and gentle as hell. Everyone who knew him is indebted to him and everyone. who think of him thinks next, 'I really must do something nice for Doc.' Some other things we know about Doc are his weakness for beer and his devotion to his work.

Lee Chong: Lee Chong's grocery ,while not a model of neatness was a miracle of supply. It was small and crowded shop where you can find everything you need. The only thing you don't find in his shop is the thing you can buy across the lot at Dora's. The grocery opens at dawn and does not close until the last man has been served. Not that Lee Chong is greedy for money. He isn't, but if one wants to spend some money, he is available. Moreover he is like a bank because everyone in Cannery Row owes him money. He never presses his clients, but when the bill became too large, Lee cut off credit. He is round‑faced and courteous. He speaks a stately English without ever using the letter R. What he does with his money, no one ever knows. Perhaps he doesn't get it. Maybe his wealth is entirely in unpaid bills. But he lives well and he has the respect of all his neighbours. He tests his clients until further trust becomes ridiculous. Lee Chong's station in the grocery is behind the cigar counter. The cash register is then on his left and the abacus on his right. Some very practical minds has tried to divert his attention to another part of the store but they fails. On the top of the glass is his desk. His fat delicate hands rest on the glass, the fingers moving like small restless sausages. A broad golden wedding ring on the middle finger of his left hand is his only jewellery. Lee's mouth is always benevolent and the flash of gold when he smiles is rich and warm. He wears half‑glasses and if he looks at everything through them, he has to tilt his head back to see in the distance.

Mack and his boys: Acted as a leader of the boys who lived in the Palace Flophouse. This group of boys has one thing in common no families, no money and no ambitions beyond food, drink and contentment. Mack had once tried marriage, giving as much as he could to his wife but things had gone from bad to worse for him. He is very strong man and a close friend to the Doc and would do everything for him and his little dog Darling. By the way they search their contentment Mack and the boys destroy themselves. It is usual that they don't achieves their targets. If they however achieve contentment they absorb it quietly and gently. These boys are simple and nice. Among them are Eddie who is filled in as a bartender at La Ida, Hughie and Jones who collect frogs for Doc and Hazel an extremely good hearted man.

Dora: Dora Flood is 50 years old the Madame who owns the Bear Flag Restaurant, she keeps an honest, one price house, sells no hard liquor, and permits no loud or vulgar talk in her house. As for Dora herself: "madam and girl for fifty years, she has through the exercise of special gifts of tact and honesty, charity and a certain realism, made herself respected by the intelligent, the learned, and the kind."

Henri: A local painter, who changed mistresses even more often than he changed mediums, and was quite happy with his life until he developed a nightmare about a man murdering a laughing child who kept right on laughing. His hobby is building a boat which causes some problems to him. On the one hand he is afraid of the sea and on the other hand he hasn't found a woman who wanted to stay with him in that boat. Therefore he has never finished the boat.

Gay: A local whose wife keeps beating him up and then getting him sent to jail. He likes the jail so much that he is more often than not found there. He is also an expert mechanic.

Frankie: He was always beaten by his mother and his uncles. That's the reason why he left his home and came to Doc. There he is learning everything about the sea which is a little bit difficult for Doc because Frankie is mentally retarded. Frankie often helps at Doc's parties with serving drinks.

Captain: Owner of the frog-pond where the boys hunt for the frogs they want to give to Doc as a present. His job is to take an eye on the land.

Horace Abbeville: He was the owner of what became the Palace Flophouse (a grocery). Moreover he is a worried gentleman who has two wives and six children. Over years he tried to build up a grocery but he failed and its depts lead him to commit suicide.

The Old Chinaman: He is an unknown old man who walks every morning to the sea. He is a symbol of loneliness of people who have hates and prejudices. Once he disappears entirely into one big eye, as big as a church door, when a little boy is kidding him.

Even in this short novel, every mentioned person has a name: certainly there is no use in listing them. It is curios to note that everyone of the character used in this novel is nothing more than a stereotype. You won't find any well-drawn character. There are many main characters in the book which are close friends to each other. Typically for Steinbeck there are no antagonists.

Analysis

On the one hand the title is the name of the town where the story takes place and on the other hand the title could also come from the neighbouring sardine factory. As far as I concerned the name deals very good with the story because Cannery Row stands for metallic things and therefore it could be the reason why its set is filled of scrap metal like the old boiler the rusty pipes and the broken old Ford T. Thirdly "Cannery Row" can also be the name of a poem which is mentioned in the beginning of the book.

Theme

The theme of Cannery Row, in short, is no less than a poetic statement of humans surrounded by a chaotic and essentially indifferent universe, and this is one reason why the structure of the book does seem so "loose". Another theme which is exposed in the book is the mysterious Oriental who threads his way through the book without any purpose but to remind us of the emptiness and loneliness we all share. Moreover alcoholism can also be a theme and a symbol of that mentioned loneliness. Interestingly all the main characters like alcohol too much. In contrast to this there are the parties which are signs of happiness. Otherwise "Cannery Row" is a novel about poor carefree loafers who do nothing for their living but they are fundamentally good hearted. Finally the over all plot is about Doc's love. Doc feels like he is unloved during the story and it really surprises him when he discovers that he's a man loved by everyone in town. Furthermore, he feels often alone because he hasn't got a woman.

Narrator

We don't know anything about the narrator. He is very omniscient and reserved which emphasize the loneliness and the tragedy of the story. It could be possible that Steinbeck himself is the narrator because he had lived there for several years and knew the set perfectly. The narrator is a third-person narrator and knows, sees and hears everything. The strength of this point of view is that Steinbeck could better express the truth of the story. A subjective narrator would falsify the story and that he didn't want. Strangely Steinbeck used no inner monologues in "Cannery Row".

Setting

Cannery Row is a "real" city in Monterey, California where the whole story takes place. It is a fishing village with a couple of houses where only poor people live. There is the Western Biological Laboratories where Doc does his work, the Flophouse where Mack and his boys live, Dora's Bear Flag Restaurant, the whore house of the town, naturally Lee's shop, the boiler of the family Malloy and at last Henri's unfinished boat. Everywhere are uncompleted and dirty things like rusty pipes, rusty boilers, weeds, a broken truck. All these things give the town an untidy atmosphere. But there are other sets mentioned as well. In San Jose the boys collected frogs to finance Doc's party. Doc had his journey for hunting little octopi.

Time

The time which is covered by the narrator is about four weeks which the boys used to prepare the parties. According to this the book is set in the time of the industrialist revolution. In order to understand the sense and the meaning of the novel you don't need any further informations.

Structure

The book has about 200 pages and is divided into 32 chapters. Every chapter tells the story of one inhabitant in Cannery Row. Sometimes it seems that there is no content between the chapter but later almost everything makes sense. The novel has no prologue and no epilogue. In addition to this Steinbeck used no foreshadowing and flashbacks as well It is a complex story with a straightforward going plot. Sometimes this plot confuses the reader because there are so many subplots in the book. As said every chapter describes one person of Cannery Row. The end is suprising because the reader exspects that the party will fail like the first one but it doesn't.

Language

The language which is used in the book isn't a specific language. To my mind it's a American-colloquial language which was sometimes very difficult to understand because a lot of the words you don't find in school-dictionar. The author used a lot of vulgar words which makes the book very difficult to read. The chapters are full of dialogues. They are responsible for the lively power in several scenes. Besides the Old Chinaman there is another symbolism as well. The scrap metal which is laying around Cannery Row expresses that the people don't care about their environment. For them it is unnecessary in which trash they live but for them it is important to be good hearted, to help others and to have a strong charity. As an illustration the boys, they live in an old dilapidate house, but they didn't take care of it. What they want is to help everyone. Other examples are the parties. After the first party failed they didn't surrender to give Doc a surprising party because indeed they wanted to do something nice for Doc. Therefore they prepared a new one which turned out much better. It was a real success.

Interpretation

Does Steinbeck assign any positive value to Cannery Row life?

To answer this question you need look only to the incident with 'the Captain.' The Captain owns a great many desirable things - a nice house, some land, a frog-pond, some good whisky - and it is all the cause for his misery. His wife has left their home for politics, and he is forced to stay there in absolute isolation to guard their possessions from theft, fire, and flood. The tyranny of things extend even to the guest towels, which he has carefully avoided using all the time his wife has been away; and which the Cannery Row boys desecrate almost immediately. When the boys visit the Captain, the only difference between him and his guests is that they are free from this tyranny of things and he is not. He is a prisoner in his own house. When they leave him drunk on the floor, they know that he has never before had such a good time. There are two opposing values in this book: the natural and free, and the conventional and institutional. With this polarity in mind, it is easy to see that Steinbeck has some of his characters do unusually things like petty thievery and prostitution to shock and perhaps refresh the more conventional of his readers.