Cannery Row :: essays research papers

Cannery Row is a relatively simple novel with basically little or no plot to it. Many critics ar quick to call the novel trivial and second rate as compared with Steinbecks other works. However this deem shows Steinbecks renewed interest in the comic portrayal of the basic, uncomplicated lifestyles of the working class. Steinbeck incorporates a few themes into the novel such as failure and historic themes like the depression era. The book is overall optimistic, but Steinbeck takes some off topic chapters to capture some of the darkness that happens within Cannery Row.The underlying story in Cannery Row is ab come forward Mack and the boys trying to fit a party for Doc. Mack and the boys are a group of unemployed men living in concert in the run down fish-meal shack. Doc is a very intelligent and caring man who runs a biological supply house. The boys set up a party at Docs place, but Doc is late to get there and the party ends without him there. The boys are upset about their fai lure. When Doc helps out their dog, the boys decide to hold another party for Doc. This time he is able to go to it and everyone has a good time. (sparknotes.com)Cannery Row does not have much of a plot, but it is still very active as a social document about the attitudes of society during the depression era of the 1930s. Although the book was published later World War II had ended, it strongly suggests the depression period with both tone and spirit. The majority of the people in the novel are the unemployed are poverty stricken, but all are considered as the good people. There are also no antagonists in this novel, only people who tightly hold on to what they have, such as Lee Chong, and see everyone in distrust.