Cannery Row is a relatively simple novel with basically little or no plot to it. Many critics are quick to call the novel trivial and second rate as compared with Steinbeck’s other works. However this book shows Steinbeck’s 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 historical 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 about Mack and the boys trying to hold a party for Doc.
Mack and the boys are a group of unemployed men living together 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 Doc’s place, but Doc is late to get there and the party ends without him there. The boys are upset about their failure. 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 1930’s. Although the book was published after 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.
The Essay on Cannery Row 3
... is a young boy named Frankie. He is only eleven and he was looking for work on Cannery Row, so Doc hired him.His family ... has a soft heart and gives the poor people of Cannery Row a meal or two, if they need it.Next there is ... they had money to pay for it.They had a successful party for Doc and he was very suprised and happy. Mack and ... John Steinbeck is the author of several award winning books. before he ...
Since this novel was more of a nostalgic piece of work about the depression than a serious novel, Steinbeck’s views on society and the economy was approached with a more comical and laid back approach. The book showed a time where people were valued by not what they had in their possession, but what they had in their hearts. (Master plots II, 245).
