The Dark Side of the American Dream
John Steinbeck characters are ordinary people in extraordinary positions. Usually poor or working class, they struggle to survive on the fringes of society. John Steinbeck deep feelings for the nature and his sympathy for the plight of human beings is reflected in his novel Cannery Row. Steinbeck works and characters are windows into the essential aspects of humanity: conflict, grief, fear, and most importantly, the struggle humanity has with itself. His novel Cannery Row is a nostalgic portrayal of the lazy, shiftless, good-natured low-lifes of a canning community who prefer drinking, fighting and indolence to work and earning a living. Not even the lower-middle class citizens of the small canning community are able to persevere in their objection to societal values.
Mack, the unproclaimed œleader of œthe boys feels it is necessary to dress up their once-abandoned home known as the Palace Flophouse; the Malloys want curtains for their boiler room despite the fact that it has no windows; and a teenaged boy named Frankie feels it is essential that he purchase an expensive gift to impress his love (Meyer 2).
In Cannery Row, Steinbeck exposes the dark side of what, in today society, is referred to as the American Dream. He celebrates the hopes symbolized in this dream and demonstrates the greatness of the human heart and mind. Steinbeck depicts a paradise once lost, while maintaining the hope of a paradise to be regained (œJohn 1453).
The Essay on John Steinbecks Portrayal Of Alcoholics
John Steinbeck's Portrayal of Alcoholics Lila L. Anastas has said of John Steinbeck: "Steinbeck the person wanted ... to experience everything and then write about it. He was the versatile author of over thirty full-length books and short story collections, as well as plays, filmscripts, numerous articles, and volumes of letters. He received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1962. In my view, he is ...
Cannery Row offers a wonderfully warm depiction of the colorful characters who clustered around the small community around the time of the Depression. Each and every character is cut off from society mainstream in some way but retains idealistic visions which give them strength. Though lacking a general sense of purpose or ambition, Steinbeck portrays each of his characters as a good person who clutches to the things they have, rather than striving for more. Dora, the owner of a whorehouse, for example, is successful and well-liked in spite of moral and social woes. Steinbeck sympathetically refers to Mack and they boys as the œangelic bums, the œbeauties, and the œVirtues (Fiorelli 2).
Mack is irresponsible and unreliable, yet loyal and generous. He always means well, but his good intentions are often concealed by unexpected mishaps.
For every quality considered bad, Steinbeck bestows his characters with a quality considered good, eliminating the possibility of their being any œbad people in Cannery Row. Doc, the protagonist of the novel, recognizes that life is a mix of both good and evil. Steinbeck sympathy also leads to the characters drinking away their troubles. The narrator depicts Steinbeck sympathy when he says, œIt had become his custom, each time he was deserted, to buy a gallon of wine, to stretch out on the comfortably hard bench and get drunk. Sometimes, he cried a little all by himself, but it was luxurious stuff and he usually had a wonderful feeling of well being from it (Steinbeck 136).
Steinbeck reveals that Doc has but one true joy, drinking. However, Doc does not come off as a bad person because of his drinking. In fact, Doc is portrayed as an incredibly intelligent man with strong views, especially when he says, œIt has always seemed strange to me. The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness and honesty, understanding and feelings are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first, they love the produce of the second (Steinbeck 143).
The Essay on Cannery Row Doc Steinbeck Boys
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 ...
Doc realized that although certain traits are considered superior, society thrives on those which are considered inferior (Steinbeck 143).
Steinbeck depicts the vast majority of his characters inhabiting the first qualities; this making them poor in society overall mainstream.
In Cannery Row, the duality of human beings causes both positives and negatives as revealed in the novel. Steinbeck acknowledges that the individual in tune with his or her inner self recognizes their own duality and the inevitability of a life with both positives and negatives. In the novel, Steinbeck search for truth can be summarized by the principle that can tie humanity to the pattern of all life and the relation of people. The odd-numbered chapters do not relate directly to the plot, but instead focus on human isolation and the need for people to be viewed favorably by others, as a focus into Steinbeck sympathy for human beings and their duality.
Love is also touched upon in Cannery Row. Steinbeck depicts love as risky and fragile, but nevertheless, the best possibly way to become completely human and see wholeness. Though his sympathy is obvious in Cannery Row, Steinbeck is often judged for his views on humanity in many contradictory ways, as stated in œJohn Steinbeck, œRegardless of how Steinbeck is eventually judges, one categorical claim can be made: He will long be remembered for his humanity and for his nonjudgmental and sympathetic depictions of the people forced to live on the fringes of American society (1453).
Steinbeck sympathy for humans is depicted through characters who struggle to make a living for themselves despite their endless efforts.
Steinbeck characters, however, are much more than victims of social and economic failure. They celebrate a life-force beyond society and economics. However, societal and economic failure often also leads to self-destruction. Suicides are recurrent in the novel. Horrace Abbeville shoots himself because he loses his property; William, Dora bouncer, stabs himself with an ice pick; the girl who drowned on the reef appears to have committed suicide; and Joey father eats rat poison because he loses his job. In Cannery Row, no one can escape depression any easier way. Upon reading the novel, critics such as Michael Meyer, feel that Steinbeck provides an alternative to the suicides his characters commit. According to Michael Meyer, œOne has to be open to new worlds to replace the world that is continually in the process of self-destruction (1).
The Essay on Plot And Character Analysis Of cannery Row
In the book Cannery Row who is written by John Steinbeck we get a glimpse of a strange idler community by the California-coast and its working, shy, but happy inhabitants who we learn to know. In the book there are strange things happening, fightings and funny expedition. Everything in Steinbecks humanity and humor. John Steinbeck is an American writer who was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in ...
Steinbeck feels that all of the negatives in the world are caused directly by humans and the only way to repair them is to be open to change.
Some of Steinbeck characters, however, take a much more drastic approach to concealing their poverty. Mary Talbot, for example, throws boundless parties and celebrations to conceal the fact that the Talbots did not have very nice clothes or any money, for that matter. Steinbeck sympathy is displayed deeply when discussing the character of Mary Talbot. She has little to be happy about, so she creates her own happiness with extravagant celebrations she cannot afford. Celebrations are a large part of the novel. They are used to create an illusion of happiness, as explained by Michael Meyer, œLonely human beings sometimes despondent and set apart, find salvation in the festivity provided by such infectious merrymaking (np).
John Steinbeck uses parties and celebrations to help the characters find something to be joyful about, if only momentarily. Overall, Steinbeck solution to societal pressures is to strive to be the most perfect human possible in an imperfect universe. For example, Dora, who is condemned for immorality by the people of Monterey Row, is praised by Steinbeck for giving back something to the community and adding to its economic prosperity. Steinbeck sympathy for humans is revealed through self-destruction, yet also through vivid, unnecessary celebrations.
Pure in heart, Steinbeck characters strive for objectivity in Cannery Row. Their goal requires spontaneous painlessness contrary to human nature. One of the major themes of the novel is an escape from modern materialism. Material success is rejected as evidence of personal achievement in the novel. Instead, Steinbeck takes the approach of portaying the other side of the societal values, the impact they have on individuals, as stated by Meyer, œRespectability, progress, possessions, and responsibility all imply some sort of regulation that controls men and women, and Steinbeck acknowledges that those who withdraw from such control of their lives are labeled as eccentric or weird like Mack and the boys in the novel (np).
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Debate of human cloning In the past several decades, human cloning has turned from a laboratory dream to worldwide disputes. There are enough opinions supporting both bad and good consequences of human cloning. Human cloning sets a number of difficult questions about human independence, self-esteem, and individuality. Will human cloning be a huge step for man, or will it result in moral demise? ...
Steinbeck is sympathetic towards people like Mack, who are forced to struggle on the fringes of society, so he portrays their other side to make them likeable characters. The novel ends with Doc reading a poem which recognizes that pleasure is fleeting and life is a mixture of both good and evil. His paradoxical joy and sorrow while reading the poem is the novel conclusion. Cannery Row ends with the characters in the same social position as when it started; social outcasts who are poor but happy. Steinbeck sympathy for the plight of human beings is revealed through these characters throughout the novel.
Works Cited
Fiorelli, Edward. œCannery Row. Masterplots II: American Fiction Series. Reproduced Online.
10 March 2007.
œJohn Steinbeck. Great American Writers. Ed. R. Baird Shuman. 13 vols. Tarrytown, New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2002. 11: 1445-54.Meyer, Michael J. œCannery Row. Facts on File Companion to the American Novel. Reproduced Online. 10 March 2007.
Silverman, Natanya. œTeaching John Steinbeck. Literary Traveler. 2007: 1-3 pp. <http://www.literarytraveler.com/literary.articles/teaching_john_steinbeck>. 13 March 2007.
