Cannery Row :: essays research papers

Cannery Row is a relatively simple novel with basically precise or no plot to it. Many critics are quick to call the novel trivial and second rate as compared with Steinbecks other works. but this book 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 stroke 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 spirit level in Cannery Row is about Mack and the boys trying to hold a party for physician. Mack and the boys are a group of trifling men aliveness 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 Docs place, but Doc is late to get there and the party ends without him there. The boys are upset about the ir 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 a good deal 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 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.