Cannery Row: A Tragic Hero

In Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, the gopher story parallels the story at the beginning about the silk worm. Steinbeck used the story to portray his approach to writing the book and “let the stories crawl in by themselves”. It sets up the book as the gopher story closes it out. The gopher seems to convey the overall destiny of Cannery Row. They start out in great environments. Even in the prime of the life to achieve the desires. The patience wears thin to and is convince to make a way. Then there is an acceptance of doing what they have to truly be satisfied. Even if it means risking being uncomfortable and trapped, what their hearts desire is worth it. The story ends open ended, leaving the reader unsure of the fate that is ahead.

John Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row” shows how people living there dealt with the hardships brought by the Great Depression. Steinbeck set his novel in the 1930’s in Cannery Row, California. The canneries are an integral part of the fish industry and Steinbeck makes the ailing American economy a critical part of everyone’s lives in his novel. He show how different characters, with different points of view with the exact same situation.

The minor characters in John Steinbeck’s novel Cannery Row are a contradiction within themselves. Steinbeck shows two conflicting sides to each character; for example, Mack is smart and lazy and some of his colleagues are both good and bad. Doc is a father figure with some bad habits. Dora Flood is a kind-hearted saint who happens to run a brothel. Lee Chong is a shrewd businessman who likes to take advantage of others. Henri is an artist with a French background even though he isn’t from France. Through his characters, Steinbeck shows that humans are complicated and can have many faces.

“Whoever troubles his own household will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart.” (English Standard Version, Proverbs 11:29) Inherit the Wind, written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, depicts the story of the Scopes Monkey Trial in the form of a play. In the drama, Bertram Cates was put on trial as a result of illegally teaching the theory of evolution in his classroom. Given that he lived in the God-fearing town of Hillsboro, Tennessee in 1925, his decision to teach Darwinism was highly opposed. Along with the many opponents of Cates’s evolutionary teachings came Matthew Harrison Brady. Brady, the prosecuting attorney in the trial, considered himself a religious man who was skilled in the Bible and its teachings. Brady was a man of noble stature, who had a fatal flaw, but possessed a sense of commitment that was evident even through his error of judgment. He underwent a negative reversal of fortune, and his self-awareness was revealed throughout the trial. Although his death was a result of his own fault from his inability to endure suffering, it evoked the pity and fear of the audience. The above distinct characteristics made Matthew Harrison Brady almost the epitome of what Aristotle once defined as a "tragic hero."

The hypocrisy of late 1800’s American society is shown in countless ways, page after page in Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Just like Huck, Twain himself saw the flaws and ignorance in humans:

Revenant- “a person who has returned, especially supposedly from the dead”. (Oxford Dictionary). This word has been used several times to characterize the legendary frontiersman, Hugh Glass. Glass was able to be a survivor in many situation where other would have met their earthly end. Hugh Glass is best known for his riveting story of survival and revenge.

In the book Cannery Row by John Steinbeck Mack is a very important character to this

My father was the adventurous man in the household, and it was because of this characteristic, that he always knew the best place to go to during the summer of my sister and I’s childhood. My father was the one who taught my sister and I how to be creative and have fun with what you have right in front of you. Summer weekends down at Batsto Lake located in the Pine Barrens were my most precious memories.

John Steinbeck grew up in Salinas California, and came into contact with many migrant workers throughout his life. Steinbeck worked on many ranches as a ranch hand, and lived through the 1930’s observing the social inequalities towards the migrant workers. There were so many migrant workers in California due to the Dust Bowl, which completely tarnished the farming lands of the Great Plains. Along with bringing in a low amount of food to support their families, the national bank kicked many farmers off of their lands because of the stock market crash and the plummet of the economy. The government saw an opportunity to regain themselves in the Great Plains, so they moved everyone out and gave it all to large industrial companies. The families that had been kicked out of their homes had no place to go, and large farm owners in California wanted to take advantage of them. They sent out thousands of handbills making false promises of financial and job security, so

Throughout Cannery Row the use of interconnecting chapters is used by John Steinbeck for a purpose that was not understood at first by critics. Nearly half of the chapters in Cannery Row are interconnecting chapters, some chapters even stray away from the plot, but are implemented for one reason or another. These chapters were not seen to have significance to the book at the time and lead to many bad critics of the novel, but the bad reviews would not be enough to stop people from buying Steinbeck’s Cannery Row. Having these interconnecting chapters take up so much of the novel has to have some significance since it was deliberately implemented by its author. Understanding these interconnecting chapters plays a big role in understanding Cannery

Morality is most often defined as “the principles concerning a distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.” A choice will always be made that defines a character and their moral integrity. In Mark Twain’s novel, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, Huck runs into many situations where he or another character are put into a position in which morality is called into question. This proves that regardless of societies influences and expectations, for Huck to do what is right he must test the morals he has learned from his world and society. Through his reflections, Huck makes some poor choices that are against what he has been taught, giving him

In John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, Steinbeck focuses on traditional society but a society with different values. His society is the traditional society including class, the homeless, uneducated, but instead Steinbeck captures the humanity in the homeless, the bums, and prostitutes along with the uneducated. Steinbeck carries out the riches parts in the characters personalities and isn’t defining them for riches in their bank accounts. He uses friendship and sacrifice as their “humanity scale” in the novel.

Walter does not take Mr. Linders money when he offers it for his family to not move into Clybourne Park because he was thinking about Travis, he was being pressured by his family, and feeling guilty about losing the rest of the money for the bar.

“The heart has its reasons, but the mind makes the excuses.” This quote by Dr. Amit Abraham implies that people who hold socially stigmatized opinions or flaws try to conceal them with more socially acceptable excuses. Relating to this quote, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel, which mainly focuses on two groups of people: slaves and slave owners. Each slave owner provides their own reasons for their actions, which turn out to be excuses, even if they never realize it themselves. By showing that slave owners are indeed making excuses, Stowe is able more effectively advocate against slavery.

The other four main characters in the book are not the only ones who shape Singer in their own minds. It’s important to include all the other people who do so as well. When Singer begins walking around town more often, more people see him and speak with him. This leads to rumors being spreading about him that are “rich and varied” (McCullers 200). The merchants said he “received a large legacy and was a very rich man,” the textile workers said he “was an organizer for the C.I.O,” the Jewish people said he was a Jew, a Turkish man told his wife that “the mute was Turkish,” and “one old man from the country said that the mute had come from somewhere near his home and that the mute’s father had the finest tobacco crop in all the county” (McCullers 200). This isn’t all. “An old Negro woman told hundreds of people that he knew the ways of spirits come back from the dead,” and a