Cannery Row Community Essay

Jocko, Jack, Maureen, Peeto, and Vanno are established as certain people in the beginning of the film, and Kriv Stenders, through red dog, has changed that. Red Dog is important to each character for a different reason, though equally important, and slowly, each character finds a way to be cheerful . Red Dog impacts them all through loyalty; he is a friend for everyone. Trust; Red Dog helps everyone in the community to trust each other. Lastly, friendship; through the film the community of Dampier become friends and are kinder to each other.

Steinbeck utilizes the novel as a form of social protest by enunciating the brutal and inhumane way the wealthier class treat the migrant workers. For instance, in order to not loose any profit from the fields, the affluent bankers decide to forcefully drive the families off the fields using tractors to “bite into the house corner, crumble the wall, wrench the little houses from its foundation”(39). However, the working class does not have the opportunity to refuse this decision because of the desperate

They immediately rebut their stereotype and show their aristocracy by adding furnishings to the Palace Flophouse. By standing up for themselves against Doc and Lee Chong, Mack proves his value as a leader. In addition, Gay, one of Mack’s gang, demonstrates his handiwork and skills by fixing Lee Chong’s truck. “Gay was the little mechanic of God, the St. Francis of all things that turn and twist and explode, the St. Francis of coils and armatures and gears. And if at some time all the heaps of jalopies, cut-down Duesenbergs, Buicks, De Sotos and Plymouths, American Austins and Isotta-Fraschinis praise God in a great chorus--it will be largely due to gay and his brotherhood” (Steinbeck 63).

Cannery Row is a town located in Monterey, California. Despite being small, dirty and crowded, it is a well functioned town and is home to people from different walks of life. In the novel’s prologue, John Steinbeck wrote the following: “Its inhabitants are, as one man once said, ‘whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches’ by which he meant Everybody” and “[have] the man looked through another peephole he might have said: ‘Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men,’ and he would have meant the same thing” (Steinbeck 1). He basically comments that the difference in viewpoints given the same event results from the power of perspective and duality observed in people. One might see Cannery Row as a low-down place while the others might see Cannery Row as a lively, vigorous town. One would see a character’s actions disputable while the others would see their behaviors admirable. The viewpoints of readers and the way characters behave at various times explain the fact that Cannery Row and its inhabitants possess qualities crossing good and evil.

            In the story Cannery Row Loneliness is a main theme to the characters lives.  One of these themes is Loneliness.  'He was a dark and lonesome looking man' No one loved him.  No one cared about him'(Page 6).  The severity of his solitude makes this theme one of the most important.  The seclusion of this man can penetrate ones innermost thoughts and leave them with a sense of belonging after hearing of this

Some characters in this novel are alienated by mainstream society because they do not fit society’s ideal image of a person. And they are all not accepted as human beings. Throughout John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, the social injustice of how people were treated during the Great Depression is explored through the characters Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Lennie, to show that society actually needs to become stronger than it really is.

In the late 1930 unemployment rates were dropping at exponential rates, people were traveling west looking for jobs, hoping to gain even the smallest amounts of money. They were struggling to survive, fighting for jobs and living in horrible conditions. The Dust Bowl had wiped out most of their homes and many were desperate, people referred to them as migrant workers. The story Of Mice and Men revolves around the adventure of two migrant workers, George and Lennie. The book begins with a scene of nature, calm and beautiful yet cruel and complex. Much like nature, John Steinbeck's book tells the dark side of our nation and it’s people. Because of this, Steinbeck's book is still valuable to teach students. His simple yet complex story characterizes

Human behavior is a function of the environment that he/she is brought up in because it is the environment that shapes the person’s morals. This statement is openly validated in the novel Cannery Row where an inclusive community is built as a result of good morals that have been developed and shaped by the environment. Cannery Row is novel that was published in 1945 by John Steinbeck in Monterey. It was named after a waterfront street in California which had sardine caning factories. According to Grasse et al (75), fellowship and warm-heartedness is all that is required to form a united and successful community. Wealth is important part of one’s life but it should not take away the person’s happiness. Steinbeck in his work uses the characters of the novel to communicate this message in a clear and understandable manner. The name of the novel matches with the actual meaning that the writer wanted to communicate the readers. He used the name to enable the readers to be able to relate the novel’s actual meaning with authentic opinions.

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.

Many people are seen journeying to California because their homes were taken down. They all have hopes to make a living in the west while making good money and having a steady job. There are handbills all around, and Pa has one that says, “Pea Pickers Wanted in California. Good Wages All Season. 800 Pickers Wanted.” (147). Because of these claims, there are false hopes that arise. Wilson, a friend of the Joads, talks about how the journey to the west is worth it, for the jobs are easy and there are good wages, which means that with some luck, “a fella could have a place of his own” (147). The reality, however, is that with many people going to different farms, there are more workers, and therefore less wages distributed among those workers. Through these handbills, John Steinbeck shows how the maker of these – the upper class – makes sure that many people will be attracted to the falsified wages that will be earned, which manipulate everyone who is willing to work. Another instance of this deceit was shown when two cars drove into a camp where the Joads were staying. Men came out of the cars and asked if anyone wanted work, explaining that there were jobs in Tulare County and that they needed a lot of pickers. However, this was the only information given, and when asked about how much would be paid, the men would not give an answer because they did not want to pay the workers a lot of money. Steinbeck incorporates these secretive characters to show that the upper class tricks those of the lower by censoring important information that when found out, may stop the lower class from obeying the upper class’s commands, and an example of this rebelling is shown when the workers argued that “if [they] don’t know [how much they will pay], [they] got no right to hire men” (263). The upper class

A corpse is found by Doc and it reminds him of his deceased love, bringing back painful memories This shows the negative side of the world and society’s cruelties. Doc is handling of the situation suggests that in Cannery Row, no problem is too major to deal with. Another character was named Hazel because in his family the name was considered lucky with regard to wealth. This underscores how interested everyone was in increasing wealth.

1. “ Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world.

He describes it in such detail because he wants to describe the setting in a way that appeals to the reader. Opinions may vary, but when I read the first page I automatically thought of a place abundant in greenery and animals. Maybe even a forest with a running river. But then later on in the book he describes the setting in a very opposite manner.

In John Steinbeck’s tragic, mangled novel, The Grapes of Wrath, the reader is shipped off into the heart of the great Dust Bowl in the American Midwest in the peak of American hardship. Through his use of realism in the era of the modern age, Steinbeck reveals the hardships that were faced by common American citizens during the Great Depression, and utilizes the Joad family in an effort to depict the lives of the farmers who had to flee to new land in the high hopes of a new and better life. The obstacles the family faces are similar to what countless other families had to face, with very little of the population able to successful thrive at the time. By utilizing the empowering endeavors unforeseen by these poor families and the meteorological catastrophes overlooking the Midwest, Steinbeck illustrates the nationwide panic faced by many Americans in an effort to delineate their confusion and uncertainty.

‘..Guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world they got no family they don’t belong no place.’ This is what many felt during the ‘great depression’ in the 1930’s. John Steinbeck gives us the sense that many felt lonely ‘they got no family they don’t belong no place. The main theme of this novel is alienation; the three characters, Curley’s wife, candy, and crooks are all alienated, and felt it by another person at some point. They all have dreams... it’s the American dream... but not all dreams come true...