Community In John Steinbeck's Cannery Row

California and the flood at the end of the novel, and teachings throughout the novel.

To show that man is surrounded by good and evil no matter where they are, Steinbeck describes the setting in a contrasting way to represent the good side and the bad side of nature. He

The novel The Grapes of Wrath is in many ways a one-of-a-kind piece of literature. This work is set up unlike any other book, written in a series of chapters and inter-chapters, which do a remarkable job of informing the reader of the travels the characters in the book are going through. Not only does the story focus on the problems one family goes through, but explains the problem is happening to many more civilians than the story focus's on. Steinbeck does not leave out a single detail about the Joad family and their journey to California, and that in itself is what makes his writing so entertaining. Not only is this a very powerful topic to write about, but the remarkable writing style of author John Steinbeck makes this book a

John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is centred on the lives of ranch workers in the 1930’s and is one of the most interesting and lasting stories of friendship wherein true friendship is the crux of the story. The story is appropriate as it represents what was happening at the time because there was a Wall Street crash which triggered the Great Depression and as a result directly affected the lives of millions of hard working Americans forcing them to lose their jobs, homes, and money. It was a time of great vulnerability and people were forced to make decisions they may not have normally made; the story expands on the concept of vulnerability; as well as the concept of good and bad in people.

People are considered to be social beings, yet, again and again, they seek to falsify the claims of civility, and show themselves as the detached individuals they tend to be. In his novella, “Of Mice and Men,” John Steinbeck designed several faulty pairings that display the true disparity and detachment that are proven to be a part of every relationship in the story. Through the associations of the main characters, Lennie and George, along with several other characters within the narrative, Steinbeck exposes the root of 1930’s relationships in promises, loneliness, and a basic need for companionship, rather than any true fondness- a junction that can easily be nullified.

Sense of place is a perspective of geography that can be seen in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. As noted in The Human Mosaic sense of place is a term used to connote the humanistic view of geography, it seeks to understand the unique character of individual regions and places. In The Grapes of Wrath, farmers and their families are being kicked off of their land, when one family is selling all of their belongings one exclaims “This land, this red land, is us; and the flood years and the dust years and the drought years, are us. We can’t start again… And when the owner men told us to go, that’s us; and when the tractor hit the house, that’s us until we’re dead.” This was land was their place, they made memories there. Power and Ideology

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

            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

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.

Empathy is vital to trust- but what if that understanding is absent, or if sympathy is not given as needed? Such is the case of The Grapes of Wrath, where class differences rule over a turbulent and aggressive rivalry. The novel follows the struggling lower class, oppressed by the corrupt upper class, who cannot understand their hardships. This lack of understanding and willingness to sympathize with the lower class boosts tensions and further emphasizes differences between the classes, leading to the primary conflicts of the story. Through the use of juxtaposition and point of view in his novel, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck shows that the upper class lacks the empathy to relate to the struggles of the lower class.

“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty,” said Mother Teresa. Humanity has struggled against being left alone and being lonely for a long time. As a result, humans formed a society where they could be together. On the other hand, there are still people who are left out of the society. In other words, there are still people out there who are marginalized, not accepted fairly to the society. John Steinbeck shows the marginalized people’s lives in his novel, Of Mice and Men. In his novel, characters such as Lennie, George, Candy, Curley’s wife, Crooks, and even the ranch workers, are marginalized from the society. Ranch workers like George, Candy, and Lennie have nowhere to go, and they do not have anybody to care for them. Especially for Lennie, he is mentally challenged, too. Crooks, being the colored man, suffers from discrimination. Curley’s wife is constantly surrounded with loneliness. In Of Mice and Men, marginalized people who are neglected from the society, create a society of their own; they share their dreams and help each other out although they are all different from each other.

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.

A few years later, Steinbeck returned to California to write “Grapes of Wrath” and to further research the flawed California labor. “He was not, however, merely researching materials for his next book, but passionately involved in the suffering and injustice” (Lisca 16). His fervor for the migrant cause almost lead him to abandon his recent writing and revise “Of Mice and Men” and sell it so he could donate to money to the migrant workers.

Steinbeck uses characterization to communicate his viewpoint on the theme of community. Steinbeck wants to build an understanding that Lee Chong isn't only a person who claims a business; he's a person who possesses a business in a community. Steinbeck uses characterization when he says “He trusted his clients until further trust became ridiculous. Sometimes he made business errors, but even these he turned to advantage in good will if in no other way.

In John Steinbeck’s story Of Mice and Men, and in the film Places in the Heart written and directed by Robert Benton, many of the characters experience unexpected friendships during hard times. The authors bring forth sexism, racism, and the feeling of belonging, showing that everyone deserves a friend. (49)