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Cannery Row: A Brief Analysis Of John Steinbeck's Works

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When John Steinbeck died in 1968, he was one of America's most popular novelist. His works had a profound effect on the American people. Today, he is still a popular and powerful author in America as well as a worldwide literary figure. Jay Parini has written that "the author remains unfailingly attractive to readers of all ages and levels of sophistication" (23).

John Ernst Steinbeck was born in 1902 in the Salinas Valley. He was the third of four children and the only boy. His family was a close, middle class unit living in a small community. The Salinas Valley would later prove to be the location of many of his books and short stories. Both of his parents believed in exposing their children to culture and they often traveled to San Francisco …show more content…

He wrote several articles and two novels which dealt with war and were not considered among his best works. However, after his return from his wartime travels, he wrote Cannery Row in just six weeks. This was said to be his only powerful novel from that era. It is ironic that it is not about war but it is about the residents of the Row in Monterey during the peaceful 1930's.

Steinbeck continued his political involvement and in the1950's, his writings turned towards a strong, direct expression. He helped in writing speeches for the presidential campaigns in 1952 and 1954. In 1964, he was appointed as an advisor to President Johnson. He was an active supporter of Viet Nam until he visited the ravaged country. He then encouraged Johnson to pull troops out of the country.

John Steinbeck was a versatile writer. He has been described as a social-protest writer, a realist, a naturalist, a journalist, and a playwright. He has many strong themes running through his works. The most notable are the strengths of the family, the effects of the environment on man, and social protests. He experimented with many different writing styles and points of views. All of these factors combine to explain why Steinbeck is still a literary force today. His presence on the World Wide Web is great and he is the subject of many high school and college courses. Steinbeck had described his duty as a novelist in his acceptance Nobel Prize acceptance

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John Steinbeck has a style of writing unparalleled in history and in the modern world. In the same way, his philosophies are also unparalleled, with his focus in socialism not extending to communism or abnegation of spiritualism. His ideal world is utopian, holding the dust bowl migrant at the same level as the yeoman farmer was held in Jeffersonian times. In The Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck Steinbeck, who posses impregnable technique, conveys his message of a group working tirelessly for the betterment of the community.

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The poison/ dark parts in the book Cannery Row makes the novel a deep commentary on human society. It shows that, in the real world, these type of things and happen; Steinbeck does not sugarcoat human society. The poison in the creampuff acts to balance and anchor the rest of the novel to a more realistic world. The poison keeps the novel from being much like a fairytale where they live happily ever after at the end. It gives the novel a more realism and it is also use to balance some of the comical parts of the novel.

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Steinbeck is more of a fictional story writer but can get the readers attention in a way that if different from any other writer which is amazing. The way he writes is that he makes up a story but puts some type of life lesson into it. Most writers do this as well but the way Steinbeck puts it is in a completely different way. In his book, "The Pearl", Steinbeck writes a fictional story on poor people and their daily lives. The main character finds a Pearl and that material item becomes his life.

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Through the many stories in Cannery Row involving Mack and the boys, Steinbeck is able to portray Mack and the boys in different ways. Depending on the story and the reader’s interpretation, Mack and the boys can be viewed as a lazy or troublesome group of men or misunderstood misfits with good intentions. One can argue that Mack and the boys’ actions throughout Cannery Row are actions of those who are troublesome. Specifically at the start of Cannery Row, when readers are introduced to Mack. He comes into Lee Chong’s grocery store, and suddenly Lee Chong “stiffened” (9).

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Cannery Row is a novel more about the characters than the plot. In Cannery Row these characters have needs and desires that we uncover as we get to know them better. These characters desires are found when they are set alone in nature which is when they have time to be with themselves. John Steinbeck says that the nature of human desire may be shown as a need or want depending on the values and morals of the specific human. His commentary influences our understanding of the Californian Imagination by showing us the needs and wants of humans during a specific time.

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The theme of the novel is about the quality of human life being dependent upon good intentions and heart. The novel celebrates every type of person, while showing their flaws and their good nature. As Steinback says, Cannery Row is a town filled with “whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches” (5) and through another point of view the inhabitants could be seen as “Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men” (5). The people of the town are lower-class citizens and have unconventional jobs, and they are in the midst of a great national recession. However, they are still kind-hearted, grateful, and understanding.

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Characters that come and go can be found throughout Cannery Row, written by John Steinbeck. Was this done by coincidence or was there a specific reason why Steinbeck introduced characters and by the end of a chapter ended their role in the story? Chapter 26 in particular, there was two new characters introduced into Cannery Row that had no immediate or evident impact unless investigated deeper than an initial glance. John Steinbeck purposely introduced new characters into Chapter 26 and others to affect the stories meaning, inspire thought, and influence story advancement.

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The spirit of unity emerges as the one unfailing source of strength in Steinbeck’s novel. He tries and accomplishes in conveying it to the reader, through imagery. On multiple accounts,

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Steinbeck’s religious views can be discerned primarily through the thoughts of his fabrication of a messiah, Jim Casy. Casy establishes a new idea of religion and spreads it among the people he comes across, just as Jesus had done in the Bible. To top it off, Jim Casy, although he did not technically lead them, traveled with the twelve Joads, like Jesus Christ and his twelve disciples. He initiated a new hope within the Joad family, just like Jesus had brought new hope to his people. And finally, Steinbeck

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Many do not see a purpose, due limited information that is given to the readers. But that’s what makes Cannery Row unique. The novel does not have structure, it doesn’t follow the guidelines unlike others. Throughout the entire book, Steinbeck does not focus just on one character nor setting. Making all chapters different from the previous one.

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All individuals have their sense of right or wrong and it varies from person to person. Your morals are made from your own understanding of the world, which results in different perspectives which vary from person to person, so doing the right thing can only be justified from your outlook. In John Steinbeck’s collection of short stories, Cannery Row, Steinbeck writes a collection of short stories that show how people struggle and live through poverty which is shown through the lives of Doc, Lee Chong, and also Mack and the boys. The story takes place in Cannery Row which is filled with homeless and poor people. The story revolves around Mack and the boys and their experiences of how they try to give back to the others who helped them.

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John Steinbeck: A Literary Light in the Great Depression " The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement"(“John Ernst Steinbeck”). Said by John Steinbeck as he accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature, this quote illustrates perfectly the goals and ideals Steinbeck held himself to in his writing. Steinbeck pursued above all to give the common folk of the Great Depression a voice; an endeavor that grants him a place with the great writers of America.

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A Life of Broken Promises: Environmental Racism in America My fascination to learn more about the environment began my freshman year of high school. When I decided to take a Marine Science and A.P. Environmental class, I discovered different types of relationships between humans and effects of the environment. I first learned about environmental racism from exploring different environmental policies across the nation based on demographics, specifically areas based on income in upper/middle to low class communities. A few years after graduating high school, the country was hit with the Flint Water crisis in Flint, Michigan, a prominently African American, low income based neighborhood.

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Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution Charles R. Darwin was a naturalist and a geologist. Charles stated that all organisms/species descended overtime from a lesser/inferior though common ancestor. Charles called this theory natural selection. Charles published his book “On the Origin of Species” in 1859, overcoming scientific rejection of transmutation of species. By the 1870s people of the scientific community accepted evolution.

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By understanding nature, he can understand a human’s true and rightful intentions. An important observation made by Sharon Levy is “Steinbeck was saying that we need to see the complex interconnections in nature” (10). By this she means, every person, animal, and plant is connected. There is the aspect of the circle of life and everything is renewed eventually. Steinbeck’s novel Cannery Row exemplifies the studies of global warming and coastal pollution along the coast of California.

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