Cannery Row Compare And Contrast Essay

The setting in a story might be often overlooked, but in most cases the place where the action takes occurs, can be as important as the main characters. In the book Cannery Row by John Steinbeck this happens, the place, the town becomes important throughout the whole book, it can even be argued to be the main character. Similarly, in Dinaw Mengestu’s essay Home At Last, he describes Brooklyn as the closest home for immigrants, becoming the common thing in all the community. Both texts are highly influenced by their setting, with a different one, they would lose their meaning and main idea. Even though both texts share similarities their settings couldn’t be more different, starting by the location (rural vs. urban), the period of time and the people and how they perceive “the other.”

This concept is prominent in Home At Last, as well, but they are treated differently. In Cannery Row, at first glance “the other” are the immigrants, like Lee Chong and the old Chinaman. Specially the Chinaman is the representation of “the other,” someone who doesn’t belong and doesn’t even try to fit in. But as the book continues, this concept becomes more than not fitting in, it becomes the feeling of loneliness. A feeling that the author in Home At Last knows too well, “Even though I lived in Kensington, when it came to evening gatherings like this, I was the foreigner and tourist” (pg. 3 lines 43-44). His neighbourhood is filled with immigrants, but they still aren’t as welcoming enough as someone would expect. He felt like an outsider by witnessing those meetings. But all the people in the neighbourhood can be classified as “the other,” all are lonely, and that makes them a community, their long lasting of home and how they try to find it in the same place. Kensington becomes an immigrant neighbourhood, when Cannery Row can never convert into