Cannery Row Community Analysis

Both in any system and in any community, different parts of a whole are needed to support each other in order to maintain a successful environment in which every single part of the community benefits. Published in 1945, right after the years of America’s Great Depression, John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row is a novel which describes Cannery Row in Monterey, California and its unique inhabitants through several different anecdotes, symbolizing traits such as friendship, kindness, loyalty, and compassion--all in which are key to the success of a community, especially one during the Great Depression. As John Steinbeck brings the reader along in a journey in the third person omniscient point of view, we observe at the start how Mack and the boy have

Throughout John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, Steinbeck follows the action and personal thoughts of Mack and the boys. Mack and the boys are shown to be in paradise, as they do not have obligations or jobs unlike other inhabitants of Cannery Row; in addition, Mack and the boys, despite being poor and stealing sometimes, are on good terms with the other members of Cannery Row, and even decide to team up with the rest of Cannery Row to hold Doc a surprise party. In many chapters, Steinbeck states, “Mack and the boys are the Beauties, the Virtues, the Graces” (15). When Steinbeck writes this, he portrays Mack and the boys as the prime example of moral righteousness, of attractiveness in lifestyle and mentality, and of freedom. This freedom and attractiveness in lifestyle are shown through their burden-free actions and intentions, such as travelling such distances to attempt at catching frogs just for Doc. Showing the moral righteousness within them, after the first failed attempt of the party, Mack and the boys were ignored and avoided by the other Cannery Row members for a short amount of time. John Steinbeck writes, “There are two possible reactions to social ostracism-either a man emerges determined to be better, purer, and kindlier or he goes bad, challenges the world and does even worse things” (141). But Mack and the boys did not

Cannery Row and its principles, are at its core, a utopia. Similar to the natural ecosystem, the photosynthesis cycle, the food cycle, and the plant cycle, Cannery Row reaches success through teamwork and community. Cannery Row is a community--a world-- that many of us desire, that many of us strive for, but realistically, it is a world that will cease to exist. In any other realistic world, after the party had failed, in response to social ostracism, Mack and the boys would have turned bad and challenged the world. A regular scientist in our world would have not taken in a mentally challenged boy who was no help to him. In our world, Mack and the boys would not be beauties, graces, or virtues; they would be seen as helpless, evil, disgraceful, and poor. Along with that Mack and the boys would not be wanting to help the community--they would be culprits of robbery, assault, and more trying to achieve this superficial “success.” The world we live in is based off capitalism and competition. How to be superficially “successful” in our world? Through greed, corruption, power, and lies. We still have an achievement gap,