Kotoi Nicoleta-Cristina

3rd year, EN-FR

Community in Cannery Row

Following the tradition established in Tortilla Flat, in Cannery Row Steinbeck depicts a
community of people closely connected to each other and to the place where they live, namely
Cannery Row in Monterey. Steinbeck places the focus of the description on the outcasts of
society, Mack and the boys, who just like Danny and his friends in Tortilla Flat, are content with
their simple lives and enjoy each day without worrying about their disastrous financial state.
Steinbeck begins his book by trying to capture the spirit of this community in a sentence:
Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a
tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. However, it will not last long until he subverts this poetic
description by offering the reader a glimpse of the inhabitants of this dream-like place: whores,
pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches. From this brief description, the reader is tempted to judge
the community as a depraved one, but Steinbeck immediately prevents that by asking him to look
from another point of view as: Had the man looked through another peephole he might have
said, `Saints and angels and martyrs and holy man` Therefore, Steinbeck proves that it is a
matter of perception and that people should not be judgmental until they really know a person or
a community.
All along the narrative, Steinbeck interrupts the main plot about Mack and the boys
trying to throw a party for Doc, by interposing stories of characters that will only appear once in
the novel. Thus, Steinbeck manages to capture the life of the whole community without being
forced to artificially intertwine the events presented. This structure can be associated to Docs
collecting of specimens for study and it suggests that the more representatives that one can
analyze, the more accurate the study will be. The paradox is that in the case of human beings,
who are characterized by their uniqueness, this method of study does not apply. The community
from Cannery Row establishes many common traits between its individuals, but a general
description of the community cannot suffice, as each individual has distinctive qualities.
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Allusions to the creation of an American community appear in the episode where Mack
and the boys are trying to catch frogs for Doc: But the majority decided to leave this pool
forever, to find a new home in a new country where this kind of thing didnt happen. A wave of
frantic, frustrated frogs, big ones, little ones, brown ones, green ones, men frogs and women
frogs[]They clambered up the grass, they clutched at each other, little ones rode on big ones.
And thenhorror on horrorthe flashlights found them. Communities are formed in this way,
by bringing people together in crucial moments and learning that unity is the strongest value.
What is remarkable about Cannery Row is that they are not only brought together by
misfortunes, like the influenza epidemic, but they are united in their simple and unique way of
life. Therefore, although it is populated by whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,
Cannery Row represents an ideal society, where fellowship is more important than the
individualistic desire of becoming rich or gaining a better social position. The novel might be
interpreted as a critique to the American people who have been promoting greed by the idea of
the American Dream.
Steinbeck reminds his readers of the simple joys in life and the warm-heartedness that
lead to the solidarity within a community, because when Mack and the boys fail in their attempt
to do a good thing for Doc, everybody else is miserable too. They are aware of the fact that their
happiness is due to the fellowship in their community: What can it profit a man to gain the
whole world and to come to his property with a gastric ulcer, a blown prostate, and bifocals?
Mack and the boys avoid the trap, walk around the poison, step over the noose while a
generation of trapped, poisoned and trussed-up men scream at them and call them no-goods,
come-to-bad-ends, blots-on-the-town, thieves, rascals, bums. Therefore, the fact that they are
judged by the other trapped men, does not affect them at all, as they are free from the bonds of
individualism.
Cannery Row captures the spirit of a people and a place, combining sympathetic humor
and keen social perception and at the same time presents a new version of the values that should
govern a society.