Free Essay on John Steinbeck's Cannery Row

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Cannery Row

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck is a post World War I piece written with a mixture of humor and sadness about the lives of the residents of Cannery Row, a street in Monterey California. The story opens in a messy grocery store run by a Chinese man named Lee Chong. The one room store is described like so "while not a model of neatness, was a miracle of supply... clothes, food, both fresh and canned, liquor, tobacco, fishing equipment, machinery, boats, cordage, caps, pork chops, slippers, and a silk kimono" and last but certainly not least whiskey, could all be purchased. All of the whiskeys had names like "Old" Tennessee and were at least four months old. Our casts of characters have nicknamed the cheapest whiskey "Old Tennis Shoe". Lee Chong is a good man who has the respect of the town. He manages to be respected by the entire town, while most of the town was in his financial debt. Debt would rise for many people who shopped at Lee's, because he would trust consumers "until further trust would be ridiculous".

From this beginning comes a cast of characters long and detailed, making the book and the street come alive. Turning to the next page was not a chore but a leap into another person's woes and prospers. We meet men like Horace Abbeville who's summarized tale is one that begins with debt, which Horace pays off with a shack he owned that housed fishmeal. After Lee Chong agreed to this arrangement, Mr. Abbeville sauntered up the long trails to this shack and shot him self in the head, leaving his wife and children sad and confused. Lee had not pressured Horace for payment he had only suspended Horace's credit. Lee felt badly about Horace's suicide and always watched out for Horace's family.

Lee's new ownership of Horace's shack leads us to the introduction of Mack and the boys. Mack twists Lee's arm to allow them to stay in the fishmeal shack now called the Palace Flophouse and Grill. Mack and the boys are men who very well could go off and do something with themselves. Instead, Mack and the boys would sit around drinking Old Tennis Shoe, getting into trouble whenever possible.

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