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The theme of loneliness in the novel
Theme of loneliness in the novel
Themes about loneliness
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The concept of loneliness and community is apparent throughout not only the book, but also throughout the chapter as an overlying theme. The tide pool, through its clear waters, provides an insight view to what Cannery Row is like, in it of itself. The animals are all separate entities, living in a community, lonely in their own way. But it’s not until the interaction between two animals that it’s apparent that the community is what connects everyone together. Hazel, just like the animals in the tide pool and everyone else in Cannery Row, is lonely. Steinbeck sets up this description by telling the audience Hazel’s background and how he “got his name in a haphazard way as his life was afterword” and how he “was named Hazel before the mother
Cannery Row is densely populated with a group of characters, in the narrative sense of the word and in terms of personalities. There is Dora, an imposing figure of a woman who runs a successful brothel, Henri, the non-French Frenchman, Lee Chong the shrewd but kind-hearted grocer, Doc the scientist, Mack, who leads a small group of men and is loved by the people of Cannery Row, and a host of other fascinating people who make Cannery Row so compelling. It may not seem obvious when reading John Steinbeck’s novel “Cannery Row,” but the main point or lesson in the novel is the importance of respect and Steinbeck uses his characters to tell this story about
‘Of Mice & Men’ is a novel written by John Steinbeck, set in the Great Depression era of the 1930’s tells of a journey of two itinerant workers in search of the American Dream which gives readers the real experience by taking them on an emotional rollercoaster. Three poems written by different poets share many similarities with the novel; ‘Brothers’’ by Andrew Forster, the title of the poem gives away a great deal as the poem is based on sibling rivalry between three siblings. Charlotte Mew’s ‘The Farmers bride’ is loosely based on attitudes towards women in the late 19th century and provides a stereotypical view on how women were objectified, and ‘Nettles’ by Vernon Scannell which illustrates a mother’s love and compassion toward her child. All four texts share many similarities all in the form of themes, historical context and writer input.
In Cannery Row by Steinbeck, he reminds one that, “Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, “whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,” by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, “Saints and angels, and martyrs and holy men,” and he would have meant the same thing”(1). Despite people perceiving you as unsuccessful or bad, if you yourself feels successful then it doesn’t matter what other’s think of you. In the quote, it implies that someone might perceive you in a bad way but if they got to know you personally and looked at you with a different point of view they might see you in a better light. There are many people who have their own ideas on who you are but because they do not know you like you do yourself, their negative words should have no meaning
The theme of Cannery Row, in short, is no less than a poetic statement of
Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is a realistic novel that mimics life and offers social commentary too. It offers many windows on real life in midwest America in the 1930s. But it also offers a powerful social commentary, directly in the intercalary chapters and indirectly in the places and people it portrays. Typical of very many, the Joads are driven off the land by far away banks and set out on a journey to California to find a better life. However the journey breaks up the family, their dreams are not realized and their fortunes disappear. What promised to be the land of milk and honey turns to sour grapes. The hopes and dreams of a generation turned to wrath. Steinbeck opens up this catastrophe for public scrutiny.
The "Failure" As Hero in Cannery Row It is Doc, in Cannery Row, who provides the objective and nonteleological point of view which is to be found in so many of Steinbeck's works. For Doc, himself freed from the get-get-get philosophy of the world of the machine by virtue of his science, his detachment, his gentleness, and his personal refusal to be pushed into either Social Importance or the role of Social Judge, insists that the boys of the Palace Flophouse are universal symbols rather than mere ne'er-do-wells. And what they symbolize is simply this: the madness of a world in which those who enjoy life most are those whom the world considers "failures." For Mack and the boys most certainly are failures-in everything but humanity and life itself: Mack and the boys . . .
Loneliness is the sadness resulting from being forsaken or abandoned. John Steinbeck brought up the theme of loneliness in many characters in Of Mice and Men. Crooks, Curley?s wife, and Candy expressed the theme of loneliness in many different forms throughout the story. Early in the novella George said, life working as ranch hands is on the loneliness lives to live, for these people finding friendship seems to be impossible.
Maybe it's more important to be appreciated than to be wealthy. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck (1945) is one of the most unique of all of the Nobel Prize winning novels. Cannery Row is set in a very poor area of California known as Monterey. It is a small port town south of San Francisco. The time era is post Depression and World War II. The novel is about how lower class people with warm hearts have the ability to create their own heaven on earth. The novel starts out with a group of people known as Mack and the boys. None of these men have jobs, and they all live in a small shack at the end of town. Mack and the boys want to do something nice for their loving friend Doc. Doc is a simple man who lives for the simple pleasures in life. He would do anything to help out his friends, and they feel that they should return the favor. Doc owns a fish supply house in the middle of Cannery Row. He works hard each and every day to keep his supply house up and running. Doc gets his supplies from and becomes very good friends with Lee Ch...
...in the people there. Some were able to combat their loneliness they had things to fill their voids such as their friends, spouses and even the parties. While others never found true contentment. In Cannery Row John Steinbeck has clearly emphasized the importance of friendship and community. He illustrated working together. And even the importance of needs such as physiological, safety, love/belonging, and esteem. In essence the people of Cannery Row truly care for each other. And though they are sometimes lonesome when they come together their loneliness instantly diminishes.
Cannery Row is a novel John Steinbeck wrote after World War I. At first, the novel almost seems like a humorous book, written in a style commonly used by Steinbeck. The book has its main plot, but also has side chapters that periodically interrupt the main idea, which adds to the story. One would think that these side chapters are there to universalize the book, but in fact that is not true. The side chapters tell their own story, and they have a message that Steinbeck was clearly trying to show through his book. The novel has a main point about respect. In Cannery Row , Steinbeck is trying to say that respectability is the destructive force that preys on the world. Steinbeck uses his characters to tell this story about respect and its effect on society. The central figure of the whole book, Doc, better explains this point by saying, "It has always seemed strange to me . . . The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitive, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second" (131).
Novel Notes Plot/Summary: My novel takes place in Monterey, California, where Mack and the boys try to set up a party for docs until things don’t go as planned. Mack, the boys, and a group of unemployed men helping them out. They try and set up the party in Doc's lab, which is also known as his house. Lee Chong is a grocery store owner and offers to buy Mack and the boys some beer.
In the beginning of the book, Steinbeck attempts to capture the feeling and life of Cannery Row by introducing his readers to a number of its' intriguing inhabitants. The audience is introduced to Mack and the boys, a group of unemployed yet resourceful men who inhabit a converted fishmeal shack on the edge of a vacant lot. They decide that they want to do something nice for the kind hearted Doc, who is the owner of a biological supply house. Doc is a gentle, intellectual man as well as a friend and caretaker to all, but he always seems haunted by a certain gloominess.
... it functions. Cannery Row also shows how much everyone truly needs community in our society, even the Undesirables of the world. Many characters throughout the novel show this, such as Doc with the loneliness he presents. The community in Cannery Row encompasses a very wide variety of people, from whores to bums to strange storeowners. Although these people are all independent and completely different, they are all interconnected and are willing to support each-other. In Cannery Row, Steinbeck presents a structure of different moral values, those which make a person good, and also those who are valued by society, but may be valued for the wrong reasons. Steinbeck defines what he thinks a good person is, using the characters in the book as examples. He shows that what society sees as an ideal person may not be as good as the traits that people generally scorn.
When Steinbeck turns to describe the inhabitants of Cannery Row he describes them with the same zoologist eye and sees them in a tide pool with the same seductions, appetites and survival instincts.
In Cannery Row by John Steinbeck and Walden by Henry David Thoreau, the key idea that society can improve through the improvement of the individual helps create an understanding that a materialistic society will result in people valuing materials over morals and values. The lack of morals will result in the dehumanizing of the individual through greed and overtaken by ambition. Thoreau in Walden talks about his plan on escaping society and on only living with the necessities. As he does this he then states, “Most of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind” (15). The tool that is being used in this quote is syntax more specifically it is a periodic