! Prof. Laffont! ENC1101! Oct 9, 2014!

!
Three Key Aspects in John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row

Cannery Row was written by John Steinbeck in 1945. The story takes place in Monterey, California sometime between the Great Depression and World War II. The story is based on “his non-teleological acceptance of what ‘is,’ his ecological vision, and his own memories of a street and the people who made it home” (Shillinglaw vii). Steinbeck lived during the Great Depression and his experience affected the tone within the story. Steinbeck chose to write using third person narrative within the story which is an omniscient point of view- this allows the reader to know what the characters are thinking and feeling. The author wrote this story for the soldiers entertainment throughout battle. Steinbeck uses a unique style to construct this novel by periodically incorporating anecdotes and vignettes within the book, which allows the author to paint a overall picture in the reader’s mind of the reality of this time period. The major aspects within Cannery Row are loneliness, suicide and the development of characters. In the story Cannery Row, loneliness can be considered a major aspect of this book. Loneliness describes many of the characters in this narrative- especially the character Doc. Although Doc is much loved by his peers and has many friends, he is lonely. He spends most of his time listening to music on the phonograph. The text explains that “'He was a dark and lonesome looking man' No one loved him. No one cared about him” (Steinbeck 6). This statement creates a sense of sympathy for the character. One of Steinbeck’s anecdotes at the end of the story is about a gopher who has created the perfect home similar to Doc. The only thing

this gopher now needs is a mate in which he try’s desperately to find. However, the gopher never does find a wife and is forced to give up