The novel is based on the theme of camaraderie and community values. Despite their hard situations and struggles, the characters of the novel strive to do better to make each other happier. The novel suggests that the desire to survive and to find happiness within one's immediate environment is the most adorable kind of ambition. The novel is about the Everyman, the common man. The characters in the novel are prostitutes, bums, Chinese grocers, married couples who live in boilers, and socially awkward youths. Another important theme of the novel is domesticity, the desire of human beings to have a safe space, a home of their own. Another theme of the novel is contentment which brings peace.
Characters of Cannery Row:
Mac is an intelligent young guy, the leader of a group of bums called ‘the boys.’ he is a good-hearted philosophically intended person. He is a poor man suffering bad luck during the period of economic depression. Horace Abbeville was a resident of Cannery Row who owned a building there. He suffers great losses in business and sells his building to Lee Chong to pay his debts. He then commits suicide. Lee Chong is a Chinese grover. He is a benevolent helping man. He allows Mac and his friends to stay at the building he bought from Horace Abbeville. Lee Chong faces trouble from Chinese goons. Doc is a scientist and the most beloved person living on Cannery Row. He is erudite and cerebral, but he also loves beer and gets along with everyone. He has women around but does not enter into serious relationships. He is deeply curious and enthusiastic about life. He owns Western Biological, a laboratory where he experiments. Dora is the madam at the Bear Flag Restaurant, Cannery Row's local brothel. Dora is friendly, kind, compassionate, and a superb businesswoman. Alfred is the watchman of the brothel, he is a friendly, calm guy. Hazel is 26 years old and one of Mack's boys. He helps Doc at his laboratory. Eddie is a member of Mack's gang, as well. He is a fill-in bartender at La Ida. Hughie and Jones are the other two members of Mac’s boys. Gay is an experienced mechanic. He is married but continues to fight with his wife. Often he spends time in jail for petty crimes. Mac invites Gay to stay with him at the Palace Flophouse. Frankie is a teenage boy who stopped going to school because he has trouble learning and coordination.
Summary of Cannery Row:
The story is about a group of broken, down-on-luck people who are suffering the tumultuous years of the Great Depression. They maintain their humanity and find ways to make each other happy during the difficult period. Mac and his friends are unemployed drifters and they do not have any place to live. They ask help from Lee Chong a local grocer who just bought a building from Horace Abbeville, a despondent bankrupt businessman. Abbeville committed suicide after paying his debts. Mack asks Lee if he and his friends can move into the storehouse, pointing out that if the building is unoccupied, teenagers might break the windows or set it on fire. Lee realizes he has no choice but to allow these men to move in since he knows that if he refuses, they will break the windows themselves to prove that he should let them live there. Lee Chong agrees to let Mack and his friends stay at the building which used to be a fishmeal store but sets a rent of five dollars. Mack and his boys move in and christen their new place the Palace Flophouse and Grill. They fix it up and feel proud of their home.
There is a brothel named Bear Flag Restaurant near the Palace Flophouse. It is owned and run by Dora. The watchman at Dora’s is Alfred, who took over after the last watchman committed suicide in a fit of despair. Across the street from Dora's brothel is Western Biological, the laboratory belonging to Doc, a wiry and bearded scientist. Everyone on Cannery Row likes Doc and thinks about doing nice things for him. Doc and one of Mack’s boys, Hazel, collect specimens in a tide pool. Hazel tells Doc that another man is coming to stay at the Palace Flophouse – Gay, who fights with his wife and goes in and out of prison. Back at the Palace, the boys discuss doing something nice for Doc and light upon the idea of throwing him a party.
Mack realizes that he has no money to arrange the party so he asks Doc if he has some work for them. Doc is wary, knowing that Mack can’t be trusted, but he needs frogs to fulfill an order. He tells Mack that he will pay him a nickel per frog. However, Mack and his boys will need to drive to find the frogs, so he asks Lee Chong for his truck. Lee Chong agrees to let Mack borrow the truck after Mack promises that Gay, who is a gifted mechanic, will fix it up.
A teenage boy Frankie hangs around Doc’s lab. Frankie no longer goes to school because he has trouble learning and coordinating. He takes a liking to Doc, who lets him help out around the lab. Frankie grows to love and respect Doc and is always eager to impress his mentor but he is clumsy and often ruins things.
Gay fixes up Lee Chong's truck and they start on their journey. At one point, the truck breaks down and Gay leaves to find a part for it, but he does not return. It turns out that he ended up in a Salinas jail after a random and unlucky series of events. After some time, another member of the gang, Eddie, manages to find the part, and the journey continues.
On the night of their frog hunt, Mack and the boys camp out on a piece of land. However, a man approaches them and tells them that they must leave immediately. Mack, a seasoned sweet-talker, befriends the man, whom they call "the Captain." The Captain invites the boys in for a drink and then permits them to gather frogs on his pond. He also gives Mack a puppy to take home. While Mack and the boys are on the frog-collecting trip, Doc drives down to La Jolla to collect baby octopi. He stops many times along the way for food and drink, picks up a hitchhiker, and then discards him when he says Doc ought not to drive drunk. Doc then goes to a diner and orders a beer milkshake from a surprised waitress just to see what it tastes like. He proceeds to the tide pools and gathers his specimens, but is disturbed when he peers off the edge of the reef and sees the floating body of a dead girl in the water. He cannot get her face out of his head. Back in town, Mack and the boys trade frogs for party supplies at Lee Chong’s, telling Lee that he can sell the frogs to Doc for money. They have planned to throw Doc's party that night, as they are expecting Doc to return. The boys gather at Doc's laboratory and the festivities begin. However, Doc does not return until the following morning, by which time the party is over. Furthermore, all of the frogs have escaped. When Doc gets back to his lab, it is utterly destroyed. His precious records are smashed, windows are broken, and greasy dishes are piled high.
Mack meekly apologizes, but Doc pummels him in anger. Mack refuses to fight back, knowing that he deserves it, and Doc relents. He pours Mac a beer and, with a sigh, asks him what happened. Mack and the boys become outcasts after the party debacle, and all of Cannery Row sinks into a malaise. Everyone is miserable, tired, and prone to fighting or issues with their businesses. The boys' beloved puppy, whom they have named Darling, falls ill. They have to ask Doc to help her out, which he does coolly but willingly. Doc does not hold a grudge against Mack and the boys and muses to his friend that they are the most philosophical men in Cannery Row. Doc's advice proves to be helpful and Darling quickly recovers. After that, things slowly begin to improve around the Row. Mack asks Dora what he should do to make it up to Doc, so she suggests throwing a party that Doc can actually attend. Mack once asked Doc’s birthday and Doc gave him a false date. Mack plans to arrange Doc’s birthday party. All of Cannery Row knows about the party except for Doc, who forgets that he gave Mack a made-up birthday. Everyone comes up with heartfelt and homemade presents for Doc. Frankie loves Doc so much that he tries to steal an expensive clock to give him, but in the process, he is captured by the police and sent to a mental institution because it is assumed that his lack of intelligence and criminal proclivities will make him a danger to society once he hits puberty. Doc does eventually hear about the planned party from a random drunk at a bar, and he decides to forestall some of the problems from the first celebration by buying alcohol and food and locking up his cherished and/or breakable possessions. The night of the party arrives, and it begins slowly but then it soon blossoms into a lively, fun, and boisterous affair with fights and food and dancing. Doc even reads a poem to the crowd that renders them pensive and nostalgic for lost loves. The next morning, Doc cleans up, hearing music in his head and reciting lines from the poem again.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the History of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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