How is Cannery Row like a tidepool - Essay Example

The waves dislodge mussels and drive them to the ocean. The starfish prey on mussels whereas gulls break open the sea urchins and feed on the starfish. The black bears also sometimes feed on the intertidal creatures when the tides are low. However, as much as the organisms must avoid the strong currents, wave, sun and predators to survive, they also rely on the constant changes in the pools for food. The creatures that thrive in the tide pool cannot survive on their own. There is some kind of interdependence among the various organisms, where each relies on the other for survival according to Halpern (23).

This way of life in the tide pools have attracted special attention of philosophical writers such as John Steinbeck, marine biologists and naturalists. In his novel Cannery Row, John Steinbeck relates life culture, values and class of the people in the town of Cannery to the structures of the tidal pools. Cannery Row is a story about a group of poor friends (Mack and his friends) who try to raise money to buy beer and throw their friend (Doc) a second party after the first one went out of control and ruined his lab.

The story is set in the later hours of the day when the Cannery had closed and all the workers had gone and only the inhabitants of the street were left. Just as within the tidal pools, when the tides and the waves move back, the tidal pools are filled with life and the remnants are left behind. The life structures in the tide pools directly relate to the social structures of the Cannery Row. The mussels and limpets occupy the lowest status at the bottom of the pool whereas the starfish that prey on them and the eels that hide in crevices occupy a status above them.

Hermit crabs who are always on the look out for empty shells that might be bigger than the ones they have also occupy the bottom of the sea. However, this structure is often silenced when the tides come back in but begin all over again when the tides