StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

John Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row - Look at them - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
With the quote, "Look at them. There are your true philosophers,"(141) John Steinbeck examines the characterization of Doc in the novel Cannery Row. …
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER95.6% of users find it useful
John Steinbecks novel Cannery Row - Look at them
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "John Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row - Look at them"

Download file to see previous pages

The novel explains the grassroots realities of life, in its positive and negative aspects, its glory and meanness and the Doc’s character is penned by the author to highlight the complexity of this philosophy. Steinbeck observes, the inhabitants are, "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). Doc is a man of scientific approach, but at the same time, he is interested in enjoying the luxuries of day to day life.

He is not the one to chase the perfect disciplines in life, but is willing to carry on happily with the available levels of discipline. The readers first see him leaving his Western Biological Laboratory for purchasing five quarts of beer. He is not interested to tread the beaten and routine tracks of life and exhibits defiance towards the vested interests that take control of the society and his approach is evident in his suggested “method for getting revenge on a bank if anyone should ever want to: `Rent a safety deposit box, then deposit in it one fresh salmon and go away for six months.” (15)Thus Doc is an individual who accepts and lauds the contradictory facets of life and his Western Biological is a kind of experimental laboratory for the living things as per their levels of progression.

A true philosopher (the realized soul) knows the past, present and the future and they are one with the, the great leveler of humankind, the Time. They are unaffected by the day to day agitations, ups and downs occurring in the world outside. The author compares Mack and the boys, the ordinary folks, to such philosophers as they have the capacity to survive in this world of pluralities and pairs of opposites, like happiness and sorrow, light and darkness etc. There are others, the simple types of people, to whom ignorance is bliss and they also remain happy, like philosophers, in all circumstances.

The intelligent, successful and competitive people remain upset always; their mind is full of agitations over the business and secular challenges they face and the author categorizes them as men with “ bad stomachs and bad souls”(142) but Mack and the boys are fit physically and mentally. They are carefree people, eat what they like, and do what they wish. They are free in every sense of the term. Steinbeck is a master in depicting the lives of the ordinary people and their perspective of life.

Such people do not have the predefined goals in life and craze for aggrandizement of wealth; they just live life. Even though they live different types of life, their trials and miseries of life are of different categories and grades, yet there exists the common thread that binds them all. Their minds are not small, their behaviors and motives are great. Steinbeck has understanding and sympathy for the poor and the common people. His love for the lowest strata of the society, the economically poor, and his admiration for the nobility of human existence, can be observed throughout the novel.

This reflection of Doc reveals the inside working of the mind of Steinbeck: “It has always seemed strange to me” said Doc. “The things we admire in men, kindness, generosity, openness, honesty, understanding, and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits that we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism, and self-interest are traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.” (143)Steinbeck is able to read the minds of his common characters well, the delineation, dialogue and situation building is

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“John Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row - Look at them Essay”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/english/1464299-essay-on-john-steinbeck-s-novel-cannery-row
(John Steinbeck'S Novel Cannery Row - Look at Them Essay)
https://studentshare.org/english/1464299-essay-on-john-steinbeck-s-novel-cannery-row.
“John Steinbeck'S Novel Cannery Row - Look at Them Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/english/1464299-essay-on-john-steinbeck-s-novel-cannery-row.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF John Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row - Look at them

How is Cannery Row like a Tide Pool

This essay, How is cannery row like a Tide Pool?... nbsp;This paper outlines that the life structures in the tide pools directly relate to the social structures of the cannery row.... nbsp;The story of the cannery row revolves around the people left behind when the Cannery had closed.... The waves dislodge mussels and drive them to the ocean.... 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....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

The Moon is Dawn

His immediate postwar work-cannery row (1945), The Pearl (1947), and The Wayward Bus (1947)-contained the familiar elements of his social criticism but were more relaxed in approach and sentimental in tone.... Steinbeck avoided the easy mechanism of casting the "Nazis" in a demonic fashion, instead portraying them as humans torn by the brutality of what they must do. During World War II Steinbeck wrote some effective pieces of government propaganda, among them The Moon Is Down (1942), a novel of Norwegians under the Nazis, and he also served as a war correspondent....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Taoism Reflected in Cannery Row

John Steinbeck's cannery row, (1945) presented a deceptively simple series of events, with a cast of characters, apparently equally lacking in complexity, at least on the surface.... It could be the place, the time, the people, the events, that all combined to create a literary… But like the Tao Te Ching, cannery row portrayed a philosophy of how to live life in a way that achieved levels of balance, happiness and moral virtue.... In two short chapters, cannery row and many of its important players began to come alive, and the significant places, the shop and the flophouse were established....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

It is easy for a reader to look at the messed up lives of the people in the story and feel a sense of humour at the same time while trying to connect with them as fish belonging to a certain wing of a tide pool or an aquarium.... John Stienbeck, the author of cannery row has been regarded and very well received for this particular novel, and the novel itself has also been adapted into a stage play as well as a film soon after its publication.... Published in the year 1945, the story is told along the lines… A number of sardine fisheries line the sides of cannery row, thus giving it its name....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

How is Cannery Row like a tidepool

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 life structures in the tide pools directly relate to the social structures of the cannery row....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

John Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row

This essay, john steinbeck's novel cannery row, presents the novel which explains the grassroots realities of life, in its positive and negative aspects, its glory and meanness and the Doc's character is penned by the author to highlight the complexity of this philosophy.... The intelligent, successful and competitive people remain upset always; their mind is full of agitations over the business and secular challenges they face and the author categorizes them as men with “ bad stomachs and bad souls” but Mack and the boys are fit physically and mentally....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Rethinking the Politics of The Grapes of Wrath

This paper 'Rethinking the Politics of The Grapes of Wrath" focuses on the fact that john steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath criticizes American culture during the dustbowl years of the 1930s.... They feel flight is the only option remaining open to them.... But the owner's answer (truthfully) that it isn't up to them whether or not to evict but instead it's up to the banks, which are not run by men but are themselves controlled by bigger companies off in the east that “has to have profits all the time … When the monster stops growing, it dies” (35)....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

The Native Son - a Richard Wright's Novel

This essay “The Native Son - a Richard Wright's novel” depicts the status of African-Americans in modern America.... The narrative was an exciting crime novel.... Reilly (1978) observed that Native Son is a novel that is very difficult to describe particularly in terms of conveying its real purpose and its real strength (39).... We saw Wright's experiences reflected in the chapter of the novel, “How Bigger was Born”....
8 Pages (2000 words) Research Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us