John Steinbeck is the author of several award winning books. before he became a writer he was a non-conformist, he was discharged from a New York newspaper for writing opinions instead of facts. He was an apprentice hod-carrier, an apprentice painter, a working chemist, caretaker of a Lake Tahoe estate, a surveyor in the Big Sur country, and fruit picker before he began writing. He studied science at Stanford University and This book was written in 1945.
This book is a based on true events. This book took place in Monterey. This book is about a real-life street in Monterey. This street is on of America’s most talked about streets. This is about the events that took place in that The book Cannery Row is about several people who live on Cannery Row. The first lady I will explain is Dora. She has flaming orange hair and always wears green evening dresses. Dora owns a place called the Bear Flag Restaurant. It is a whore house. Dora gives money to the Chamber of Commerce, Red Cross, Boy Scouts, Community Chest and Police Department, so she can keep her illegal business open.
She has a soft heart and gives the poor people of Cannery Row a meal or two, if they need it. Next there is an old Chinaman. Some think he is a God and some think he is death and comes to get the dead at night. All the people of Cannery Row are scared of him except a little 10 years old named Andy. Andy was there visiting family and didn’t know all the rumors of him. Andy would watch the old Chinaman come in and out of the water each night. One night he decided to approach the old man. The old Chinaman talked to the little boy for about two hours and then returned to the water.
No one ever heard what they talked about. There was something strange about him, he had one brown eye and one Then there is Mack and the boys. Mack is the main leader of this group. He is a drunk and lives in an old vacant building, he conned from the town grocer. Eddie is an understudy bartender. He fills in at the local bars when needed. Everytime he works he steals alcohol for “the boys”. He lives with Mack. Next is Hazel, who was named after his mother’s sister. He is also a poor drunk. Hazel helps the Doc of the town. He loves to help with the animals.
Guy is next, he is married but he left his wife to live with Mack, because he was tired of being tied down. He is a mechanic. Most of these guys like to sponge off of all the towns people. They are the town drunks and bums. Doc owns and operators the Western Biological Laboratory. He studies all types of animals. He is a big softy and he helps out Mack and the boys a lot. Mack and the boys tend to take advantage of Doc because he has a lot of money. Doc feels sorry for them so he usually helps them out. Sometimes Doc gives the boys jobs to do like collecting animals and he will pay them.
But Doc is very careful that the boys don’t outsmart him. There is a young boy named Frankie. He is only eleven and he was looking for work on Cannery Row, so Doc hired him. His family is very poor, and Frankie wanted to help out. Also he was very slow, so they didn’t want him in the schools. He became very interested in the work Doc did. So Frankie began helping Doc day after day. Soon Doc began loving the child and aloud him to live with him. Lee Chong owns the town grocery store. Mack and the boys are always trying too get free things from him. Mack and the boys borrow his truck when they help Doc. Lee is an old man with a big family.
All the towns people can charge things and he will let them Mack and the boys set out to get frogs for Doc. On the way to get the frogs many things happen along the way. The truck broke down and Guy tried to fix it but he need some parts. So he set out to get some. He never made it back because he was involved in a bar fight and was arrested. He was drunk and went to jail. So the rest of the boys had to The guys killed a chicken and they started a fire to cook it. The owner of the property came out after them. He yelled at them to fix his property and put the fire out or he would call the police. Then little puppies came out. Hazel feel inlove with them. One of the pups were hurt.
Hazel offered to help him. The owner came around and let the guys stay and fed them, while Hazel took care of the little pups. They began to tell the man what they were doing. Mack ended up finding out that the owner had a frog pond, and he offered to pay the boys to take the frogs away. He said the frogs keep him up at night. The guys collected the frogs and helped the man with the pups. When they were ready to go the man offered to give them a puppy and Hazel took one. The men found a lot of frogs for Doc. When they finally made it back to Doc’s place, Doc wasn’t very happy.
The boys were only suppose to be gone over night not a whole week. Doc had a lot of questions for the boys too. Doc still paid them for the frogs and was in shock that they brought back so many. Mac and the boys carried out what they set out to do and that was to give Doc a party. They wanted to do this because Doc had helped them all so much. Mack and the boys went and got the alcohol for Doc’s party from Lee Chong. Lee was very suprised they had money to pay for it. They had a successful party for Doc and he was very suprised and happy. Mack and the boys were very proud of themselves.