Book Report: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck Cannery Row by John Steinbeck is filled with many fictional events. It has 196, paperback, pages that would catch anyone’s eye. The publisher of this book is The Viking Press based out of New York; published in 1945. Even a film version was released in 1982 to represent this book as something even bigger. The reason I chose this book is the fact that John Steinbeck wrote Of Mice and Men, I really enjoyed that book. Knowing that he has written such inspiring books just made me want to read another. It may not have been the number one book I would have chosen but now that I did, I’m glad. Fictional stories always capture my attention because its contents are far beyond the ordinary and that what I look for. This book was not on the best seller list compared to his other works but there are many copies of this book sue to its publicity. I thoroughly enjoyed this work from Steinbeck. The main characters of this book are: Mack and the boys and Doc. Mack and the boys are a group of scheming men who live in a fish shack. Mack is the main leader of the group and the entire boys look up to him. Mack is what you would call a rebel that likes to get into trouble, a lot. As for the boys of the group, they are just as bad as Mack. They follow whatever he does in certain situations, such as stealing bottles of alcohol from his work and bringing it home to the boys. Hazel is the one out of the group that actually works hard, surprisingly. Apart from the boys, Doc is proprietor of Western Biological Laboratory. Doc is the guy that everyone wants to make happy because he feels lonely most of the time. The boys are always looking for ways to impress him. The other characters that hold a special part in the book are: Dora Flood, Lee Chong, Frankie, and Henri. Dora is the proprietor of the Bear Flag Restaurant. She is large with bright orange hair and seems to have a wide variety of clothing styles. She keeps a close eye on her girls but is a very kind, generous woman. Lee Chong is the Chinese grocer of the Row. He holds just about anything at his store. He is very thoughtful and helpful towards the community. Doc is very thankful at times to have Chong help him out with parties and such. Frankie is mentally handicapped and neglected from his mother. Doc was so kind, he took him into his hands. Frankie can’t do anything right most of the time. He had broken into a jewelry store to buy Doc a present and was eventually institutionalized for this. He loves Doc more than anything. Henri is the local artist of Doc’s. He pretends he is French due to the love of art. People know he isn’t but that never stops him. He started building a boat but never finished it; it just stayed at the dock, vacant. Cannery Row is a fictional type book that kept my attention the whole time. The book was set in the cannery district of Monterey, California around the 20th century. Not much was happening around this time but historical events were occurring. In my opinion this book was disturbing at certain point which I could tell was the climax of the book. Doc had found a dead body on the beach just on a normal day and even witnessed a suicide. The main point of Mac and the boys was they were trying to throw a party for Doc to appreciate him in many ways. The party did not go over too well. In the end, they tried to throw another party for Doc and it all ended well, with him being happy. My final thoughts on Cannery Row were is was one of those page turning books but I never could get the true moral purpose of the plot. I really liked all of the strange events that had happened to Doc because that really kept me wanting to read. I disliked the ending because the book started out interesting but the ending wasn’t what I thought it would be. I learned from this book that you have to appreciate the little things people do for you; later on you might regret not making it the best you could have.
Wilder
6th Period
10 April 2011
Book Report: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck is filled with many fictional events. It has 196, paperback, pages that would catch anyone’s eye. The publisher of this book is The Viking Press based out of New York; published in 1945. Even a film version was released in 1982 to represent this book as something even bigger. The reason I chose this book is the fact that John Steinbeck wrote Of Mice and Men, I really enjoyed that book. Knowing that he has written such inspiring books just made me want to read another. It may not have been the number one book I would have chosen but now that I did, I’m glad. Fictional stories always capture my attention because its contents are far beyond the ordinary and that what I look for. This book was not on the best seller list compared to his other works but there are many copies of this book sue to its publicity. I thoroughly enjoyed this work from Steinbeck.
The main characters of this book are: Mack and the boys and Doc. Mack and the boys are a group of scheming men who live in a fish shack. Mack is the main leader of the group and the entire boys look up to him. Mack is what you would call a rebel that likes to get into trouble, a lot. As for the boys of the group, they are just as bad as Mack. They follow whatever he does in certain situations, such as stealing bottles of alcohol from his work and bringing it home to the boys. Hazel is the one out of the group that actually works hard, surprisingly. Apart from the boys, Doc is proprietor of Western Biological Laboratory. Doc is the guy that everyone wants to make happy because he feels lonely most of the time. The boys are always looking for ways to impress him.
The other characters that hold a special part in the book are: Dora Flood, Lee Chong, Frankie, and Henri. Dora is the proprietor of the Bear Flag Restaurant. She is large with bright orange hair and seems to have a wide variety of clothing styles. She keeps a close eye on her girls but is a very kind, generous woman. Lee Chong is the Chinese grocer of the Row. He holds just about anything at his store. He is very thoughtful and helpful towards the community. Doc is very thankful at times to have Chong help him out with parties and such. Frankie is mentally handicapped and neglected from his mother. Doc was so kind, he took him into his hands. Frankie can’t do anything right most of the time. He had broken into a jewelry store to buy Doc a present and was eventually institutionalized for this. He loves Doc more than anything. Henri is the local artist of Doc’s. He pretends he is French due to the love of art. People know he isn’t but that never stops him. He started building a boat but never finished it; it just stayed at the dock, vacant.
Cannery Row is a fictional type book that kept my attention the whole time. The book was set in the cannery district of Monterey, California around the 20th century. Not much was happening around this time but historical events were occurring. In my opinion this book was disturbing at certain point which I could tell was the climax of the book. Doc had found a dead body on the beach just on a normal day and even witnessed a suicide. The main point of Mac and the boys was they were trying to throw a party for Doc to appreciate him in many ways. The party did not go over too well. In the end, they tried to throw another party for Doc and it all ended well, with him being happy.
My final thoughts on Cannery Row were is was one of those page turning books but I never could get the true moral purpose of the plot. I really liked all of the strange events that had happened to Doc because that really kept me wanting to read. I disliked the ending because the book started out interesting but the ending wasn’t what I thought it would be. I learned from this book that you have to appreciate the little things people do for you; later on you might regret not making it the best you could have.