Cannery Row:

Then and Now

John Steinbeck (1902 – 1968)

• Raised in Salinas, California

• Attends Stanford University but does not graduate

Wins Nobel Prize of Literature for:

“... his realistic as well as imaginative writings, distinguished by a sympathetic humor and a keen social perception.”

Cannery Row - 1851

Chinese fishing families settle Establish fishing industry

Cannery Row - 1880

Railroad reaches town and makes division

Tracks behind Canneries

One side inhabited by socially “elite” – other side by social outcasts

Things are thrown away behind the tracks—these are things characters in the novel use.

Cannery Row – 1902 - 1918

Canning business takes off

Cannery Row – 1924

Lightening induced fires burn several canneries to the ground

Cannery Row – 1930’s

Depression hits Canneries sell sardines as fertilizer

to help maintain business but this fails

Wing Chong’s Grocery

In novel = Lee Chong’s

Steinbeck says “It was small and crowded but within its single room a man could find everything he needed or wanted to live and be happy…”

Wing Chong’s Grocery

La Ida

A “Café”

(A Bar )

Pacific Biological Laboratories In novel =Western Biological

Provided materials to schools and universities

Bear Flag Restaurant

Bordello operated by Flora Woods Adams

(in novel Flora becomes “Dora”)

Wharf in Monterey Bay, California

Monterey Bay today

Monterey Bay

Tide Pool

Monterey Bay

Cannery Row

Site of Wing Chong’s today

Cannery Row today

Cannery Row (the novel) Published in 1945 Why written?

"In every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other."

THEMES to WATCH FOR:

Understanding of world based on perception

Words’ inability to fully capture life / humanity

HISTORICAL CONTEXT TO WATCH FOR:

Depression era pressures on lower/middle class workers

Uncertainty about the future and adverse effects on people’s present lives