The Ghost of Tom Joad Knocking at the Door: A Pilgrim's Journey into the CaliforniAmerican Heartland--44. Cannery Row

The Empty Lot in Steinbeck's Cannery Row as Depicted in a Model
at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, Steve Brown 2022

1.  Steinbeck's Cannery Row

Steinbeck's Cannery Row is a revolutionary book.  Most works of fiction are built on a formula, one every college creative writing and literature major is taught deeply, and one every high school student is at least exposed to:  the plot of a narrative is driven by the writer creating a protagonist with a goal and something that keeps them from immediately reaching it.  Then, the hero either overcomes the obstacles or is transformed in some way through the struggle, or both.  It is quite possible to see Cannery Row this way. Doc can be viewed as the main character.  If that is the case, his goal is to be left alone to work.  That suffices.  If one looks into the tide pool using the exact same paradigm as everyone always has, one is likely to see what has always been seen.

However, from the very beginning of the book, Steinbeck provides us the lens through which he wants us to view Cannery Row:

Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.  Cannery row is the gathered and the scattered, tin and iron, rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and Labatories and flophouses.  Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, "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.

In that paragraph Steinbeck defines the paradigm he would like us to use when reading Cannery Row.  This is not a book about a single character.  Rather, it is a book where the place is the protagonist.  The characters are not to be studied individually but rather how they function together in the tidepool that was Ocean View Avenue at the time.  

The book is not a study of Ed Rickets, the inspiration for Doc, but rather a study of Ed Ricket's role in the greater stink, grating noise, quality of light, tone, habit, nostalgia, and dream that is Cannery Row.  Doc is an essential cell in that organism, the type of person Malcolm Gladwell would much later label a "connector" in The Tipping Point.  Doc is the cell that if removed would cause the character Cannery Row to wither and die, but the protagonist is not Doc, but rather community as a whole.  That was and is still revolutionary for a novel.  

Just as Monterey Bay Aquarium would later be among the first aquariums in the world to try to share communities of sea life working together as they do in the real world rather than simply spotlighting individual species floating around in isolation from their community, Cannery Row makes the whole cast of Cannery Row the exhibit rather than one dominating character.    

In Steinbeck's hand and mind everyone is equally human ("whores, pimps, gamblers and sons of bitches") and equally godly ("saints and angels and martyrs and holy men") because Cannery Row is not only about the individuals, but it also about the sublime whole.  The book is a study of human ecology, and Cannery Row is the tidepool into which we are looking at humanity.  It is a case-study in human condition--the general known through the particular.

Of course, John also wrote the book as a tribute to Ed Rickets, so there is nothing wrong with reading it as a traditional protagonist-centered story with a traditional goal-driven plot.  It definitely can be read on that level.  However, in writing about The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck said, "There are five layers in this book, a reader will find as many as he can and he won't find more than he has in himself." 

Steinbeck wrote in layers, and one layer he always wanted us to see is that we are all connected.  Everything we do impacts those around us, and in Cannery Row everyone equally fills their role as a human--from vagrant, to prostitute, to unfocused artist, to Chinese shopkeeper, to marine biologist and social connector.  All are equally important to the tidepool that is Cannery Row.  Steinbeck is a classless writer.  He writes about how destructive classes can be, especially in The Grapes of Wrath, but he doesn't see people in levels.  He doesn't ignore the social class.  He sees things as they are.  However, the quality of the person has nothing to do with their rank or occupation.  In fact, in Cannery Row, he doesn't even rank people according to goodness or badness of character.  They just are.  The saint and the sinner are one; it just depends how and when you are looking.  Steinbeck views the world with love even as he is angry about the social injustice all around him.

2.

Cannery Row today no longer resembles the one captured in the book.  When I first visited in 1997, I was deeply disappointed by that even though I knew that would be the case.  Although I loved the aquarium, Cannery Row itself did little for me.  It could be the West End of Dallas or any other restored warehouse district in any city in America.  They are all the same.  Somehow, even with that foreknowledge, I was still sorely disappointed to find a neighborhood that doesn't resemble what's in the novel at all.

However, this time, although we didn't spend much time there, I felt completely different about the place.  For one thing, I love old, refurbished warehouses and factories.  Sure, they are no longer what they used to be, but would we really want them to be that?  Those areas never were generally kind to either the environment or the people that lived and worked there.  They were exploitation zones--lively, nasty places teaming with humanity.  That's partially what drew Steinbeck there in the first place: it was a microcosm of humanity.  In the case of Cannery Row, if it was still the same, it would still be pillaging sea life from the Monterey Bay at an unsustainable rate, which of course is impossible, which is why all of the canneries shut down in the first place.

The Cannery Row that Steinbeck knew was unsustainable, which he knew.  The novel captures a place right before ecological collapse and local extinction of a place he loved dearly.  The tidepool would be forever changed by outside forces greater than the lives within it.  Similar characters of Steinbeck's Cannery Row can still be found, but in different places.  That Ocean View Avenue would evolve into something else was inevitable.

However, if it was not for Steinbeck and his wonderful little book, most of the canneries probably would have been torn down.  Walmart's and strip malls would most likely now occupy their place.  

So, although one can't get a living picture into Steinbeck's world by visiting Cannery Row, one can visit a monument to a man, a book, and most importantly an idea: we are all interconnected, and the story of one protagonist, no matter how unique and special that man or woman may be, can't be accurately told without also telling the story of everyone else in the community.  Everything we do impacts each other for better or worse.

Likewise, no matter how unique mankind is as a species, we are part of the tidepool that is earth.  In order to survive we need to understand those connections.

Ultimately, empathy is understanding your connection to the whole.  Our world needs that more now than ever.

Cannery Row in Monterey California is a monument to two great men who aimed to see the whole, the beauty and elegance of everything woven together.  And for that, even with all its commercialization, it is worth visiting a place dedicated to the idea we are all one.