This selection is the first chapter from Steinbeck's book, in which he introduces the multiple cultures and industrial setting of the Monterey waterfront during the mid-20th century.Cannery Row, pictured here, has evolved from being a "poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream," as Steinbeck described (reader page 147). But is it really all that different? The old industry was fishing (sardines), but the new industry of tourism offers its own grotesque slice of humanity. What is your impression from the short introductory chapter Steinbeck wrote in 1945? [Read here about the collapse of the California sardine fishery].
--Brent W.
“The whole street rumbles and groans and screams and rattles while the silver river of fish pour in out of the boats and the boats rise higher and higher in the water until they are empty.” (Steinbeck, Cannery Row, 148)
ReplyDeleteI think this quote exemplifies the reading because the sardine boats were the life blood of Cannery Row. Now the river of cars, airplanes, trains, and probably boats that bring people to Cannery Row have replaced those fishing boats as the jugular vein of Cannery Row. Without the fishing boats there wouldn’t have been anything else in Cannery Row because there wouldn’t have been a Cannery Row. These days tourism is industry which the area relies upon. I think the reading was very interesting, especially the first sentence which was reflected throughout the rest of the reading. It was a colorful look at an area which was extremely important to the country at large but was pitiful in its own right. Much the same as the concentrated fee lots and the monocropped farms are today.
Philip R.
"Cannery Row becomes itself again-quiet and magical. Its normal life returns." pg.2
ReplyDeleteJohn Steinbecks Cannery row describes a town that is completly reliant on the sardine production. This fish and canning company not only suppiles the world with canned sardines, but everbody in the town with a job. The second the sardines are cleaned and packed away the town returns to normal and social status means somthing again untill the next boat arrives.
"Cannery Row becomes itself again-quiet and magical. Its normal life returns." pg2.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to put my name on the blog comment with this quote.
Molly O