Human Action Vs Human Intent in Cannery Row
For the characters in Cannery Row may be more than they appear to be-more
than obscure storekeepers or drifters-but they, like the humanity which they
represent, are far less than perfect. Neither their happiness nor their means
of achieving it is simply the "good" way compared to the "bad" way of the rest
of the money-grubbing world. Mack and the boys, like the rest of us, often
break when they wish to build, hurt when they want to love; and, like the rest
of us, their immediate appetites often distract them from their deeper need to
give of themselves.
The people of Cannery Row, representing humanity, are "consistent only in
their inconsistency" - in short, they contain the admixture of good and evil
which renders self-righteous human judgment both irrelevant and absurd. Lee
Chong, for example, the Chinese grocer, is-as Steinbeck himself tells us-
"more" than a Chinese grocer. He must be. Perhaps he is evil balanced and held
suspended by good - an Asiatic planet held to its orbit by the pull of Lao Tze
and held away from Lao Tze by the centrifugality of abacus and cash
register-Lee Chong suspended, spinning, whirling among groceries and ghosts."
And what is true of Lee Chong is true of Cannery Row: a community of
human souls often erring, often fumbling, often absurd, but somehow noble and
touching even in the fact of their own lack of "importance." For given the
vast forces at work in the chaos which is life - and death - human effort is
both fragile and ludicrous, and this is precisely what creates the tragedy,
the pride, the humility, the sadness, the comedy, and the nobility of our
mortal condition.
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