In John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, the problem filled characters are living in an impoverished community where many life lessons can be learned. Instead of trying to achieve the American Dream these people are content with living the anti-American Dream; money and materials are not looked upon as a necessity. The community and the characters that Steinbeck creates speak to me through their actions and the events that occur. None of the characters in Cannery Row try to be someone or something that they are not. Steinbeck echoes Emerson’s thought that imitation is suicide by creating such unique characters with diverse personalities and traits. While reading this story I have realized that I should be thankful for who I am and not try to be something that I am not. Mack and the boys are a great example of individuals who love living life even though they are bums. Even though they are not as privileged as other people may be, they embrace life as it is given to them and live a full life, surviving like a pack of lions in the jungle-like world that we live in:
“Mack and the boys, too, spinning in their orbits. They are the Virtues, the Graces, the Beauties of the hurried mangled craziness of Monterey and the cosmic Monterey where men in fear and hunger destroy everything lovable about them…Mack and the boys avoid the trap, walk around the poison, step over the noose while a generation of trapped, poisoned, and trussed-up men scream at them and call them no-goods, come-to-bad ends, blots-on-the-town, thieves, rascals, bums…” (Steinbeck 15)
In this passage Steinbeck uses figurative language to describe how Mack and the boys are able to survive the craziness of Monterey. As apart of the lower class, Mack and the boys live more naturally than the upper class societies, who live more privileged lives. When Steinbeck says “Monterey where men in fear and hunger destroy everything lovable about them…” he makes the characters seem they like they are a wild pack of...