I agree with the view that Steinbeck is painting the
picture of a partial Utopia. The characters around the group with Mack in the Palace
Flophouse have repudiated in an inchoate way the norms of US society - getting on and
possessing. At times it is implied that they live like this at the margins because of
inadequacy, alcohol addiction or mental health issues. Mack and the boys discuss on P34
earning money at the Cannery and Mack makes a little speech about the groups approach to
employment. 'S'pose we take a job for a day or so- we'll lose our reputation for
sticking. Then if we needed a job there wouldn't have us.' Here he seems to be
enunciating the policy of the group in relation to work - a deliberate casual approach
to taking work only when required by necessity, but at the same time being aware of
their reputation as workers and there future employability. A second example is the way
that Gay is described as a brilliant mechanic, almost miraculously so. His approach to
rehabbing the Model T is systematic, organised and knowledgeable, yet he does not wish
it seems to work consistently at this trade which he clearly
loves.
One has to respect Steinbeck's approach
to work. It is an essential feature of his approach as a writer that he is interested
and close to workers in all sorts of trades. He had wide experience of basic labouring
and hard jobs as a young man and studied agricultural labour closely in his research for
'The Grapes of Wrath'. He is very sensitive to social class issues as for instance in
the early sections of the book he describes the workings of the cannery and emphasizes
the divisions between factory workers and the accountants and managers who worked in the
office. Is he though sentimentalising these homeless men and their approach and
philosophy of life?
i thinks the answer has to be yes,
but perhaps not to the extent of caricature. Cannery Row acts really as a fable about
life in California and like a good dramatist Steinbeck imbues his characters with
colour, humour and emotion. Some traits are exaggerated and therefore not documentary
or realistic. In many ways this is a 'soap opera' and the portrayal of a down-and-out
community as bursting with hidden talent and cohesiveness community is a message of hope
and some kind of critique of the normal capitalist or middle class lifestyle in the US.
It is very noticeable that there is no swearing in the dialogue and violence between men
is presented as inevitable and often comical. The lack of swearing is mainly due to the
time the book was written (imagine a similar book written in the 21st C, every other
word would have to be f**k). There is cruelty and oppression, but never does Cannery
Row ever really stray into bleak alienation as in e.g. Last Exit to
Brooklyn is a 1964
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States">American author
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Selby,_Jr.">Hubert Selby, Jr.
Published only 20 years after Cannery Row, Selby's novel became a by word for the more
futile and hopeless kind of degradation - Cannery Row with the hope violently
excised.
The accusation of sentimentality comes to mind
again where Steinbeck deals with sex workers. Prostitution is presented as a fact of
life and is even glorified. P108, recounts the onslaught of the 'high-minded' ladies of
the town who insist on closing down the brothel. S describes how this leads to economic
losses to the community as various conventions move to other locations, implying that
the supply of commercial sex was an essential feature of US business life at the time.
Of course the realities of prostitution for the sex worker even in the apparently
benevolent brothel in Cannery Row is harsh and Stenbeck avoids this by not documenting
at all the lives of the 'girls', but instead focusses on the doorman and the Madam.
No comments:
Post a Comment