Third Times a Charm, Mr. Steinbeck

Cannery Row, as it turns out, was breath of fresh air in comparison to the withered husk of a plot that was Grapes of Wrath.  Additionally, it wasn't a sad ending like Of Mice and Men. 
1.It's a local story about a community in Monterey, specifically those living on Cannery Row.  The narrative fulfills the author's purpose by avoiding a tightly structured plot and creating many stories surrounding the collective plot.  Essentially, a group of "bums" try to make a patriarch's life better and along the way we see the natural evolution of a community.
2. The theme of the novel was intention.  Whether it was the brothel's bouncer intending to defend the girls from a lush and accidentally breaking his spine or the guys' intent to throw a party for Doc and ruining his home before he even arrived.
3. I'm happy to report that the tone of this novel didn't make me want to put myself on suicide watch like the story of the Joads.  Nevertheless, there was a serious air no matter what was happening.

• " The party was slipping away in sweet sadness."  
• " He wondered what a beer milkshake would taste like."
• " His old lady hits him.  But I bet you when Gay's away from her three days, he gets it figured out that it's his fault and he goes back to make it up to her."

4.Here's a cool aside.  I found this book in the trashcan outside of room 607 along with a couple other classics.  It's 1945 copy from the Viking press and is " IN FULL COMPLIANCE WITH ALL WAR PRODUCTION BOARD CONSERVATION ORDERS." Cool stuff dawg.

• " Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a qualilty of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream." Metaphor is a useful to say things without being too articulate.  Still he lets it flow with a sequence of them.
• " 'I love you,' he said one afternoon. ' Oh, I love you.'" Ambiguity is powerful when there is a conversation between two me.  I don't know who he was that made this statement.  That mystery definitely got me to probing the characters more on their emotional capacity.  
• " At Lee Chong's he got him a new pair of overalls and a striped sweater and Frankie became his slave."  Diction.  Did Frankie make himself a hyper-devoted employee? Or did he become an indentured servant?
• Another similarity this book holds with Of Mice and Men is that characteristic of post-modernism that is the not-necessarily intertwined multitude of plot lines.
• The genre being post-modern, you would expect an omniscient narrator, and in this novel, you would find one." Fire did not break out, and while no rent was ever paid, if the tenants ever had any money, and quite often they did have, it never occurred to them to spend it any place except at Lee Chong's grocery."
• Near the end of the book, Steinbeck writes out a poem in verse and instantly, the mood is changed to a comfort of existence that you could find in a home design catalog featuring artfully cluttered rooms.
• I'm not sure epigrams are used for anything else but in this novel, they highlighted the theme at a particular point of the plot and there were quite a few.  My favorite: "The man doesn't live who doesn't have to look at a parade."
• One could also interpret the zeitgeist of the story through the authors lax use of the word "oriental".  He used it to describe almost all the emotions the Chong family collectively displayed.  
• The subtle metonymy of replacing the people of Cannery Row with only the name of the community emphasizes the idea that they all belong to and characterize the place just as much as its geography or climate.
• One motif I didn't notice until now is the puppy Mack and his crew pick up while trying to get on Doc's good side.  At the outset of the dog's life in the story, she is uncontrolled and eventually becomes sick.  The relationship between the men and Doc is in the same state of disrepair after the failed attempt to create a party for Doc.  After he is called upon to see how the dog can get better, we see the relationship and the dog's health improve and life is brought back to the community as well.

1. " He was twenty-six-dark-haired and pleasant, strong, willing, and loyal." Had he just been described as a question-asker and non-listener, I would have written him off as a rude and insincere character.  His youth allowed me to understand that his life had been hard and that there was a background to his personality I didn't have to learn to understand.  An example of indirect characterization I saw was when the crew happened upon the owner of the land where they were hunting frogs.  He was initially guarded but opened his home and pantry to the men when they showed kindness.  He only offered them help and gratitude which made me sad to consider the life the man led while nobody else was around.

2. The syntax does not change through the story but the diction does when the more learned or respectable characters are showcased.  It becomes less colloquial while retaining its Steinbeck qualities.

3. I would venture to say that there was not an individual protagonist but that the entire community was it.  Harping on this cord, I say the community was static overall.  We reached  a homeostasis by the end of the book.  One that could've been found at the beginning of Cannery Row's description also.  By definition, the community was rounded.  There was compassion and indifference.  There was willingness to share and their was mystery as well, especially in the old chinaman who came flopping up from the beach everyday.  

4.  After the book, I sympathized immensely with Doc.  He was the kind of person who couldn't imagine asking a question and not wanting the answer.  I am also that kind of person.  " That was the way with Doc.  He never asked unless he wanted to know and he could not conceive of the the brain that would ask without wanting to know."