Although many people and critiques have link John Steinbeck's book, the Cannery Roy, to the Great Depression, capitalism and creative economies, critically analyzing the themes and other aspects of the book, it does not relate in any way with these three historical phenomena. For instance, the book purely talks about a life of a community known as Cannery Row. This community consists of the street children, quack doctor, and unscrupulous business women. The street children who are led by Mack forces Lee to give them one of his halls so that they can have a place to live in and call home (Steinbeck and Piquero).
Inclusion, the flamboyant Business Dorris, on the other hand, tries to make her living by operating a curious restaurant. Therefore, one of the main themes of this book is the means of survival of the occupants of this area hence it is not linked to any event of the great depression, creative economies, and capitalism. Thus, this is manifestly seen since the book does not talk about any event such as massive immigration, droughts, labor issues that were both experienced during the great depression and even in the other two events (Stein-beck)
Cannery Roy does not emulate any of the conditions experienced during the great depression, creative economies, and capitalism; this is because the author mainly dwells around the friendship that exists between the characters and how they want to justify their friendship. For example, Mack and his boys are determined to appreciate Doc for the kindness he had shown to the group by throwing him a party.
Further, the friendship is vividly seen when Frankie steals an expensive statue so as to bring to the doctor as a present for his birthday. Thus, the book talks about the community that strives to stay together and establishes real friendship but does not clearly show the suffering of the people in California and another part of the world underwent during the time of great depression.
Additionally, there is no part of the book where the author brings out the great drought that left the land bare and barren, nor does him talks about the massive unemployment that tortured the society during the great depression and even during capitalist. Hence, it cannot be directly linked to this phenomenon.
However, the author dwells much on showing the reader about community, Canney Row, a messy and rivalry society that operates on seamlessly. He brings this when he introduces the topic about the tide pool that symbolizes a community filled with all sorts of evil. For example, fights, prostitution, corruption, oppression of the poor and love for money. Hence, the book does not link in any way to the events that occurred during the great depression or the creative economist or capitalism.
Another factor that shows that this book is not related to the great depression, creative economist or capitalism is the fact that the writer does not touch any subject revolving around the market crash that led to small profits and poverty. But instead, we see that even the street children can work and get something that they could eat. Unlike during the great depression when many farms collapsed making a good number of people lose their jobs. Therefore, this brought a lot of suffering as there were no jobs to be taken hence leading to high crime rates in the society. In this novel, we do not see any great insecurity due to criminal actions in this community.
Though there exist a small number of crimes in this society, some do steal so as to please their friend and get their favours. For example, Frankie decided to steal an expensive statue from a shop and brings it as a gift to the doctor so as to express his love to the Doc. However, this kind of criminal act is minimal as when compared to what happened during great depression time. Therefore, this book does not in any manner relate to the creative economist, capitalism, and great depression.
Furthermore, the book does not have any link to the great depression since the author excludes the part of politics in the novel. There is no place in the book that the writer talks about a condition that brought political changes like the ones seen during the creative economist and capitalism eras. Therefore, those people relating this book to what occurred during the great depression times may be wrong.
Conclusion
No matter the arguments that this book does not relate to the great depression, creative economist and capitalism, the truth is that, to a large extent the author tried to describe the sufferings people experience during this period to that encountered in the book hence bringing some similarities. Again, concerning the struggle to make a living, the author relates the situation in the book to that seen during the capitalism and the great depression. Thus, the book directly links to the great depression, creative economist, and capitalism.
Works Cited
Steinbeck, John and José Luis Piquero. Cannery Row. Barcelona: Navona, 2008. Print
Steinbeck, John. Novels, 1942-1952. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, 2001. Print.
