Text Connections
Cannery Row is a story in which nearly every man has family troubles, or more specifically, woman troubles. The book is filled with men who are unable to happily stay with a woman, reflecting John Steinbeck’s personal experience with his two divorces. Mr. and Mrs Malloy’s depressing quarrel over window curtains, McKinley Moran’s three failed marriages (“He got married three times before his dough run out”(79).) , Doc’s past college love trouble as well as present loneliness, Richard Frost’s fights with his wife, Mack’s wife leaving him, and Henri’s temporary girlfriends. One would suspect that Steinbeck’s love life influenced Cannery Row, or even to go as far as to say that it is a symbolic metaphor for his experience with love. Steinbeck curses his male characters with this universal flaw, so that all his characters will reflect him in this way.
Mary Talbot, a woman progressing towards insanity who has an fondness for tea parties, draws similarities with the Mad Hatter of Alice in Wonderland. Talbot remedies her anxiety with parties, to the point of delusion and isolation from what is really going on in reality. After her cat misbehaves she laments, “I’m going to have trouble inviting her again”(155). She attempts to punish the cat by barring it from joining in tea parties; such behavior is completely delusional and akin to the Mad Hatter.
The wave of misfortune that affects Cannery Row in the latter part of the novel is banished and things start to improve. The residents saw this evil as a metaphorical wall, not unlike the Berlin Wall. Once it is broken things seem to improve, “The wall of evil and of waiting was broken. It broke away in chunks”(148). When the Berlin Wall was demolished by the hands of the oppressed it ushered in a prosperity unseen in East Germany since before the wall was created.
Nice text connection to the Berlin Wall, I never even saw that one! I think the men's women related problems in the novel also reflect the issue regarding relationships during the time of the Great Depression. Many men felt that it was their fault and were afraid to face their family, therefore cutting off ties to true happiness. Perhaps the reason they continue to feel lonely despite a woman to call their own, is the ongoing burden of poverty during the time period. Very creative text connection with the Had Matter too! I saw her as the typical wealthy, upper-class woman, who attempted to hide her possible sadness from the destitute by showering herself with items of wealth. It seemed as if she continued to believe in fantasy, rather than reality, which Steinbeck incorporated throughout the novel.
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ReplyDeleteMaybe Steinbeck's hidden message related with Plato's allegory of the cave.
His twist on the novel bringing fantasy to reality was similar to the feeling of something that was not necessarily there. The woman showered herself with gifts in order to block out of her mind the thought of poverty or the thought of a different lifestyle, along with many of other people during this time. By the fantasy that she is granted as a character, if reflects the sight of something that in reality is a myth. She made herself believe in a better tomorrow, when she knew the truth of the days that were to follow.
Thank you Plato!
I really enjoyed your creative text connections, especially to the Mad Hatter due to my childhood love of Alice in Wonderland. I can tell that you had the most fun writing this entry, which is of course a good thing. I thought it was interesting how you accounted for Steinbeck's portrayal of relationships by providing a logical suggestion that would explain Steinbeck's "cursing" of the male characters. Also, your in-depth analysis of Mary Talbot's preoccupation with tea parties was found to be very insightful. As a whole, your text connections showed keen perception of Steinbeck's underlying messages and took an interesting perspective on the novel.
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