Cannery Row:
Then and Now
John Steinbeck (1902 – 1968)
• Raised in Salinas,
California
• Attends Stanford
University but does
not graduate
Wins Nobel Prize of Literature for:
“... his realistic as well as
imaginative writings,
distinguished by a
sympathetic humor and a
keen social perception.”
Cannery Row - 1851
Chinese fishing families settle
 Establish fishing industry

Cannery Row - 1880

Railroad reaches town and
makes division
Tracks behind Canneries
One side inhabited by
socially “elite” – other
side by social outcasts
Things are thrown
away behind the
tracks—these are
things characters in
the novel use.
Cannery Row – 1902 - 1918

Canning business takes off
Cannery Row – 1924

Lightening induced fires burn
several canneries to the ground
Cannery Row – 1930’s
Depression hits
 Canneries sell sardines as fertilizer
to help maintain business but this
fails

Wing Chong’s Grocery
In novel = Lee Chong’s
Steinbeck says “It was small
and crowded but within its
single room a man could
find everything he needed
or wanted to live and be
happy…”
Wing Chong’s Grocery
La Ida
A “Café”
(A Bar )
Pacific Biological Laboratories
In novel =Western
Biological
Provided materials to
schools and universities
Bear Flag Restaurant
Bordello operated
by Flora Woods
Adams
(in novel Flora
becomes “Dora”)
Wharf in Monterey Bay, California
Monterey Bay today
Monterey Bay
Tide Pool
Monterey Bay
Cannery Row
Site of Wing Chong’s today
Cannery Row today
Cannery Row (the novel)


Published in 1945
Why written?
"In every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base
theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each
other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well
never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There
are shorter means, many of them. There is writing
promoting social change, writing punishing injustice,
writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base
theme. Try to understand each other."
THEMES to WATCH FOR:

Understanding of world based on
perception

Words’ inability to fully capture
life / humanity
HISTORICAL CONTEXT TO
WATCH FOR:

Depression era pressures on
lower/middle class workers

Uncertainty about the future and
adverse effects on people’s
present lives