The colorful characters in Cannery Row

Steinbeck seemed to get a lot of enjoyment out of writing about his motley crew of characters: poor and reclusive people mostly, but rather content with their lives nonetheless.

The one person who has a job and a degree is Doc, the scientist, who captures and prepares local sea creatures and animals for dissection. Although he has a rather gruesome job, he is kind to his neighbors by healing the sick people and animals around him.

Mack, a leader of a group of homeless men, admires Doc for his generosity, and vows to throw him a party, which becomes the plot of the book.

In any case, Mack and his "boys" are able to get by without having steady incomes. Instead, they steal or borrow items when they need them. Are they lazy or are they innovative? In any case, Steinbeck admires them because they can live on their own without corrupting their souls by becoming trapped in the American "dream" of money equals happiness.

Lee Chong also appreciates Mack and his boys for their business at his store when they do have money. However, he watches them closely whenever they enter because he knows they shoplift from him. When Chong acquires a run-down building, he allows Mack to "buy" it from him. Chong knows he'll never see any money from them in rent, but in exchange he'll get loyalty and protection. If some ruffian enters the store, Mac and the boys will run in to protect Chong. If the boys want to steal food, they'll steal it from some other store outside of Cannery Row.

The characters of Cannery Row live in a world of contradictions, although they don't really seem to notice. Henri, the painter, is building a boat he will never sail because he is afraid of water. The couple who live in the boiler seem content until the wife wants window curtains for their windowless boiler. Dora Flood, owner of the local whorehouse, is not accepted by regular society, but she regularly donates to charities and pays taxes, even though her business is illegal.

The characters in Cannery Row all seem to know each other, predict each other's moods and protect each other, almost as if they are a family. If not a family, then they're certainly their own small ecosystem. It's almost as if Steinbeck is studying his characters in a fish bowl or under an examining microscope. The author collects them and dissects them just as Doc does with his specimens.

In your own writing, if you have characters that know each other, then they shouldn't be telling themselves things they already know. For example, if two characters are chatting about what they had for breakfast when they ate breakfast together, then this is a subject that probably shouldn't come up, unless they're two extremely boring individuals.

Make your characters contradictory like Henri. A lot of people are like this: they know they should eat vegetables for their good health, but they don't, or they do and they hate it. You hate the villain in a movie, but he has a kind heart, so you root for him, even if he is a murderer. Nothing is black and white, and certainly not in the colorful world of Steinbeck's Cannery Row.