Setting
Monterey, California
La Ida
Town saloon
Bear Flag Restaurant
Town Brothel
Palace Flophouse and Grill
Home of Mack and the Boys
Mr. and Mrs. Sam Malloy
Live in the boiler and begin to rent it out to workers.
John Steinbeck Dates
1902-1968
Steinbeck Birthplace
Salinas, California
Steinbeck's Nobel Prize
1962
a reference to a person, place, poem, book, event, or movie outside of the story that the author expects the reader will recognize.
e.g. Treasure Island
Allusion
A brief story that is usually illustrative or humorous.
Anecdote
a point of greatest dramatic tension or excitement in the story.
Climax
an interruption of the main action, accomplished by telling stories unrelated to the main plot.
Digression
behavior or thought based on a vision of things as they ought to be, rather than as they really are.
Idealism
a subtle, sometimes humorous perception of inconsistency in which the significance of the event is changed by its context.
Irony
When the audience knows something that the characters don't.
Dramatic Irony
a naive hero whose world view is different from the author's and the reader's.
Structural Irony
a discrepancy between what is said and what is meant. Sarcasm
Verbal Irony
details and descriptions common to a certain place.
Local Color
a comparison between two dissimilar things that are brought together to make a sharp image.
Metaphor
a statement that is self-contradictory yet makes a point.
Paradox
a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human likes traits or abilities.
Personification
a literary movement that at its core depicts life as it really is.
Realism
when a where the story takes place.
Setting
a comparison of two different things using either like or as.
Simile
an object, person, or place that also stands for something larger than itself.
Symbol
the central or dominate idea behind the story
Theme
an atmosphere in a literary work or the attitude the author puts in the literary work.
Tone
an imagined ideal state or society which describes a perfect world.
Utopia
a short literary work composed of one incident.
Vignette
Doc
Main character; owns and runs Western Biological Lab; very intelligent, highly respected, scared of getting his head wet, every is in debt to him, put salmon in the bank's deposit box
Lee Chong
Owns grocery store; not greedy; everyone owed him money; never pressed clients but cut them off when the bill got too large; didn't speak with the letter "R". stayed behind his cigar counter; sent groceries to Horrace Abbeville's family after he shot himself; owns the Abbeville place; said Mack and the boys could rent the place for $5/week; he was everyone's benefactor; boxed up his G'pa and shipped it over sea to be burried;
Chinaman
Walks through Cannery Row every day at dusk and again at dawn on his way to and from harvesting marine animals below the piers; scary- no one really talks to him
Horace Abbeville
was in great debt to Lee Chong so he signed over his fish-meal storage plant to Lee Chong; afterwards; not leaving his family w/debt, he killed himself.
Mack
the leader and mentor of the Palace Flophouse, was hit by Doc for ruining his lab, helped the Captin's dog with a cloth saturated in Epsom salts
Eddie
Part of Mack's group; filled in as a bartender
Hazel
dim; not so bright; his mother named him so b/c she lost track of the sex of her children
Jones
one of the boys
Gay
very good at fixing automobiles; abusive wife; ended up in jail after going to find a Model-T part
Hughie
another one of the boys
Dora Flood
Owned the whore house; 50 years old; very respected by the intelligent, educated, and kind; hated by sisterhood of wives; flaming orange hair; whore house called the Beer Flag Restaurant; has to be extra nice to everyone because she does illegal things and has to give what is requested from her and the worst point of giving money was during the depression;
William
the first "pimp"/watchman at the Bear Flag who killed himself with an ice pick
Greek/Lou
the chef @ the Bear Flag
Alfred
the latest watchman @ the bear flag
Andy
the only person (a little boy) to ever speak to the Chinaman
Mr. & Mrs. Sam Malloy
the couple that lived in the boiler; they became landlords to the pipes
Mr. Randolph
old owner of the boiler to which the Malloy's live in
Phyllis Mae
bear flag girl who got bitten
Eva Flanegan
bear flag girl who broke her leg
Frankie
mentally handicapped boy that spent his days at Western Biological, was not wanted in the local school, dropped a tray of beer and hid in Doc's basement, stole a clock from Jacob's Jewelry store; sexual aggression w/age?
Mr. Rattle
1st owner of the Model-T who was a drunk who really battered it up
Francis Almones
2nd owner of the Model-T who simply couldn't afford it
Jimmy Brucia
man who was celebrating his birthday; Gay went to his house for a drink to celebrate
Sparky Enea
got into a fight @ Jimmy's
Tiny Colleti
got into a fight @ Jimmy's
Josh Billings
a great humorist whose embalming caused an outrage; intestines almost used for fishing
Mr. Carriaga & Mr. Ryan
helped to save Josh Billing's intestines
Captain
a man that Mack & the Boys met who they called Captain; he told them they were trespassing when they slept on the beach; let the boys come to his house and catch frogs; gave them a puppy; Mack helped to cure Captain's dog
Darling
a puppy acquired after meeting the Captain; adored by all of the Boys
Hitchhiker
picked up by Doc; kicked out; questioned Doc about drinking and driving
Doctor Merrivale
shooting the flag-pole skater with a b-b gun
Richard Frost
a friend of Doc's; asked the flag-pole skater about peeing
Henri
lived in a boat that would never be finished, an artist whose mediums include colored chicken feathers and nutshells, claimed to have seen a murderous ghost on his boat; not really French
Mary Talbot
had tea parties for the neighborhood cats; loved to throw parties
Joey
a young boy who's father committed suicide by swallowing rat poison b/c he couldn't find work; the day after, someone came to offer him a job
Willard
mean; kinda sucks; taunts Joey about fathers death
