Cannery Row

In cannery row there is this feeling of brokenness throughout the book. The novel is about the people of Cannery Row and their fear of breaking free from the comfort of their town and find out who they are. How do they do this in the novel? They go on an adventure. A "quest" as foster would say. Foster says that the quest is basically having a place to go and a reason to go there. "The real reason to go on a quest is always self knowledge" (Foster, 3). There are many quests in the book. For example, Doc goes on an adventure to the boulder –strewn inter tidal zone down near La Jolla to collect small octopi. This was a tough, long journey. He had to travel 500 miles each way and he had to arrive at the correct tidal times. He is very brave for taking on this journey. The reason doc goes on this journey is not simply to get small octopi. Steinbeck made him go on this quest for a reason. We as readers were supposed to see that doc is a little bit of everything and this journey symbolizes him finding himself. Another quest is when Mack and the boys decide to go on a journey. They ask lee if they can use his truck. In order to do that, they have to fix it. They do not have enough money for gas or the right tools to fix the car. It could take them forever. They also don’t have the right tools for travel. I think this tells us that maybe its easier for some people to get out of town or discover themselves. I think everyone has a little trouble finding out who they really are the only difference between novels and real life is that most of us don’t literally go on a quest and some people are lucky and know who they are.