Book:
* His first novel was published in 1929 (CUP OF GOLD) and his last in 1961 (THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT).
* He won the Pulitzer Prize for THE GRAPES OF WRATH.
* He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

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Movie:
* 29 Academy Award nominations and 4 Academy Awards were given for adaptations of John Steinbeck stories.

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Discussion questions:

1. Why does the novel begin with Lee Chong's grocery-an actual place on Cannery Row that Steinbeck knew well? Does this kind of introduction to the story and characters influence the rest of the story? How (not)?

2. How does Steinbeck use the idea of place? What does it mean to be part of a neighborhood or community in this novel?

3. Critics have sometimes accused Steinbeck of being sentimental. Do you agree in case of Cannery row? Why/why not?

4. How is success defined in this novel? Who is the most successful: Doc, Mack, Dora, or Lee Chong? Why? Is it the same person in the movie?

5. Why does Steinbeck include the vision of the Chinaman's eyes? It may be that he is suggesting another level of reality here. What do you think? How was this done in the movie?

6. The "Doc" of Cannery Row is based on Steinbeck's closest friend, Edward Ricketts. Ricketts was a marine biologist living on Cannery Row, and the two met in 1930. Ricketts was an impressive man-a man who appreciated music, the art of Asia and Europe, Whitman and Li Po. He was a scientist and a philosopher. His mind, as Steinbeck wrote in an essay, "About Ed Ricketts," knew no horizons.
Cannery Row is, in many ways, Steinbeck's fictional tribute to his friend. How is the portrait of Doc as a cultural and scientific man? How is Doc portrayed in the movie?

7. Steinbeck wrote this novel in 1944-45, immediately after he returned from a stint as a war correspondent. It often seems to be a light-hearted text about bums and their ways of coping, but it is also a serious and profound book in many ways. Jackson Benson, one of Steinbeck's biographers, says that Cannery Row is Steinbeck's war novel without ever mentioning the war. Do you agree? Why or why not? How is the war dealt with (or not dealt with) in the movie?

8. How do the interspersed vignettes and anecdotes about the people of Cannery Row inform the main plot? Do they have anything to do with the main plot or are they there merely for atmosphere? How was this done in the movie?

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