The purpose of this paper is to reveal that Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row are very similar in the themes and the description of characters, and investigate the changed aspects of the latter novel considering the gap of ten years of publication, based on the texts of the two novels among Steinbeck’s unique works of social losers. The research of Steinbeck’s fictions and nonfictions has been made mainly for primitivism, physiology, American dream, non-teleological thinking etc. Including these ideas, the paper pays attention to the clue that Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row are written on the same background, the same themes, and the same organization of characters. Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row show that the poor and uneducated denizens in Monterey in the 20th century share their sadness and worries in a very humanitarian or harmonious way, and are able to make a big impression to the materialized, inhumane, and competitive society of the 21st century beyond being merely the local color novels. This paper thinks that the common themes of the two novels are the love of humans and human simplicity, the satire of the fetishism of commodities and the sadness of social losers out of capitalism, and the carnivals named love and community. In addition, this paper tries to demonstrate the similar relationship between the two novels by juxtaposing three pairs of main characters who have similar personalities and functions in the two novels.
The purpose of this paper is to reveal that Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row are very similar in the themes and the description of characters, and investigate the changed aspects of the latter novel considering the gap of ten years of publication, based on the texts of the two novels among Steinbeck’s unique works of social losers. The research of Steinbeck’s fictions and nonfictions has been made mainly for primitivism, physiology, American dream, non-teleological thinking etc. Including these ideas, the paper pays attention to the clue that Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row are written on the same background, the same themes, and the same organization of characters. Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row show that the poor and uneducated denizens in Monterey in the 20th century share their sadness and worries in a very humanitarian or harmonious way, and are able to make a big impression to the materialized, inhumane, and competitive society of the 21st century beyond being merely the local color novels. This paper thinks that the common themes of the two novels are the love of humans and human simplicity, the satire of the fetishism of commodities and the sadness of social losers out of capitalism, and the carnivals named love and community. In addition, this paper tries to demonstrate the similar relationship between the two novels by juxtaposing three pairs of main characters who have similar personalities and functions in the two novels.
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