The Inverted Economy of Steinbeck's Cannery Row Ecology

Abstract

Abstract Steinbeck's propensity to explore the effects of economics is exemplified in the continually depressed economy of Cannery Row, where cash is often a rarity among the close community of “whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,” and “[s]aints and angels and martyrs and holy men” that populate the area, leaving the denizens to find other mediums of exchange (1). An analysis of the overall economics of Cannery Row using social exchange theory, with particular attention to Doc, Mack and the boys, and Dora, reveals how Steinbeck uses the social behavior of his characters to create an inverted economic system within the context of the book and within the ecological system of Cannery Row. Doc describes this inversion of the materialist economy in his observations of Mack and the boys as “relaxed” compared to the “so-called successful men … with bad stomachs and bad souls” (129). The application of social exchange theory reveals how Steinbeck's inverted economy works in the ecology of the novel on an individual basis, as with Doc's exchanges with Hazel and Frankie; on a group basis, as with Mack and the boys; and on a business basis, as with Dora and the Bear Flag Restaurant. This inverted economy centers on people rather than wealth, relationships rather than profit margins. In Steinbeck's novel, individuals are parts of the whole, and social exchange theory reveals the interconnectedness of a community focused on one another rather than on the material culture found outside Cannery Row.