Cannery Row

This chapter focuses on Henri the artist. The name Henri is a pseudonym (though the artist’s real name isn’t disclosed), and he never lived in France. Henri is more interested in ideas about art—movements of artistic thought—than in the craft of painting.

While Henri may not be good at painting, he’s very good at building boats. Henri worked on his boat for 10 years, not planning to ever finish it, and lives in it. During those 10 years, he got married twice and had many lovers. However, he never built a toilet for the boat, and the living quarters are only seven feet long. These factors cause women to leave him.

After a breakup with a woman named Alice, Henri drinks wine and reads Rimbaud aloud in a terrible French accent. He has a vision of a young man slitting the throat of a baby. Henri goes to the laboratory and tells Doc about his experience. Doc is unwilling to investigate—to see if it was a ghost or a hallucination. However, Doc’s date is excited by the potential of seeing a ghost and goes with Henri. She dates Henri for five months before leaving him over the lack of a toilet and space.

The summer sees a period of sadness in the Cannery Row community. Mack and his friends are upset over trashing the laboratory, and the community ostracizes them. Hughie and Jones begin working at the Hediondo Cannery and Hazel loses a fight on purpose, but the dog—Darling—remains happy. They clean up the Palace Flophouse and avoid shopping at Lee’s grocery.

On the Fourth of July, Doc and Richard Frost talk about Mack and his friends in the laboratory. Although the residents of the Palace Flophouse don’t know it, Doc forgives and admires Mack and his friends. He lauds them as philosophers and praises how they live without striving for money and material success. Robert and Doc have a bet over whether the Palace Flophouse residents will watch the parade. Doc wins the bet.

However, Doc doesn’t know how upset Mack and his friends are or realize how the community is treating the men for destroying his laboratory. After the Fourth of July, things become worse. Sam Malloy and his wife fight frequently and Alfred the bouncer breaks a drunk’s back. Ladies from town advocate against the sex workers at the Bear Flag, and Dora must close down her establishment for two weeks. This causes conventions to choose locations other than Monterey, ones that have active sex workers. Shipwrecks occur, and Doc takes out a loan to repair the laboratory.

When Darling the dog becomes sick, Hughie and Jones to quit their jobs to help her. Eventually, Hazel and Jones ask Doc to take a look at the dog. Doc says they must force-feed her. Mack and his friends follow this direction, and Darling’s health improves. Things begin to improve in the community. Dora reopens the Bear Flag, and Lee forgives Mack and his friends, bringing them a gift of alcohol. Mack asks Dora how to make things right with Doc, and she tells him to throw a party that Doc actually can attend.

This chapter describes a couple, Mary and Tom Talbot. Mary has red hair and loves throwing parties. However, Tom doesn’t make much money, so Mary convinces other people to fund the parties she organizes. She arranges tea parties with a guest list of neighborhood cats and tries to cheer up Tom when he becomes upset over their lack of income. One day, Tom is inconsolable over bills being due and not having the money to pay them at the beginning of the month. When she tries to cheer him up, he tells her to leave him alone. Mary does so and organizes a tea party, inviting several cats.

One of the cats, Kitty Casini, injures and plays with a mouse. This horrifies Mary, and her shouting causes Tom to get out of bed and investigate. He puts the mouse out of its misery and scares away the cat that injured it. He then has tea with Mary, and her resolution to not invite Kitty Casini to future tea parties cheers him up. Later that year, Mary throws a pregnancy party.

This chapter begins by contemplating the turn good of luck on Cannery Row and discussing how people are superstitious but won’t admit to it. Doc successfully woos several lovers, Darling the dog trains herself to pee outside, and other residents feel happier. Eddie begins to collect a new jug of alcohol while working at La Ida but doesn’t mix beer in with the other spirits. The relationship between Sam and his wife improves.

The Bear Flag becomes more profitable, Eva returns from her vacation, and Phyllis’s broken leg heals. Mack and his friends begin talking about throwing a new party for Doc. Hazel suggests a birthday party. However, the men don’t know when Doc’s birthday is. Mack says he’ll find out and goes to the laboratory. There, Mack tells Doc that Hazel has become interested in astrology, and asks about his birthday in this context to keep the party a surprise. Doc, wary, lies about the date of his birthday, saying that it’s in October instead of December.

Two boys—Joey and Willard—amuse themselves in the boat work yard and down Cannery Row. They look into Lee’s window at his display and sit in front of the laboratory. Joey tells Willard that he thinks there are fetuses in jars in the laboratory, and Willard argues with him about it. Then, Willard asks about Joey’s father, and Joey explains that his father died by suicide, ingesting rat poison. Willard compares Joey’s deceased father to a rat, insulting him, and asks why he chose to die by suicide. Joey replies that his father couldn’t find a job for almost a year, but shortly after he passed, someone came by to offer him one. When Joey spots a penny on the ground, Willard fights him for it.