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Cannery Row, a 1945 novel, is an idiosyncratic work by John Steinbeck. The novel is written more as a collection of 31 short stories, in the form of 31 chapters—than as a traditional piece of fictional work. Steinbeck has chosen to ignore the oft-embraced ‘rules’ of novel writing, such as plot, timelines, and even sometimes, character development. Rather, he has chosen to let the reader just observe every detail of what takes place at Cannery Row, as a sovereign viewer, without ‘affecting’ what is happening. Through Cannery Row, Steinbeck illuminates instances of failure, rather, ‘apparent failure’, at this stage. The concern here is not the usual failures which are part of the ups and downs in life, but about failure as the generally understood notion in society, and about characters that represent this ‘failure’. In this essay, I will discuss whether failure can be considered as a theme in this novel, and if we can view this novel holistically as a ‘novel of failure’. To begin with, it is optimal that we understand the role of perception in the usage of the word ‘failure’. What may be failure to one person needn’t be failure to another. I can consider myself as a failure, but others may consider me as a success story. This is because we always measure failure against what we consider as success in life. Some people consider success as the accumulation of huge amounts of wealth.
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