When I first began to read Cannery Row, I was not too fond of it. There are quite of number of reasons for why I didn’t like it, but the most prominent reason would be because Steinbeck had a tendency to treat death in a nonchalant way. But as I read on, I discovered his true motive. He didn’t write passively about death for the sake of being rude. He had a reason. He wanted to convey how flippant and careless people are when it comes to important matters like life. One instance of how he uses death to elucidate the fragility of life can be seen in the events that caused a suicide of a character named William. William was a lonesome character who desperately longed to find companions he could call his own. So he sought friendship with with
