Steinbeck Pairing on 11th Grade Curriculum

Books – Cannery Row and The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck




Cannery Row was an engaging novel, and is important for the 11th grade curriculum because it expresses Steinbeck’s thoughts on happiness, and how people are seen and judged. He shows through people like Mack and the boys, and Dora that though they seem like they’re bad citizens, they are innately good. The themes of this book are still relevant in today’s society because they discuss the way people are seen. Overall it was an enjoyable read. If this was placed on the curriculum though with The Log from the Sea of Cortez, then I would not recommend it.

The Log from the Sea of Cortez was just super dense, but not in volume. It was a difficult book to read, and it was easy to lose interest in. There was like three chapters alone on teleological thinking, and how it is because it is. There was no story line, just a log of what happened everyday on the boat, and I have no interest of whether a certain species of shrimp was found in different places. There were a lot biological associations with it that not many people would understand or care about. Don’t get me wrong, there were many important ideas in the novel, but it was just so hard to get through, and that’s coming from a person who likes to read, and enjoys books such as Three Cups of Tea, even though fellow classmates have found it utterly boring and hard to get through that this would not be a good book to read with the class.

On a last note, The Log from the Sea of Cortez was supposed to talk a lot about Ed Ricketts and his ideas, and how he related to Doc in Cannery Row, yet there wasn’t too much of it. The appendix in the Log from the Sea of Cortez is really the only time Steinbeck talked about him.