Human action against human intent in Cannery Row Because the characters of Cannery Row may be more than they seem, more than shadowy shopkeepers or drifters, but they, like The humanity they represent is far less than perfect. Neither their happiness nor the means to achieve it simply represent the “good” way compared to the “bad” way of the rest of the money-hungry world. Mack and the boys, like all of us, often break when they want to build, hurt when they want to love; and, like the rest of us, their immediate appetites often distract them from the deeper need to give of themselves. The people of Cannery Row, who represent humanity, are "consistent only in their inconsistency" - in short, they contain that mixture of good and evil that makes hypocritical human judgment both irrelevant and absurd. Lee Chong, for example, the Chinese grocer, is – as Steinbeck himself tells us – “more” than a Chinese grocer. It has to be. Perhaps it is evil balanced and held suspended from good - an Asian planet held in its orbit by the attraction of Lao Tze and kept away from Lao Tze by the centrifugality of the abacus and the cash register - Lee Chong is suspended, spinning, whirling between groceries and ghosts." And what is true of Lee Chong is true of Cannery Row: a community of human souls often wandering, often clumsy, often absurd, but somehow noble and touching even in the fact of their very lack of "importance," vast forces at work in the chaos that is life - and death - human effort is both fragile and ridiculous, and it is precisely this that creates the tragedy, the pride, the humility, the sadness , the comedy and nobility of our mortal condition..