Misconceptions of Dora on Cannery Row

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Misconceptions of Dora on Cannery Row Many people think that the work Dora does is dirty, selfish, and sinful. What many readers have failed to notice is that she gives immensely to the community, only works the girls who want to work, and is very caring to the people around her. Unless we change our view of people because of their line of work, such as prostitution, we will continue to have trouble seeing who people really are on the inside, and what morals they value. What Steinbeck is trying to show in this novel is that people shouldn’t be judged on their way of life. We should also strive to look deeper into people, and we might just find that there are factors that make them a better person than ourselves. Dora specializes in a line of work that not everyone in this world approves of. Her profession is prostitution. In the book of Cannery Row, Steinbeck tones down her job and place of business by calling it “The Bear-Flag Restaurant.” Here usually men come to have a drink or two, and then spend some time with one of ‘Dora’s Girls’. Dora works hard to keep the place pleasant, and non-vulgar, “…a decent, clean, honest, old-fashioned sporting house where a man can take a glass of beer among friends. This is no fly-by-night cheap clip-joint but a sturdy, virtuous club, built, maintained, and disciplined by Dora” (15 Steinbeck). Dora is a madam. When hearing that Dora runs this place, you would think that it would be full of drunks and jerks being rowdy; But in reality, she tries extremely hard to make the business acceptable to the community of Cannery Row, “She keeps an honest, one price house, sells no hard liquor, and permits no loud or vulgar talk in her house” (15 Steinbeck). At first glance, a reader would think that she is just in it for the money, “she is hated by the twisted and lascivious sisterhood of the married spinsters” (15 Steinbeck), and that

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