Cannery Row: SparkNotes Literature Guide by SparkNotes

Author:SparkNotes [Sparknotes Editors]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Study Guides
ISBN: 9781411474307
Publisher: Spark
Published: 2014-09-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapters 18 - 21

Summary

Doc continues down the road to La Jolla, eating huge meals and drinking beer. He arrives there around 2 a.m. and sleeps in the car until he can feel the tide change: Having been collecting for so long, he lives by the tides and can physically sense them. Doc has a good morning collecting and gathers a large number of specimens. As he reaches the edge of the tide flat, he sees something white beneath the seaweed. He moves the seaweed aside and discovers the body of a beautiful woman. Shaken, he retreats to shore, where he meets a passerby. Doc asks the man where the nearest police station is and then, too disturbed by the sight of the dead girl, tells the man that he can report the body and get the bounty himself.

Back in Monterey, the flag-pole roller skater outside the local department store is going for a world record. Rival stores are bidding to have him visit them next, and business is good in the shops around the flagpole. Henri, the painter, is fascinated by him and is planning a series of works based on him. One local man, after a night of drinking and fighting with his wife, comes to the base of the flagpole one night to ask the skater what the whole town has been wondering: how he relieves himself up there. The skater tells him he has a can. The man returns home to his wife, who was sure he'd gone to the Bear Flag, and tells her the news.

Mack and the boys return from their frog-collecting trip and go to see Lee Chong. Trading on his indebtedness to Doc, they work out a deal by which they will trade the grocer frogs for supplies for the party (Lee Chong can then sell the frogs to Doc himself). Happy, full, and a little drunk, they soon spend nearly all the frogs. Lee Chong, of course, is marking up tremendously prices as figured in frogs. The dog Mack got from the Captain is adapting quickly and becomes a treasured companion to the men, who call her Darling. The men decide to get decorations for the party from Lee Chong, who has them for every possible holiday. Eddie, who has some experience as a cook, is to bake a cake for Doc.

Unfortunately, Darling eats most of the cake. The boys persuade Lee Chong to bring the frogs over to Western Biological to surprise Doc when he returns. Soon the party is underway. Massive fights break out, much fun is had, and the laboratory is completely trashed. A drunk is pushed into the crate containing the frogs and all of them escape. At dawn, Doc returns to find his home destroyed. He encounters Mack, who tries to apologize. Doc hits him, and Mack acknowledges that he deserves it. The men talk over a beer, and Mack explains about the party. Doc forgives him and tells him not to worry about the broken things, since Mack would never pay for them anyway.

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