By John Steinbeck In , John Steinbeck describes the unholy community of 1920s Monterey, California. is a street that depends on canning sardines. It is where all the outcasts of society reside. Steinbeck himself, in the first sentence of the book, describes as "a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream." Lee Chong, the owner of the local grocery, Dora, the owner of the Bear Flag Restaurant, (a cover for a whorehouse) and her girls, and an old Chinaman who nobody knows all inhabit . However, ....