Cannery Row: Chapters 24-32

by John Steinbeck
Set during the Great Depression, Cannery Row tells the story of a struggling community that pulls together to throw a thank-you party for the friendly neighborhood genius.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Introduction-Chapter 8, Chapters 9-16, Chapters 17-23, Chapters 24-32

Here are links to our lists for works by John Steinbeck: Cannery Row, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, The Pearl, Travels with Charley
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. absolute
    complete and without restriction or qualification
    They were pretty near absolute bottom most of the time, and when they really scraped, Mary managed to give some kind of a party.
  2. lurk
    lie in wait or behave in a sneaky and secretive manner
    She could infect a whole house with gaiety and she used her gift as a weapon against the despondency that lurked always around outside the house waiting to get in at Tom.
  3. despondency
    feeling downcast and disheartened and hopeless
    That was Mary’s job as she saw it—to keep the despondency away from Tom because everyone knew he was going to be a great success some time.
  4. curt
    brief and to the point
    One time when it was the first of the month and there were curt notes from the water company and the rent wasn’t paid and a manuscript had come back from Collier's and the cartoons had come back from The New Yorker and pleurisy was hurting Tom pretty badly, he went into the bedroom and lay down on the bed.
  5. placard
    a sign posted in a public place
    She decorated the door with old Christmas things, glass balls, and tinsel, and she made a placard that said “Welcome Tom, our Hero.”
  6. languorous
    lacking spirit or liveliness
    Kitty Randolph rolled over languorously on her back and stretched in the warm sun.
  7. abortive
    failing to accomplish an intended result
    He had analyzed the abortive party and found that a misfortune had crept into every crevice, that bad luck had come up like hives on the evening.
  8. superstitious
    showing faith in magic and ignorance of the laws of nature
    Cannery Row, like every place else, is not superstitious but will not walk under a ladder or open an umbrella in the house. Doc was a pure scientist and incapable of superstition and yet when he came in late one night and found a line of white flowers across the doorsill he had a bad time of it.
  9. benignant
    pleasant and beneficial in nature or influence
    The benignant influence crept like gas through the Row.
  10. cadence
    a recurrent rhythmical series
    The sea lions felt it and their barking took on a tone and a cadence that would have gladdened the heart of St. Francis.
  11. catechism
    an elementary book summarizing the principles of a religion
    Little girls studying their catechism suddenly looked up and giggled for no reason at all.
  12. suffuse
    cause to spread or flush or flood through, over, or across
    The joy was so general and so suffused that Mack had a hard time keeping it centered and aimed at its objective.
  13. wary
    marked by keen caution and watchful prudence
    Ordinarily a compliment made him wary.
  14. covet
    wish, long, or crave for
    They looked a long time in Lee’s window coveting the pliers, the hack saws, the engineers’ caps and the bananas.
  15. provocative
    serving or tending to excite or stimulate
    It was to be an intricate and provocative design in green, yellow, and blue pins, all cool colors, and its title was Pre-Cambrian Memory.
  16. conspiracy
    a secret agreement to perform an unlawful act
    The conspiracy grew and there were endless visits back and forth, discussion of presents, of liquor, of what time will we start and nobody must tell Doc.
  17. crescendo
    a gradual increase in loudness
    Meanwhile on the Row the planning reached a crescendo.
  18. census
    a periodic count of the population
    The collection of presents was growing and the guest list, if there had been one, was a little like a census.
  19. cumulative
    increasing by successive addition
    The first excitement was gone from the Row now and its place was taken by a deadly cumulative earnestness.
  20. parole
    release a criminal from detention conditionally
    “Can’t you parole him to me?” Doc asked.
  21. suppressed
    held in check or kept back with difficulty
    There seemed to be a suppressed Oriental excitement at Lee’s.
  22. mollify
    cause to be more favorably inclined
    He was mollified by her permission.
  23. pathology
    any deviation from a healthy or normal condition
    It is, however, generally understood that a party has a pathology, that it is a kind of an individual and that it is likely to be a very perverse individual.
  24. peristalsis
    wavelike muscle contractions of the alimentary tract
    These are not parties at all but acts and demonstrations, about as spontaneous as peristalsis and as interesting as its end product.
  25. forlorn
    marked by or showing hopelessness
    He stopped and they stood forlornly on the stairs.
  26. formality
    a manner that strictly observes all forms and ceremonies
    Henri came in with a pincushion three by four feet. He wanted to give a lecture on his new art form but by this time the formality was broken.
  27. propriety
    correct behavior
    She protested and Mack and the boys, outraged at this breach of propriety, threw him out quickly and without breaking anything.
  28. parchment
    a superior paper resembling sheepskin
    O whitest so soft parchment where
    My poor divorced lips have written excellent
    Stanzas of kisses, and will write no more.
  29. flail
    thrash about
    Even Doc was happy. He flailed about with the Chalmers 1916 piston and connecting rod.
  30. contingent
    a gathering of persons representative of some larger group
    The shift changed at the Bear Flag. The fresh contingent raged in...
  31. deluge
    a heavy rain
    When he had dug his great chamber and his four emergency exits and his waterproof deluge room, the gopher began to store food.
  32. ferment
    go sour or spoil
    He cut down only the perfect mallow stems and trimmed them to the exact length he needed and he took them down the hole and stacked them neatly in his great chamber, and arranged them so they wouldn’t ferment or get sour.
  33. progeny
    the immediate descendants of a person
    In a few years there might be thousands of his progeny spreading out from this original hearthstone.
  34. maul
    injure badly
    He heard a rustling and smelled female and then out of the hole came an old battle-torn bull gopher who mauled and bit him so badly that he crept home and lay in his great chamber for three days recovering and he lost two toes from one front paw from that fight.
  35. disembodied
    not having a material form
    Then he unlocked the door of the back room and brought out one of his albums of Gregorian music and he put a Pater Noster and Agnus Dei on the turntable and started it going. The angelic, disembodied voices filled the laboratory.
Created on Mon Sep 18 20:15:39 EDT 2017 (updated Wed Sep 27 11:31:46 EDT 2017)

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