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Mack
A Chinese man who operates a grocery store in Cannery Row. Lee Chong is a serious businessman who runs a profitable store stocked with countless goods—a store that the majority of the area’s residents shop at quite frequently. Doc, for his part, buys all of his beer at Lee’s store. Even Mack and the boys make use of Lee’s grocery store, though they often don’t have enough money to buy anything (this, of course, doesn’t stop them from trying to convince Lee to give them pints of whiskey). After Horace Abbeville—who has accumulated quite a lot of debt at the grocery store—gives Lee ownership of an empty fishmeal storehouse and then commits suicide, Lee finds himself with a new piece of property that he doesn’t know what to do with. This doesn’t last long, though, because Mack soon convinces him to let him and his friends live in the storehouse, a proposition that Lee agrees to only because he thinks Mack and “the boys” will damage the property if he refuses to let them move in. Still, though, Lee is an entrepreneurial man who needs to maintain his image as an uncompromising business owner, so he charges Mack five dollars per week to move into the building—a fee he knows he’ll never receive. Later, when Mack and “the boys” want to catch frogs to sell to Doc, they ask to borrow Lee’s truck. In this way, readers see that people—and especially Mack’s gang—are constantly asking Lee for favors, and though he acts like an unyielding bargainer, he never fails to provide his friends with what they need.
Lee Chong Quotes in Cannery Row
The Cannery Row quotes below are all either spoken by Lee Chong or refer to Lee Chong. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
Lee Chong stood in back of the cigar counter and his nice brown eyes were turned inward on a calm and eternal Chinese sorrow. He knew he could not have helped it, but he wished he might have known and perhaps tried to help. It was deeply a part of Lee’s kindness and understanding that man’s right to kill himself is inviolable, but sometimes a friend can make it unnecessary. Lee had already underwritten the funeral and sent a wash basket of groceries to the stricken families.
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In Mack’s eyes there was good will and good fellowship and a desire to make everyone happy. Why then did Lee Chong feel slightly surrounded? Why did his mind pick its way as delicately as a cat through cactus? It had been sweetly done, almost in a spirit of philanthropy. Lee’s mind leaped ahead at the possibilities—no, they were probabilities, and his finger tapping slowed still further. He saw himself refusing Mack’s request and he saw the broken glass from the windows. Then Mack would offer a second time to watch over and preserve Lee’s property— and at the second refusal, Lee could smell the smoke, could see the little flames creeping up the walls. Mack and his friends would try to help to put it out. Lee’s finger came to a gentle rest on the change mat. He was beaten. He knew that. There was left to him only the possibility of saving face and Mack was likely to be very generous about that. Lee said, “You like pay lent my place? You like live there same hotel?”
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Chapter 2
Quotes
The Word is a symbol and a delight which sucks up men and scenes, trees, plants, factories, and Pekinese. Then the Thing becomes the Word and back to Thing again, but warped and woven into a fantastic pattern. The Word sucks up Cannery Row, digests it and spews it out, and the Row has taken the shimmer of the green world and the sky-reflecting seas.
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Get the entire Cannery Row LitChart as a printable PDF.
Lee Chong Quotes in Cannery Row
The Cannery Row quotes below are all either spoken by Lee Chong or refer to Lee Chong. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
Lee Chong stood in back of the cigar counter and his nice brown eyes were turned inward on a calm and eternal Chinese sorrow. He knew he could not have helped it, but he wished he might have known and perhaps tried to help. It was deeply a part of Lee’s kindness and understanding that man’s right to kill himself is inviolable, but sometimes a friend can make it unnecessary. Lee had already underwritten the funeral and sent a wash basket of groceries to the stricken families.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In Mack’s eyes there was good will and good fellowship and a desire to make everyone happy. Why then did Lee Chong feel slightly surrounded? Why did his mind pick its way as delicately as a cat through cactus? It had been sweetly done, almost in a spirit of philanthropy. Lee’s mind leaped ahead at the possibilities—no, they were probabilities, and his finger tapping slowed still further. He saw himself refusing Mack’s request and he saw the broken glass from the windows. Then Mack would offer a second time to watch over and preserve Lee’s property— and at the second refusal, Lee could smell the smoke, could see the little flames creeping up the walls. Mack and his friends would try to help to put it out. Lee’s finger came to a gentle rest on the change mat. He was beaten. He knew that. There was left to him only the possibility of saving face and Mack was likely to be very generous about that. Lee said, “You like pay lent my place? You like live there same hotel?”
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2
Quotes
The Word is a symbol and a delight which sucks up men and scenes, trees, plants, factories, and Pekinese. Then the Thing becomes the Word and back to Thing again, but warped and woven into a fantastic pattern. The Word sucks up Cannery Row, digests it and spews it out, and the Row has taken the shimmer of the green world and the sky-reflecting seas.
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