The settings in Cannery Row all represent something different in the novel and mean something different to the characters and contribute in independent ways to portray the main theme of the novel. The setting of Cannery Row contributes to the overall theme, and each character is connected to a separate setting in Cannery Row and each setting represents something about the character and adds to the theme of the novel as well. For example, the Palace Flophouse is connected to Mac and the boys, and the lab is connected with Doc. .
The Palace Flophouse and the old water boiler that the Malloy's use as their home are both very similar in the ways that they contribute to the theme of the novel and the meanings that they both have to the characters that they are related to. Mac and the Boys are connected to the Flophouse because it is where they make their home in the novel. They do not own it, Lee Chong does and he permits them to live there because they have nowhere else to live and had been living in the pipes in the city and they said that they would take care of it for him. The boys saw the building as a wonderful place and cared for it very much and officially make it their home when they furnish for themselves. The Malloy's live their lives in an old water boiler which isn't much of anything. Yet they still felt like it was a nice home for them and eventually started to rent out other sections of the water boiler to other families to live in. These two settings in the story are good examples of the theme because they show how the characters make the best with what they have in their lives never really get down or depressed, they keep an idealistic view of their lives in Cannery Row. .
Lee Chong's Grocery Store and the Bear Flag Restaurant are two more settings in the story that are connected to each other and contribute to the theme in the same ways. Lee Chong's Grocery Store is described in the book as "small and crowded but within its single room a man could find everything he needed or wanted to live and to be happy.