One of the big challenges of teaching Cannery Row comes screaming at us in Chapter 1: Horace Abeville sells his building, and then decides to shoot himself in the very building he sold. And let Mack and the boys find his dead body. Great start to the story, no? Later, in case you weren't disturbed enough, Steinbeck adds another suicide for a little icing on the death cake he presents us. So yeah, there's death by a person's own hand—twice. Not fun.

So how might this affect your instruction? Well, whether we like it or not, there's still a lot of stigma surrounding suicide and you just might have kids who have some firsthand experience with their own attempt or an attempt by someone they know and care about.