Who is Frankie from Cannery Row and what is their importance?

Frankie is a large-eyed, dark-haired, good-natured, dim, and utterly filthy eleven-year-old, Frankie is befriended and cleaned up by Doc and given sanctuary from an abusive home life. Frankie tries to help around the Western Biological Laboratories, sweeping and grading crayfish, but cannot get either right. Frankie enjoys parties and tries to serve a tray of beer, but spills it in a guest's lap and flees, whimpering inconsolably. Frankie hears about a birthday party for Doc while drifting like a small cloud, sees an onyx clock topped by a bronze of St. George slaying the dragon in the window of Jacob's Jewelry Store, cannot afford it, and at 2:30 AM, breaks the window, and nearly escapes with the fifty-pound object but blunders into a blind street.