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

Mack is the forty-eight-year-old leader and mentor of a group of men who seek no more in life than food, drink, and contentment, Mack is intelligent and amoral about lying, stealing, and swindling, believing the ends justify the means. After Mack subtly intimidates Lee Chong into renting an abandoned storage shed with an implicit promise to protect it from vandalism, Mack and the boys occupy "The Palace Flophouse and Grill". After hanging out a while, Mack decides the "ravening individualists" need organization and starts a fix-up that leaves it overfurnished and homey.