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

Hazel is one of "Mack and the boys" who live at the Palace Flophouse and Grill, Hazel is, despite his name, a male. His distraught mother attaches to her eighth child in seven years the name of a great aunt, gets used to it, and keeps it after seeing he is a boy. Neither grammar school nor reform school teaches Hazel anything. Now twenty-six, dark-haired, pleasant, strong, willing, and loyal, Hazel retains everything he hears but understands nothing; his mind is like the snarl of fishing tackle in the bottom of a boat.