Man V. Machine
"The thunder of the cylinders sounded through the country, became one with the air and the earth, so that earth and air muttered in sympathetic vibration. The driver could not control it-"(35).
"No man had touched the seed, or lusted for the growth. Men ate what they had not raised, had no connection with the bread"(36).
The farmers in the novel are being forced to evacuate the land and they can not find a person to blame. The men who came and told them to leave do not have an answer to whose fault it is. As the tractors come and work their fields, it seems as though the farmers have no one to blame and so they blame the machine. When they see that the tractor can do the job of fourteen families, it is clear to them that if the tractor did not exist, then they would have no reason to leave their homes. There is also this perspective were you cant really appreciate the food if it is not grown by men, because there is no connection. The farmers are so used to living of the land that it feels wrong to get food they did not row themselves. It all eventually goes back to this great machine that the farmers have to compete against and its just this huge rivalry were it seems almost impossible to win. It all connects and it eventually leads to the departure of the farmers to California.
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