The Tractor, illustration

Illustration of the tractor from The Grapes of Wrath, vol.1 p. 46, illustrated edition, by Thomas Hart Benton, a native of eastern Oklahoma, who was assigned to draw archetypal Oklahomans for 20th Century Fox as the studio believed that would make the casting more accurate. "The air and the ground vibrated with its thunder." "At last the owner men came to the point. The Tenant system won't work anymore. One man on a tractor can take the place of twelve or fourteen families. Pay him a wage and take all the crop"