Farmer with plow from the illustrated Grapes of Wrath.

Illustration of a farmer plowing a field from vol.1 p.1 of The Grapes of Wrath 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. "To the red country and part of the grey country of Oklahome, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth. The Plows crossed and recrossed the rivulet marks. The Last rains lifted the corn quickly and scattered weed colonies and grass along the sides of the road...In the last part of May the sky grew pale and the clouds that had hung in high puffs for so long in the spring were dissipated."