In the passage from Grapes of Wrath describing the tractor driver, Steinbeck evokes a bitter, acrimonious attitude towards the man by manipulating the tone of the piece. Steinbeck convinces us, through use of powerful word choice and vivid imagery, that the tractor driver is a soulless extension of the destructive machine atop which he sits.
Steinbeck strips the driver of his humanity, first by ridding him of his visible features. All areas that would normally be exposed are obscured by cold, sterile, protection equipment, implicative of his relationship to the tractor. With his hands gloved, his eyes goggled and a dust mask over his face, he loses all of the things that we use to express ourselves; to communicate with others. He can no longer betray any sort of emotion or human response, thus aligning himself with the machine, causing us to see him as, " part of the monster, a robot in the seat.". The reader understands quickly that he can draw no connection to the tractor driver as Steinbeck describes him.
Steinbeck reinforces the tractor driver's lack of humanity by making him a mere, mindless subordinate of his own machine. The tractor driver is incapable of controlling the machine, rather he is possessed by the "Monster", as it is described, its control over every aspect of his being forcing him to steer and maneuver it. Steinbeck also shows us the driver's complete lack of sense and understanding of the nature around him that he levels. His protective gear blocks all of the things he uses to see the outside world. Unlike normal living things, he is unable to feel the earth beneath him or smell it around him. He is annihilating the rich land without the slightest bit of sympathy or remorse for his actions. This causes the reader despise him, for his soul purpose is to destroy what he does not even know, and what is truly living, unlike himself. .
"If a seed dropped did not germinate, it was nothing.
