3.Theme

Connection to Nature
 Throughout the chapter the major theme apparent was that of nature. Steinbeck uses the horse and the tractor to express the connection and interception to nature on the farm land during the late 1930's. He explains that when a horse is used to work the land the horse does not harm the land, but instead makes it flourish."There is a warmth of life in the barn, and the heat and smell of life” (115). The horse and the land are from the same nature which is why, when placed together, compliment and help each other rather than harm each other. Even when the horse stops working it still continues to have that natural connection with the land, “and when a horse stops work and goes into the barn there is life and a vitality left..."(115). On the other hand, the tractor has no connection with the land because it is from a different nature. “The heat goes out of it like the living corpse”(115). When the tractor begins to plow the land it also destroys the land killing any hope of anything ever growing again. The tractor also serves as an interception between the land and the tractor driver. “And in the tractor man there grows the contempt that comes only to stranger who has little understanding and no relation” (115), since the tractor driver has no real interaction with the land he feels no emotion towards the land.