Chapters 1 - 10, Assignment H

"Behind the harrows, the long seeders—twelve curved iron penes erected in the foundry, orgasms set by gears, raping methodically, raping without passion. The driver sat in his iron seat and he was proud of the straight lines he did not will, proud of the tractor he did not own or love, proud of the power he could not control. And when that crop grew, and was harvested, no man had crumbled a hot clod in his fingers and let the earth sift past his fingertips. No man had touched the seed, or lusted for the growth. Men ate what they had not raised, had no connection with the bread. The land bore under iron, and under iron gradually died; for it was not loved or hated, it had no prayers or curses.” (36). 

      In the passage above from Chapter 5 of The Grapes of Wrath, certain words have been color-coded red because they are all related phrases that help with the description of what the author, John Steinbeck is trying to say. These words have all been grouped together because they all have a sexual/emotional meaning. Steinbeck says that the tractors "rape" the ground and the Earth with their "penes" to illustrate how brutally the new ages of farmers work. He says that they have never "loved" the ground and thus are utterly disconnected from their food and their work. He uses this diction to illustrate his feelings of helplessness to watch something he has loved so dearly and worked so hard on be savaged by some machine. Ultimately, these words help in the description because they add some personal emotion to what is happening and not just telling a straight account of what literally happened.