Only the tractor sheds of corrugated iron, silver and gleaming, were alive; and they were alive with metal and gasoline and oil.
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 11. As the dispossessed stream out of the drought-stricken Dust Bowl states, the tenant farmers’ houses are vacant and lifeless. The only life remaining in the area is the gleaming metal sheds that house the tractors. Steinbeck personifies the tractor, with machines now controlling the land instead of people. Instead of blood coursing through veins, gasoline and oil bring life to the tractor.