"It’s dirt hard for folks to tear up an’ go. Folks like us that had our place. We ain’t shif’less. Till we get tractored off, we was people with a farm."
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 16. Pa Joad speaks of how dispiriting it is for families like his to be tractored off their land. He protests that they are not shiftless but were people with a farm until then. Pa’s sense of hurt reflects the theme of the loss of human dignity.