He loved the land no more than the bank loved the land. He could admire the tractor – its machined surfaces, its surge of power, the roar of its detonating cylinders; but it was not his tractor.
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 5. The tractor driver is remarkably detached from the job of cutting up the repossessed farmland, performing it in a robotic way. He can admire the power of the great machine, but it’s not his tractor. And he feels no more love for the land than the banks, who are only interested in profit margins.