The excerpt relates to the historical context the novel was written in, due to the event occurring in the excerpt is relevant to the great depression, and dust bowl era. To illustrate, the landowners, and the wealthy in the passage eliminated the resources the poor needed in order to survive, such as food in order to maintain their profits high, and keep the migrants desiring to have a job, in return for nearly nothing. Similarly, this event relates to how during in the Great Depression the landowners paid extremely low wages to their workers, due to the prodigious amount of workers available, and the few jobs available. Furthermore, the Great Depression led to an immense amount of people unemployed, and desire to work in order to survive,