The tractor symbolizes the agricultural mechanization that has taken place with the growth of Cajun farming and this mechanization's effect. The arrival of the tractor with the Cajuns shifted the traditional means of local black life. Mechanization reduced the need for labor. "We still had cane, tall and blue-green, on both sides of the road. Morgan on the left, Marshall on the right. But it wasn't Marshall cane anymore, Beau Boutan was leasing the plantation …showed first 75 words of 537 total…

…showed last 75 words of 537 total…men who had killed were both dead, being the same two who had killed Beau and shot Mapes, he could not pass judgment over them, but ask that theirs souls rest in peace. But for the others, he said he was putting all of them on probation for the next five years, or until their deaths-whichever came first." (213) Black men and white men getting the same treatment was obvious evidence that society had changed greatly.