"Ever see one a them Gila monsters take hold, mister? Grabs hold, an’ you chop him in two an’ his head hangs on. Chop him at the neck an’ his head hangs on. Got to take a screw-driver an’ pry his head apart to git him loose. An’ while he’s layin’ there, poison is drippin’ an’ drippin’ into the hole he’s made with his teeth."
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 13. Figurative language is used to describe what is happening in the country during the migration to California at the time of the Great Depression. Jim Casy uses a metaphor to compare the inhumanity of the banks and big companies in destroying people’s homes and lives to a relentless Gila monster. Even if you cut his head off it still hangs on, dripping its poison. The only way to defeat the system is to destroy its head, like using the screwdriver to pry the Gila monster’s head apart.