It was a long head, bony; tight of skin, and set on a neck as stringy and muscular as a celery stalk. His eyeballs were heavy and protruding; the lids stretched to cover them, and the lids were raw and red. His cheeks were brown and shiny and hairless and his mouth full – humorous or sensual. The nose, beaked and hard, stretched the skin so tightly that the bridge showed white.
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 4. Here we get a physical description of Jim Casy, not unlike the description of the turtle in the previous chapter. Both have a bony head, the turtle has "fierce" eyes and Casy’s are "heavy and protruding," while Casy’s nose is said to be "beaked and hard." Casy is a one-time Christian preacher turned humanist, who is the moral voice of the novel. The description of his eyeballs as "heavy and protruding" suggests that he can perhaps see things others cannot. A simile in this passage compares his stringy, muscular neck to a celery stalk.