The sun lay on the grass and warmed it, and in the shade under the grass the insects moved, ants and ant lions to set traps for them, grasshoppers to jump into the air and flick their yellow wings for a second, sow bugs like little armadillos, plodding restlessly on many tender feet. And over the grass at the roadside a land turtle crawled, turning aside for nothing, dragging his high-domed shell over the grass.
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 3. Nature goes about its business in this survive or die environment for small insect life. Sow bugs, or woodlice, are compared in a simile to miniature armadillos. This passage symbolizes the tough environment that sharecroppers like the Joads face, often stepped on like insects and abused by people from a higher social class. The land turtle is a metaphor for the Joads’ upcoming journey to California.