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Pathos
Definition of Personification
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down on the wedding guests, indifferent... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the... read full definition
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Days and Hours:
Granny, with her strict religious rules, prevents Richard from finishing Bluebeard, a book he had started reading with Ella. Granny thinks that the book is "the devil's work" and is the source of Richard's foul language. In Chapter 2, he uses figurative language, namely personification, to describe his realizations about the argument he had with Granny and his mother:
The tremendous upheaval that my words had caused made me know that there lay back of them more than I could figure out, and I resolved that in the future I would learn the meaning of why they had beat and denounced me.
The days and hours began to speak now with a clearer tongue. Each experience had a sharp meaning of its own.
Richard realizes, perhaps for the first time, that other people interpret the things that he says in different ways than he intends them. This understanding of his own manner of speech projects out onto the world. At the same time as he begins to learn how to talk to others, so too "the days and hours began to speak now with a clearer tongue." This personification of time leads into one of the catalogs of experience in Part I, where he describes a great number of his feelings and sensations, including "the breathlessly anxious fun of chasing and catching flitting fireflies on drowsy summer nights" and other childhood memories, using figurative language.
Related Themes:
