Lord of the Flies: Personification 9 key examples

Note the personification of the rock, which makes it seem as if it decides to fall: it "loitered, poised on one toe, decided not to return," and then "leapt" off the cliff. In the first chapter, nature often seems to work with the boys, and that's the impression this rock personification gives.

This playful moment is much darker in retrospect, though: it functions as foreshadowing for Piggy's death. In chapter 11, Piggy dies when Roger uses a branch to launch a rock toward him.

High overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever. Ralph heard the great rock before he saw it. He was aware of a jolt in the earth that came to him through the soles of his feet, and the breaking sound of stones at the top of the cliff. Then the monstrous red thing bounded across the neck and he flung himself flat while the tribe shrieked. The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.

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Notice that Roger has a sense of "delirious abandonment" when he launches the rock. This connection between the childlike playing of earlier chapters and the cruelty of later chapters suggests they are related. Destruction is often fun, especially for children, but it has consequences. In Chapter 1, those consequences are as minimal as the destruction of some forest (and perhaps the death of any animals below), but in Chapter 11, Piggy dies and the conch, that symbol of the boys' attempts to create civilization, is totally destroyed.

Although it is a small moment, notice that the coconuts are described as "skull-like." This is an excellent bit of foreshadowing and mood-setting. Readers will see more skulls later in the novel: the pig skull and the parachutist's corpse. The description of the coconuts as skull-like foreshadows the violent events of the novel. Even the natural wildlife of the island is similar to death, and this imagery makes the island creepy even before the reader understands the plot. This is a great example of how Golding sets a pessimistic, dreadful tone throughout the novel.

Note as well that the personified forest is "sliding over" Ralph's skin, as if the woods are alive and trying to touch or absorb him. The boys' savagery can be understood as their absorption into a primitive lifestyle ruled by nature. Golding personifies natural elements such as the forest to emphasize the power of nature, and to make the island seem strange, wild, and autonomous—almost as if it has a mind of its own.

First the fire is like a squirrel (simile), then it simply is one (metaphor). The flames are all sorts of "wild life": not only squirrels, but also jaguars. These metaphors indicate the fire's speed and ease of spreading. They also provide visceral imagery of the out-of-control fire. For much the same purposes, the fire is personified: the flames "leapt nimbly" and then "went swinging and flaring." Fire "began to gnaw" at the forest. This personification attributes hunger and excited destruction to fire. Just as the boys later become excited to cause destruction, seemingly without pausing to think about the consequences of their actions, so too does the fire here playfully and happily ruin a patch of jungle.

This early forest fire foreshadows the final events of the novel. In chapter 12, Jack's tribe sets fire to part of the forest to try to flush out Ralph.

Now the fire was nearer; those volleying shots were great limbs, trunks even, bursting. The fools! The fools! The fire must be almost at the fruit trees—what would they eat tomorrow?

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Ralph hears a sound like "volleying shots," as if the fire is shooting at him, but it's instead the sound of wood splintering because of the fast-burning fire. Remember the playful yet destructive personification of the fire earlier? Now we see the consequences of that kind of "savage" behavior—the fire may kill Ralph today, but Jack and his tribe will have nothing to eat tomorrow. Again, savagery and hotheadedness work against civilization and life.

The wood "yielded passionately" as if it enjoys being burned up. In this moment, nature works with the boys, and personifying the wood in this way makes it seem as if even the firewood wants them to succeed. For the boys and the reader alike, this is a moment of hope—they have made a fire, long considered crucial to the start of civilization.

"Yellow flames [...] poured upwards and shook a great beard of flame": this first descriptive image of fire (readers will encounter many more over the course of the novel) allows the reader to better imagine the blaze. Golding uses the unusual description "poured upwards" to describe the fire's raging—later, he metaphorically says the "breeze was a river of sparks." Both times, fire is like a liquid, and this elemental inversion plays into the strange setting the boys find themselves in.

The heat is described as "like a blow," as if the heat is punching the boys. This is a violent simile Golding reuses later to describe the midday heat on the island. Heat, both literal and figurative (in the sense of passion, hotheadedness), is prominent in this novel and often has violent results.

Remember that this first fire burns out because it gets too big for the boys to maintain it. These literary devices describe the strength and fury of the fire, which will cause it to use up the wood too quickly. Although the boys are amazed at the power of their first fire, it is this power that causes it to fail—much as Jack's power seems to get ahead of him.

Golding's descriptions of the ocean use personification, simile, and metaphor to create the image of a massive, sleeping (for now) monster. The ocean looks like a massive creature breathing; it is a "leviathan." This characterization adds to the reader's sense of dread, and it gives readers a sense of what Ralph sees when he looks out at the water separating him from his home: the ocean seems an insurmountable obstacle.

The water is "whispering like the wind among the heads of the forest." Just as Golding compares fire to water, now water is compared to another natural element: wind. The boys are surrounded by the natural, which seems to operate by mysterious principles and, even worse, cannot be totally controlled by humans. Fire, water, wind, and other forces of the natural environment are strong and unmerciful.

Again, note Golding's careful and evocative descriptions of the natural environment. He supports his imagery with similes and metaphors: for instance, the rocks are "spread like a table" and "seem like cliffs." Repeated returns to the island's natural scenery are both beautiful and worrying—as Golding describes it, danger lurks under every piece of the island landscape.

The pigs "sensuously enjoy the shadows" as if relaxing by the pool; they are "unsuspicious" and relaxed. This characterization makes the pigs seem innocent and Jack's hunting therefore cruel. There is a way to write this scene in which Jack is brave for hunting pigs, or is genuinely doing something of service to the boys trapped on the island, but Golding has opted for the complete opposite strategy. He wants us to feel bad for the pigs, especially the sow Jack eventually kills, who is resting in "deep maternal bliss" with her piglets. This personification makes Jack's hunt abhorrent to the reader.

The metaphor—"bloated bags of fat"—makes the pigs seem helpless and unthreatening, even a little funny. Jack takes their weakness and lack of suspicion as permission to be cruel to them, but readers likely understand that same weakness as a reason Jack shouldn't hunt the pigs.

There is a lot of personification here, some of it seemingly contradictory. Notice that Simon feels sorry for the corpse: "He saw how pitilessly the layers of rubber and canvas held together the poor body." The personified parachute is pitiless; the body is disrespected by this situation. Simon approaches this dead body.

However, then "the figure lifted, bowed, and breathed foully at him." The personified corpse seems to have taken on a life of its own when it is lifted by the wind. Despite Simon's pity for it, it is still monstrous and "breathed foully," a metaphor for the rotting smell it makes when the wind blows toward him. However, Simon eventually "freed [...] the figure from the wind's indignity." Simon overcomes fear and disgust to lay the body to rest, and the phrase "the wind's indignity" illustrates how important this action is both for Simon and for Golding. The wind, a natural force, is personified into something that can inflict indignity on people, and Simon, as a human, has the power to right this wrong.

Power could literally "lay in the brown swell of [Jack's] forearms," since that swell is probably muscle, the source of his impressive athletic abilities. However, this phrase could also be understood metaphorically: Jack's commanding physical appearance and charisma do also give him power in situations such as these, where he has to convince the other boys to follow him. Recall how Piggy is bullied and ignored for looking and seeming weak—Jack's appearance of strength, regardless of whether he actually possesses it, is a tool he can use to win the boys to his side.

Personified authority sits on Jack's shoulder, a metaphor we can take to understand that Jack's desire to be the leader, and his enjoyment of being in charge, is guiding his decisions. Furthermore, authority chatters like an ape: in other words, it produces useless noise that Jack still listens to. The authority he already has distracts and tempts him into seizing more. Since the book is in part about human nature, Golding is making a claim here about what drives some people to violence, evil, and bad decision-making: a love of power.

Note the personification of the rock, which makes it seem as if it decides to fall: it "loitered, poised on one toe, decided not to return," and then "leapt" off the cliff. In the first chapter, nature often seems to work with the boys, and that's the impression this rock personification gives.

This playful moment is much darker in retrospect, though: it functions as foreshadowing for Piggy's death. In chapter 11, Piggy dies when Roger uses a branch to launch a rock toward him.

High overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever. Ralph heard the great rock before he saw it. He was aware of a jolt in the earth that came to him through the soles of his feet, and the breaking sound of stones at the top of the cliff. Then the monstrous red thing bounded across the neck and he flung himself flat while the tribe shrieked. The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.

Cite this Quote

Notice that Roger has a sense of "delirious abandonment" when he launches the rock. This connection between the childlike playing of earlier chapters and the cruelty of later chapters suggests they are related. Destruction is often fun, especially for children, but it has consequences. In Chapter 1, those consequences are as minimal as the destruction of some forest (and perhaps the death of any animals below), but in Chapter 11, Piggy dies and the conch, that symbol of the boys' attempts to create civilization, is totally destroyed.

First the fire is like a squirrel (simile), then it simply is one (metaphor). The flames are all sorts of "wild life": not only squirrels, but also jaguars. These metaphors indicate the fire's speed and ease of spreading. They also provide visceral imagery of the out-of-control fire. For much the same purposes, the fire is personified: the flames "leapt nimbly" and then "went swinging and flaring." Fire "began to gnaw" at the forest. This personification attributes hunger and excited destruction to fire. Just as the boys later become excited to cause destruction, seemingly without pausing to think about the consequences of their actions, so too does the fire here playfully and happily ruin a patch of jungle.

This early forest fire foreshadows the final events of the novel. In chapter 12, Jack's tribe sets fire to part of the forest to try to flush out Ralph.

Now the fire was nearer; those volleying shots were great limbs, trunks even, bursting. The fools! The fools! The fire must be almost at the fruit trees—what would they eat tomorrow?

Cite this Quote

Ralph hears a sound like "volleying shots," as if the fire is shooting at him, but it's instead the sound of wood splintering because of the fast-burning fire. Remember the playful yet destructive personification of the fire earlier? Now we see the consequences of that kind of "savage" behavior—the fire may kill Ralph today, but Jack and his tribe will have nothing to eat tomorrow. Again, savagery and hotheadedness work against civilization and life.

The pig skull is personified into a creepy, ghostly figure that seems to grin at Ralph evilly. He can't tell whether it's "lifeless." It seems to know secrets—perhaps the secrets it told Simon—but Ralph doesn't have a dialogue with the skull like Simon did. The skull's menacing personification connects the more grounded Ralph to Simon's esoteric experiences. It likely goes without saying, but the skull is a vivid and frightening image that effectively adds suspense and fear in the final chapter of the novel.

As before, personification makes the natural environment seem alive and knowing here: this is not only true for the grinning skull, but for the "inquisitive ant" as well. In a simile, the skull's color is also compared to the conch. By drawing a line between the now-shattered shell that represented civilization and the pig's skull, what is Golding trying to illustrate? Reasonable minds may differ on the precise interpretation, but perhaps what we should note is that the skull has replaced the conch—in which case fear and violence have replaced civilized order on the island. Just as Roger broke the conch by killing Piggy earlier, Ralph now breaks the skull by punching it. Roger rejected civilization, and Ralph rejects fear and violence.