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Definition of Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics, emotions, and behaviors to animals or other non-human things (including objects, plants, and supernatural beings). Some famous examples of anthropomorphism include Winnie the Pooh, the Little Engine... read full definition
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics, emotions, and behaviors to animals or other non-human things (including objects, plants, and supernatural beings). Some famous examples of anthropomorphism include Winnie... read full definition
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics, emotions, and behaviors to animals or other non-human things (including objects, plants, and supernatural beings). Some famous... read full definition
Chapter 21
Explanation and Analysis—The Mother in the Garden:
Burnett uses similes involving personification to make the reader feel that Colin Craven's mother is present in the "secret garden" even after her death. Through the "voice" of the narrator, the novel details several instances where the natural world takes on characteristics already attributed to Lilias Craven. For example, in Chapter 21 when Colin, Mary and Dickon all go into the "secret garden" together for the first time:
Between the blossoming branches of the canopy bits of blue sky looked down like wonderful eyes.
Colin and his mother, Burnett repeatedly tells the reader, have exactly the same "wonderful eyes," and so the sky's "looking down" takes on a tincture of her motherly influence. As the garden was Lilias Craven's own special place, the idea that her presence might linger there after death is aligned with the Spiritualist beliefs that recur in the novel. Being in a place associated with a dead loved one (or touching something of theirs) was a common element of the rituals some people in the 19th and 20th century performed to "speak" with the departed. When the children are in the garden, Lilias is not only a memory but is actually a personified presence, as the narrative uses figurative language to give the sky human-like qualities (and, specifically, Lilias's qualities).
Related Themes:
