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Learn how to give human qualities and feelings to animals, objects, or ideas.
Have you ever felt like your computer was being 'stubborn' or that the wind was 'howling' at you? You were actually using a secret literary superpower!
Personification is a type of figurative language where we give human qualities—like feelings, thoughts, or actions—to non-human things. This could be an animal, an object, or even an idea like 'time.' Authors use this to make their writing more exciting and to help readers connect with the story. Instead of saying 'it rained,' an author might say 'the sky wept.' By giving the sky a human emotion (sadness), the writing becomes much more descriptive.
Quick Check
In the sentence 'The stars winked at me,' what is the non-human object being personified?
Answer
The stars
To understand personification, you have to look for the human trait. Ask yourself: 'Can a real object actually do this?' For example, in the phrase 'The delicious smell of pizza invited me into the kitchen,' the smell is the object. 'Inviting' is the human action. Since smells don't have hands to wave you in or voices to ask you to come over, this is personification! We use these traits to show the personality of an object.
Let's turn a plain sentence into personification: 1. Start with a plain sentence: 'The sun was very bright.' 2. Pick a human action: 'Smiling' or 'Peeking.' 3. Combine them: 'The sun peeked over the mountain and smiled down on us.' 4. Result: The sun now feels like a friendly character!
Quick Check
If a writer says 'The old car wheezed and complained as it climbed the hill,' what human trait is the car showing?
Answer
Complaining (or making human-like sounds of struggle/wheezing).
Nature is one of the most common places to find personification. We often describe the weather as if it has a mood. A 'furious' thunderstorm or a 'playful' breeze helps the reader feel the atmosphere of the setting. When you use personification for nature, try to match the human emotion to the physical action of the environment. If the wind is blowing miles per hour, it might be 'angry.' If it is blowing miles per hour, it might be 'whispering.'
How to describe a storm using personification: 1. Object: The Lightning. 2. Human Action: Dancing. 3. Sentence: 'The lightning danced across the dark sky.' 4. Object: The Thunder. 5. Human Action: Grumbling. 6. Sentence: 'The thunder grumbled in the distance like a hungry giant.'
Combine multiple objects to create a 'living' scene: 'The autumn leaves raced each other down the sidewalk, while the trees shivered in the cold air, mourning the loss of their green summer coats.'
In this example: 1. Leaves are 'racing' (competition). 2. Trees are 'shivering' (feeling cold). 3. Trees are 'mourning' (feeling sadness).
Which of the following is an example of personification?
In the sentence 'The fire swallowed the entire forest,' what is the human action?
True or False: Personification can be used to describe an object's feelings, not just its actions.
Review Tomorrow
In 24 hours, look at an object in your kitchen and try to think of one human emotion it might have if it were alive.
Practice Activity
Write three sentences about a heavy snowstorm. In the first, make the snow 'kind.' In the second, make the snow 'mean.' In the third, make the snow 'tired.'