Daily Devices: Personification.

Personification: is often used and a commonly recognized literary device used in a third grade classroom. It refers to the practice of attaching human traits and characteristics to an inanimate object, phenomena or animal.

When employing personification, the writer should keep a few things in mind in order to convey the message that they want without confusing their readers. A writer needs to think about what kind of emotions and meanings they want to convey when using personification and whether or not those thoughts are appropriate to the description of the object. There is no point referring to an owl as wise unless it is going to do something intelligent. Without the follow up actions that the personification conveys the statement, “the wise owl” is simply a cliché. Good writers use personification to give their writing life and to connect with their readers. Personification helps to relate ideas by giving inanimate objects human qualities, allowing an author to convey his meaning more effectively.

Example: “The Captain recalled that the winds were angry that day, the storm had murderous intentions.”