Which Literary Device Gives Non-Living Things Human Qualities?

By Staff WriterLast Updated April 06, 2020

Personification is the literary device that writers use to give inanimate objects human qualities or characteristics. Personification can also refer to a person or thing that embodies a quality, as in the saying, “He is the personification of greed.”

Personification makes it easier for the reader to understand the description and put it into context. It also contributes to the mood of a scene and can be used to emphasize a point.

Some examples of personification include:

The stars winked at her from the sky.
The peeling paint and shutters hanging off the house made it look depressed.
The sun snuck through the clouds in the morning.
The flowers waltzed in time with the breeze.
The river endeavored to swallow the earth whole.
The bees played tag with each other as they raced between flowers.
The sun glared, its anger heating the day.