Examples Of Personification In The Lottery

Personification is a figure of speech in which human or living characteristics are attributed to nonhuman or nonliving things and events. A writer describes inanimate objects and abstract ideas with behaviors and actions that are associated with people. In The Lottery, Jackson describes the newness of summer vacation as “sitting” on the children. The children assembled first, of course. School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them. Jackson uses subtle nuances in her writing: “liberty sat uneasily” on the children. Most students would be excited to be out of school for summer vacation, but by using the word “uneasily,” Jackson foreshadows that students in this village have a reason to dislike

the month of June. Here’s William Shakespeare to help identify what’s so special about figurative language.

Figurative language includes several types of figures of speech such as simile, metaphor, and personification. A simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two different things using the word “like” or “as.” One example of a simile is the phrase, “It’s as clean as a whistle.” Another example of a simile is “my love is like a red, red rose.” Each of these examples use “like” or “as”; these are the indicators that the author is using a simile. Ha Jin’s simile in “The Bane of the Internet” demonstrates Yuchin’s feelings: “At the sight of that gorgeous machine, I felt as if a dozen awls were stabbing my heart.” Another type of figurative language is called a metaphor. A metaphor is a figure of speech that makes an implied comparison between two fundamentally different things. An example of a simple metaphor is, “He is a pig.” A metaphor makes the comparison without using “like” or “as.” An author uses a metaphor to help the reader ‘see’ details. “Her burning eyes glared straight through me.” Miguel de Cervantes uses a metaphor to describe the size of the mule: “The second brother, seeing how his comrade was treated, drove his heels into his castle of a mule and made off across the country faster than the wind.” A third type of figurative language is

personification. Personification is when a writer assigns living or human characteristics to nonliving or nonhuman things. A basic example of personification is, “The wildflowers danced in the breeze.” A second example of personification is, “The wind howled as the storm approached.” In “The Lottery,” Jackson describes the newness of summer vacation as ‘sitting’ on the children: “The children assembled first, of course. School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them.”