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Definition of Personification
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down on the wedding guests, indifferent... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the... read full definition
13. Vardaman
Explanation and Analysis—Addie as Animal:
In Chapter 13, the reader is first introduced to Vardaman's voice. Addie has already died, and the young boy tries to understand her life and death through the personification of animals:
It is as though the dark were resolving him out of his integrity, into an unrelated scattering of components—snuffings and stampings [...] an is different from my is. I see him dissolve—legs, a rolling eye, a gaudy splotching like cold flames—and float upon the dark in fading solution; all one yet neither; all either yet none. I can see hearing coil toward him, caressing, shaping his hard shape—fetlock, hip, shoulder and head; smell and sound.
Vardaman is clearly struggling to cope with his mother’s death. Fleeing to the barn in anger over Peabody, he imagines the horse dying, separated into its different components. This helps him understand his mother’s death—how precarious and complicated living is—and how, in their different states, he exists separately from her now. His “is” is different from the horse and Addie’s “is.” Personifying the horse is a more manageable way for the boy to tackle the difficult task of theorizing existence. This moment is a precursor to Vardaman's later use of the caught fish to understand Addie's death.
Related Themes:
