Previous
Pathos
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
Part 1: Effia
Explanation and Analysis—Raging Fire:
In the first pages of Homegoing, Effia’s birthday may well be the fire’s. The novel’s personification invests so much life into the angry flames that they take a life all their own:
The night Effia Otcher was born into the musky heat of Fanteland, a fire raged through the woods just outside her father's compound. It moved quickly, tearing a path for days. It lived off the air; it slept in caves and hid in trees; it burned, up and through, unconcerned with what wreckage it left behind, until it reached an Asante village.
There, it disappeared, becoming one with the night.
This moment is so laden with human-like verbs that it almost distracts from Effia herself. Homegoing’s opening sentence makes the raging fire, rather than the human, its subject. The first paragraph trains its attention on the fire that “[tears]” the path, “[sleeps]” in caves, and “[hides]” in trees. Life-like and vengeful, it takes away Cobbe’s yams and the reader’s own attention. The baby, it seems, has all but vanished. Personification creates the impression as if the fire has stolen the spotlight—and the life—from the expected protagonist.
The scene’s personification offers a fitting entrance for one of the novel’s prime motifs. In many ways, fire not only lives with but outlasts Effia. It breaks out during Kojo’s first day on the job in Baltimore’s docks. It haunts Akua, who dreams of the firewoman and sets fire to her hut one night herself. Bringing fire to life from the very outset, personification inaugurates the intergenerational curse that follows all six generations of Effia’s descendants.
Related Themes:
