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Motifs
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
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Greet or Shun:
Merv Pickles had a lot of different ways of explaining how to beat luck at its own game. Here, the narrator uses personification, metaphor and simile to show how Sam’s father imagined the “shifty shadow” of luck as a living force that responds directly to people’s actions:
If the chill of its shade felt good, you went out to meet it like a droughted farmer goes out, arms wide, to greet the raincloud, but if you got that sick, queer feeling in your belly, you had to stay put and do nothing but breathe and there was a good chance it would pass you by. It was as though luck made choices, that it could think. If you greeted it, it came to you; if you shunned it, it backed away.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Shifty Shadow of God:
Winton uses metaphor and simile in this passage to show how Sam’s father Merv shaped his son’s understanding of luck as a controlling and unpredictable force:
Unlock with LitCharts A+He believed deeply in luck, the old man, though he was careful never to say the word. He called it the Shifty Shadow of God. All his life he paid close attention to the movements of that shadow. He taught Sam to see it passing, feel it hovering, because he said it was those shifts that governed a man’s life and it always paid to be ahead of the play.
Related Themes:
Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Living River:
Fish isn’t the only Lamb brother to have an intimate relationship with running water. Here, the author uses personification and simile to connect the presence of rivers to Quick’s understanding of his own inner life:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The river was a broad, muttering, living thing always suggesting things that kept his mind busy. Every important thing that happened to him, it seemed, had to do with a river. It was insistent, quietly forceful like the force of his own blood.
Related Themes:
