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Paradox
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
Personification
Explanation and Analysis—Peak Exhaling:
In the Prologue to Educated, Westover describes Buck's Peak and the surrounding area where her family lives. Throughout the memoir, the mountain serves as an important symbol for her family and her childhood. As the young Tara explores the landscape, the weather worsens quickly, as it often does around the mountain: "I’m standing on the red railway car that sits abandoned next to the barn. The wind soars, whipping my hair across my face and pushing a chill down the open neck of my shirt." But the wind feels familiar coming off the mountain that stands so close to the only place Tara has ever lived. In Westover's description, the mountain is personified, as if the wind off the peak is the mountain's breath: "The gales are strong this close to the mountain, as if the peak itself is exhaling."
The personification of the mountain depicts it as a calm, consistent force in the background of Tara's chaotic childhood. These personifications of the mountain, as if it is another family member, recur throughout the book. Notably, though, Tara never ascribes any religious significance to the mountain; the personification does not make the mountain into a god, but only into a quiet, reliable backdrop. Tara's relationship with the mountain is an important part of her life at home and with her family, as the personification suggests.
Related Themes:
Chapter 6: Shield and Buckler
Explanation and Analysis—Time Escaping:
In Chapter 6, Tara gives deeper insight into the nature of her father's delusions. An important motivator in Gene's indefatigable work ethic is a fear of time. Westover describes this by personifying time:
Dad lived in fear of time. He felt it stalking him. I could see it in the worried glances he gave the sun as it moved across the sky, in the anxious way he appraised every length of pipe or cut of steel. Dad saw every piece of scrap as the money it could be sold for, minus the time needed to sort, cut and deliver it. Every slab of iron, every ring of copper tubing was a nickel, a dime, a dollar [...] and he constantly weighed these meager profits against the hourly expense of running the house.
Time seems to be "stalking" Gene and (as he sees it) his whole family. Gene feels that every second must be spent preparing for inevitable disaster—and the most efficient way to prepare is by making money. As a result Gene tries to maximize efficiency in his junkyard. At the same time, he tries to minimize the "hourly expense" of caring for his family. Another consequence of his fear of time is that he sees every moment of life as costly, expending resources to house, feed, and warm a large group of people. This personification gains a new level with Gene's "worried glances" at the sun, as if its slow passage over the course of the day reminds him of time "stalking." Gene's fear of time runs throughout the memoir, reaching its most extreme point in his paranoia over Y2K. The personification gives a clear description of this important part of his deluded personality.
Related Themes:
Chapter 19: In the Beginning
Explanation and Analysis—Ripped into Remembrance:
In Chapter 19, back in Idaho for the summer, Tara begins a romantic relationship with Charles. Having experienced some of the outside world at Cambridge, she experiments with more emotional intimacy and physical contact. But as she gets closer to Charles, she feels as if she is breaking her father's religious rules. She begins to feel a crude epithet for herself appear in her brain, which she describes using personification:
The word was not new. It had been with me for a while now, hushed, motionless, as if asleep, in some remote corner of memory. By touching me Charles had awakened it, and it throbbed with life.
I shoved my hands under my knees and leaned into the window. I couldn’t let him near me—not that night, and not any night for months—without shuddering as that word, my word, ripped its way into remembrance. Whore.
The word "whore" seems to have hidden in her mind, "hushed, motionless, as if asleep." The implication is that, as a child, Tara had been taught many times what women should and shouldn't do in regard to men. Clearly her family members often used this word for women who stepped out of line, and it lodged itself deep in her subconscious in the years since. Now her relationship with Charles "awakens" these old, misogynistic rules in her mind. As she starts to believe that she is breaking these rules in her relationship to Charles, it feels like the word is alive, even violent, as it "ripped its way into remembrance." The personification shows just how painful such pejorative words can be, as it seems to attack her brain from the inside.
Related Themes:
