Previous
Mood
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
Key Examples in Lord of the Flies
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Island Rocks:
In Chapter 1, the boys find a rock while exploring the island, and they push it over to watch it fall into the jungle. The passage contains both foreshadowing and personification:
The rock was as large as a small motor car. “Heave!” Sway back and forth, catch the rhythm. “Heave!” Increase the swing of the pendulum, increase, increase, come up and bear against that point of furthest balance—increase—increase—“Heave!” The great rock loitered, poised on one toe, decided not to return, moved through the air, fell, struck, turned over, leapt droning through the air and smashed a deep hole in the canopy of the forest.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Skull-Like:
Early in Chapter 1, Golding uses personification, simile, and foreshadowing to describe Ralph's exploration of the island:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Then he leapt back on the terrace, pulled off his shirt, and stood there among the skull-like coconuts with green shadows from the palms and the forest sliding over his skin.
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Forest Fire:
During Chapter 2, after discovering Piggy's glasses can be used to spark a flame, the boys accidentally set a forest fire. The passage makes heavy use of figurative language:
Unlock with LitCharts A+One patch touched a tree trunk and scrambled up like a bright squirrel. The smoke increased, sifted, rolled outwards. The squirrel leapt on the wings of the wind and clung to another standing tree, eating downwards. Beneath the dark canopy of leaves and smoke the fire laid hold on the forest and began to gnaw. Acres of black and yellow smoke rolled steadily toward the sea. […] The flames, as though they were a kind of wild life, crept as a jaguar creeps on its belly toward a line of birch-like saplings that fledged an outcrop of the pink rock. They flapped at the first of the trees, and the branches grew a brief foliage of fire. The heart of flame leapt nimbly across the gap between the trees and then went swinging and flaring along the whole row of them.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Great Beard of Flame:
In chapter two, the boys successfully make a fire for the first time, and several literary devices are used to describe it:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The pile was so rotten, and now so tinder-dry, that whole limbs yielded passionately to the yellow flames that poured upwards and shook a great beard of flame twenty feet in the air. For yards round the fire the heat was like a blow, and the breeze was a river of sparks. Trunks crumbled to white dust.
Related Themes:
Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—The Ocean Leviathan:
In Chapter 6, Ralph looks out at the ocean while exploring Castle Rock, and the narrator uses a variety of literary devices to describe it:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Now he saw the landsman’s view of the swell and it seemed like the breathing of some stupendous creature. Slowly the waters sank among the rocks, revealing pink tables of granite, strange growths of coral, polyp, and weed. Down, down, the waters went, whispering like the wind among the heads of the forest. There was one flat rock there, spread like a table, and the waters sucking down on the four weedy sides made them seem like cliffs. Then the sleeping leviathan breathed out, the waters rose, the weed streamed, and the water boiled over the table rock with a roar. There was no sense of the passage of waves; only this minute-long fall and rise and fall.
Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Unsuspicious Pigs:
In Chapter 8, Jack and his hunters track down a group of pigs, in a passage that employs metaphor and personification:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The pigs lay, bloated bags of fat, sensuously enjoying the shadows under the trees. There was no wind and they were unsuspicious; and practice had made Jack silent as the shadows. He stole away again and instructed his hidden hunters. Presently they all began to inch forward sweating in the silence and heat. Under the trees an ear flapped idly. A little apart from the rest, sunk in deep maternal bliss, lay the largest sow of the lot. She was black and pink; and the great bladder of her belly was fringed with a row of piglets that slept or burrowed and squeaked.
Related Themes:
Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—The Parachutist's Corpse:
In a climactic scene in Chapter 9, Simon climbs on top of the mountain and sees that the "Beast" is a parachutist's rotting skeleton suspended on ropes. The parachute attached to the corpse is occasionally filled with wind and lifts the body up. Imagery and personification mark this passage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Simon felt his knees smack the rock. He crawled forward and soon he understood. The tangle of lines showed him the mechanics of this parody; he examined the white nasal bones, the teeth, the colors of corruption. He saw how pitilessly the layers of rubber and canvas held together the poor body that should be rotting away. Then the wind blew again and the figure lifted, bowed, and breathed foully at him. Simon knelt on all fours and was sick till his stomach was empty. Then he took the lines in his hands; he freed them from the rocks and the figure from the wind’s indignity.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Authority:
In Chapter 9, during a feast that Jack uses to undermine Ralph's authority and sway boys to his tribe, Jack is described using metaphor, personification, and simile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Power lay in the brown swell of his forearms: authority sat on his shoulder and chattered in his ear like an ape.
Related Themes:
Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Island Rocks:
In Chapter 1, the boys find a rock while exploring the island, and they push it over to watch it fall into the jungle. The passage contains both foreshadowing and personification:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The rock was as large as a small motor car. “Heave!” Sway back and forth, catch the rhythm. “Heave!” Increase the swing of the pendulum, increase, increase, come up and bear against that point of furthest balance—increase—increase—“Heave!” The great rock loitered, poised on one toe, decided not to return, moved through the air, fell, struck, turned over, leapt droning through the air and smashed a deep hole in the canopy of the forest.
Related Themes:
Chapter 12
Explanation and Analysis—Forest Fire:
During Chapter 2, after discovering Piggy's glasses can be used to spark a flame, the boys accidentally set a forest fire. The passage makes heavy use of figurative language:
Unlock with LitCharts A+One patch touched a tree trunk and scrambled up like a bright squirrel. The smoke increased, sifted, rolled outwards. The squirrel leapt on the wings of the wind and clung to another standing tree, eating downwards. Beneath the dark canopy of leaves and smoke the fire laid hold on the forest and began to gnaw. Acres of black and yellow smoke rolled steadily toward the sea. […] The flames, as though they were a kind of wild life, crept as a jaguar creeps on its belly toward a line of birch-like saplings that fledged an outcrop of the pink rock. They flapped at the first of the trees, and the branches grew a brief foliage of fire. The heart of flame leapt nimbly across the gap between the trees and then went swinging and flaring along the whole row of them.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—The Pig's Skull:
In Chapter 12, while roaming the jungle, Ralph sees the pig skull Simon had been communicating with earlier. The narrator uses imagery, personification, and simile to describe this moment:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Ralph nearly flung himself behind a tree when he saw something standing in the center; but then he saw that the white face was bone and that the pig’s skull grinned at him from the top of a stick. He […] looked steadily at the skull that gleamed as white as ever the conch had done and seemed to jeer at him cynically. An inquisitive ant was busy in one of the eye sockets but otherwise the thing was lifeless. Or was it? Little prickles of sensation ran up and down his back. He stood, the skull about on a level with his face, and held up his hair with two hands. The teeth grinned, the empty sockets seemed to hold his gaze masterfully and without effort. What was it? The skull regarded Ralph like one who knows all the answers and won’t tell.
Related Themes:
