As the Swede, the Easterner, and the cowboy get settled into the hotel near the beginning of the story, they pause to notice the blizzard outside. The narrator captures the snowy scene outside using personification, as seen in the following passage:
As the men trooped heavily back into the front room, the two little windows presented views of a turmoiling sea of snow. The huge arms of the wind were making attempts—mighty, circular, futile—to embrace the flakes as they sped. A gatepost like a still man with a blanched face stood aghast amid this profligate fury.
There are a couple different examples of personification in this passage. First, the narrator describes the “huge arms of the wind” and how the wind seems to execute a human sort of agency in its “attempts […] to embrace the flakes as they sped.” The narrator also personifies the gatepost outside by directly referring to it as “a still man with a blanched face” who “stood aghast” at the ferocity of the storm.
This pair of personifications is notable in that it creates a sense of tension—like the men inside, these different aspects of the scene outside are engaged in a sort of conflict, with the wind acting as a violent and controlling force and the gatepost acting as a horrified bystander. In this way, the snowy scene hints at the tensions underlying the group of men that will soon come to a head, with both violent actors (like the Swede and Johnnie) and “aghast” spectators (like the Easterner).
