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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
Personification
Explanation and Analysis—A Bad Little Town:
Harte uses personification to suggest that socially prescribed morals homogenize and empower groups of people, regardless of whether those morals are right. Because of this, the town of Poker Flat itself is often given characteristics more usually attributed to self-righteous humans, as the narrator explains when describing the town's response to "sin":
"[...] it was only in such easily established standards of evil that Poker Flat ventured to sit in judgment.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Watched by Sun and Moon:
“The Outcasts of Poker Flat” uses personification to make elements of the natural world seem sympathetic to the characters in the story. This is most obvious after Uncle Billy steals their mules, and the sleeping “outcasts” are placed in real and immediate danger by the heavy snowstorms, starvation, and exposure:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The wind lulled as if it feared to waken them. Feathery drifts of snow, shaken from the long pine-boughs, flew like white-winged birds, and settled about them as they slept. The moon through the rifted clouds looked down upon what had been the camp.
