Q

QuestionEnglish

Personification is a literary device where non-human objects or abstract ideas are given human characteristics, emotions, or behaviors. This means making something that isn't human appear to have human-like qualities.

A. "Watch out!" Walter cried, waving his arms frantically. - This is a human action by a human character - No personification present B. "The lazy cats lay like discarded laundry on the thick rug." - This uses a simile comparing cats to laundry - While descriptive, this is not personification - Cats are already living creatures, so human traits aren't being assigned to something non-human C. "In the 105 -degree weather, the city became a vast microwave oven." - This is a metaphor comparing the city to a microwave - While creative, this does not assign human characteristics D. "The pines shed their needles and seemed to shiver in the cold." - Pines (trees) are given the human action of "shivering" - "Shivering" is a distinctly human/animal response to cold - This directly attributes a human emotional/physical response to a non-human object

Option D is the clearest example of personification because it gives trees a human-like action (shivering) that trees do not actually do.