The Personification in “Flight” by John Steinbeck

Personification in "Flight" by John Steinbeck

In the excerpt from "Flight" by John Steinbeck, several lines contain personification. Personification is a literary device where human characteristics are attributed to non-living things.

Lines containing personification:

• The farm buildings huddled like the clinging aphids on the mountain skirts, crouched low to the ground as though the wind might blow them into the sea.
• Five-fingered ferns hung over the water and dropped spray from their fingertips.
• The high mountain wind coasted sighing through the pass and whistled on the edges of the big blocks of broken granite.
• A scar of green grass cut across the flat. And behind the flat another mountain rose, desolate with dead rocks and starving little black bushes.

These lines effectively use personification to create vivid imagery and bring life to the scenery described in the story.

What is personification?

Personification is a literary device where human qualities are attributed to non-living things or ideas. It gives inanimate objects human-like characteristics to make descriptions more vivid and engaging.