Fifth Grade
Worksheets
The Personification Ray
Let me demonstrate my personification [per-SAHN-ih-fih-KAY-shun] ray for you. It brings inanimate objects to life! If I aim this ray at an object and pull the trigger, BAM! -- that object takes on human characteristics! I can use it to give animals human characteristics, too. I'll demonstrate. I focus the ray on a leafy maple tree. BAM! Now the tree is dancing in the wind! See that picnic table? BAM! Now it's groaning under the weight of a potluck feast! I aim at a swarm of bees. BAM! Now they are playing hide and seek like children among the flowers!
You don't need a personification ray to personify objects. You just need your imagination. Personification is a literary device used more often in poetry than in prose. Done right, it can be effective in either one. An object, concept, or animal is personified by being described as looking, behaving, or even feeling in a uniquely human way. People already possess human life and cannot be personified. But we sometimes say that a person is the personification of some quality.
