Personification redux

Well, I've certainly found myself down a rabbit hole on this one (a metaphor?!) At Thanksgiving dinner, for some reason conversation veered to a discussion of literary devices.  My language arts teaching niece (Hi Martha!) remarked that personification was the attribution of human characteristics to non-humans.  "Wait," I said, "isn't that anthropomorphism?"  

Googling lead us to this definition of personification:  "the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form."  I associate personification with the second definition, "Hitler was the personification of evil," for instance. I must have in some recess of my mind thought of the first definition, too, which is why I started my last post in that way.  Where does anthropomorphism fit in, then?

Further research lead to this explanation: 

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( https://grammarist.com/usage/personification-vs-anthropomorphism/)

 Personification and anthropomorphism are two literary devices that are somewhat similar, but with a subtle difference. 

 Personification is a literary device that ascribes human attributes to abstract ideas or inanimate objects. The attribution of human characteristics to non-human items through personification is a method of using figurative language to create imagery.

 Anthropomorphism is a literary device that ascribes human actions and attributes to animals or other objects. Anthropomorphism is used simply to make an animal or object behave as if it were a human being.

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 The most common example for personification seems to be "The sun smiled down on us."  While the most common example for anthropomorphism is Bagheera from The Jungle Book, or Mickey Mouse (the educational resources tend towards the Jungle Book, while other sources go right for Mickey or Peter Rabbit.)

Given those examples, my first description of thinking of my washing machine as being too tired to do a fifth load is probably closer to personification than anthropomorphism after all.  Perhaps if I had tried to wash that bedspread and the washing machine failed to complete the cycle, I could have said, "My washing machine said it was too tired."  (anthropomorphism) But, if I say my machine is tired then I've ascribed that human attribute to the machine. (personification)

 

 

 However, along the way I also discovered "pathetic fallacy," which seems to be personification applied to nature, specifically. 

The phrase pathetic fallacy is a literary term for the attribution of human emotion and conduct to things found in nature that are not human. It is a kind of personification that occurs in poetic descriptions, when, for example, clouds seem sullen, when leaves dance, or when rocks seem indifferent. 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathetic_fallacy

 I'll end by saying that these are all considered literary devices, so perhaps I shouldn't lay claim to having used any of them!!

And, that's where Thanksgiving dinners can take you.

 

 

 

 

Personification (Anthropomorphizication?)

 Yesterday was an unusually heavy laundry day for me. I had put it off a bit longer than normal and had some added towels and sheets in addition to the regular clothes.  I still had one more thing to wash, my "summer" weight bedspread (I've made the switch to my warmer duvet for the winter, a choice I was somewhat regretting last night when I woke up at 2 am too warm...).  Anyway. after washing, drying and folding the four loads I thought, "I should let the washing machine rest, it's worked hard today. I'll save the bedspread for another day."  

What?! Since when did I start worrying about the feelings of my washing machine??!!  I hope it appreciates my thoughtfulness and repays me someday.

* I knew when I wrote this yesterday that "personification" was not the right word, but I wasn't in the mood to look up the exact spelling of "anthropomorphic" and whether "anthropomorphizication" or "anthropomorphicization" were even a words (they appear not to be).  But, last night at 2 am when I kicked off my too warm duvet, it bothered me that the three people who may at some point read this post would think that I had a poor command of English.  I remember in middle school our art teacher made us break our clay pots because anthropologists of the future might dig them up and draw incorrect inferences about our culture.  If the posts on the Internet are preserved for centuries, I wouldn't want some future linguist to puzzle over my use of the term "personification."