Literary critics have identified techniques such as simile and personification, which can offer deeper perspectives. A good simile surprises the reader, but overuse can lead to clichés. Metaphors are direct comparisons without “like” or “as”. Personification mixes two different essences, with one being living. Children are particularly attuned to personification.
One purpose of literature is to open the reader’s mind to deeper perspectives and deep connections. Over the centuries, literary critics have amassed a considerable list of terms, such as simile and personification, that name the writer’s tricks and techniques. The term similitude refers to a simple comparison between two things that are clearly not the same using the word like or like. Personification refers to a clever way in which the writer invites the reader to imagine that something clearly inanimate, like an old shoe, or animate but devoid of life force, like a tornado, is actually alive.
A really good simile offers the reader a surprising surprise. In the hands of an inexperienced writer, the tendency to find identification by using a simile too often manifests itself as a cliché. A poem that describes a child as “quiet as a mouse” does the child, the mouse, or the reader no good by offering a deeper way of looking at the situation being described. On the other hand, William Wordsworth’s famous line, “I wandered lonely as a cloud” offers both a simile and a personification at the same time. It’s important to note that one way clichés arise is through overuse; Wordsworth’s simile was so successful that it quickly entered the vernacular and turned to the level of a cliché.
Likeness and personification are closely related as both arise from metaphor. Many readers recall that metaphor is defined as a direct comparison of two different things. In essence, this means that a metaphor is a simile without the application of like or as. It combines two completely different objects, ideas or events into one thing. For example, a child might cheer, “I have sun all over my face” when he wants to express tremendous happiness.
Both similitude and personification mix two very different essences, but personification does it with a specific methodology. In personification, one of the elements is a living being or at least suggests a living being, while the other is clearly not. As with simile and metaphor, personification, in the wrong hands, becomes clichéd or worse still sentimental, like an old house that is described as a beaten puppy.
Of all poets, children are perhaps most attuned to the possibilities of personification, probably because, for them, the whole world is filled with animated personalities. A child who observes that autumn leaves greet autumn and greet winter sees the leaves as a thousand hands belonging to a tree. Anyone worried that their grandfather’s winter coat looks hunched over and waiting in the closet sees that the coat has taken on the personality of the person who wore it.
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