the literary device which gives
non-humans human characteristics
THE Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took
the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.
`Who are you?' said the Caterpillar.
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, `I--I hardly
know, Sir, just at present--at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I
must have been changed several times since then.'
`What do you mean by that?' said the Caterpillar, sternly. `Explain yourself!'
`I ca'n't explain myself, I'm afraid, Sir,' said Alice, `because I'm not myself, you see.'
`I don't see,' said the Caterpillar.
`I'm afraid I ca'n't put it more clearly,' Alice replied, very politely, `for I ca'n't understand it myself,
to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing.'
`It isn't,' said the Caterpillar.
`Well, perhaps you haven't found it so yet,' said Alice; `but when you have to turn into a
chrysalis--you will some day, you know--and then after that into a butterfly, I should think you'll
feel it a little queer, wo'n't you?'
`Not a bit,' said the Caterpillar.
`Well, perhaps your feelings may be different,' said Alice: `all I know is, it would feel very queer
to me.'
`You!' said the Caterpillar contemptuously. `Who are you?'
Which brought them back again to the beginning of the conversation. Alice felt a little irritated at
the Caterpillar's making such very short remarks, and she drew herself up and said, very gravely,
`I think you ought to tell me who you are, first.'
`Why?' said the Caterpillar.
Here was another puzzling question; and as Alice could not think of any good reason, and the
Caterpillar seemed to be in a very unpleasant state of mind, she turned away.
`Come back!' the Caterpillar called after her. `I've something important to say!'
This sounded promising, certainly. Alice turned and came back again.
`Keep your temper,' said the Caterpillar.
`Is that all?' said Alice, swallowing down her anger as well as she could.
`No,' said the Caterpillar.
Alice thought she might as well wait, as she had nothing else to do, and perhaps after all it might
tell her something worth hearing. For some minutes it puffed away without speaking; but at last
it unfolded its arms, took the hookah out of its mouth again, and said `So you think you're
changed, do you?'
`I'm afraid I am, Sir,' said Alice. `I ca'n't remember things as I used--and I don't keep the same
size for ten minutes together!'
`Ca'n't remember what things?' said the Caterpillar.
~ "Advice from a Caterpillar;" Lewis Carroll; Alice in Wonderland
...In the long pasture, not far from the farm buildings, there was a small knoll which was the
highest point on the farm. After surveying the ground, Snowball declared that this was just the
place for a windmill, which could be made to operate a dynamo and supply the farm with electrical
power. This would light the stalls and warm them in winter, and would also run a circular saw, a
chaff-cutter, a mangel-slicer, and an electric milking machine. The animals had never heard of
anything of this kind before (for the farm was an old-fashioned one and had only the most
primitive machinery), and they listened in astonishment while Snowball conjured up pictures of
fantastic machines which would do their work for them while they grazed at their ease in the
fields or improved their minds with reading and conversation.
Within a few weeks Snowball's plans for the windmill were fully worked out. The mechanical
details came mostly from three books which had belonged to Mr. Jones — One Thousand Useful
Things to Do About the House, Every Man His Own Bricklayer, and Electricity for Beginners.
Snowball used as his study a shed which had once been used for incubators and had a smooth
wooden floor, suitable for drawing on. He was closeted there for hours at a time. With his books
held open by a stone, and with a piece of chalk gripped between the knuckles of his trotter, he
would move rapidly to and fro, drawing in line after line and uttering little whimpers of
excitement. Gradually the plans grew into a complicated mass of cranks and cog-wheels, covering
more than half the floor, which the other animals found completely unintelligible but very
impressive.
...The whole farm was deeply divided on the subject of the windmill. Snowball did not deny that
to build it would be a difficult business. Stone would have to be carried and built up into walls,
then the sails would have to be made and after that there would be need for dynamos and
cables. (How these were to be procured, Snowball did not say.) But he maintained that it could all
be done in a year. And thereafter, he declared, so much labour would be saved that the animals
would only need to work three days a week...
Benjamin was the only animal who did not side with either faction. He refused to believe either
that food would become more plentiful or that the windmill would save work. Windmill or no
windmill, he said, life would go on as it had always gone on — that is, badly.
~ from Chapter V, Animal Farm; George Orwell
This, too, should be easy--as easy as crafting allusions. Recall how you or those you know have
assigned human attitudes, thoughts, and sayings to your pets? * Just imagine what the cat says
when the humans are away at work, or what the Orca says regarding the humans efforts to save
it...after nearly destroying it to begin with.
Or, give the wind, the stars, the trees, the cars some human characteristic that readers can
identify with more concretely than they can just an abstract idea or feeling.
*Also known as anthropomorphising (anthro = man; morph = shape)
American Rhetoric
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