What Is Personification - Definition and Examples

Personification is a figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is given human qualities or abilities. At times, as with this personification of the social-networking service Twitter, a writer may call attention to her use of the figurative device: Look, some of my best friends are tweeting. . . .But at the risk of unilaterally offending 14 million people, I need to say this: If Twitter were a person, it would be an emotionally unstable person. It would be that person we avoid at parties and whose calls we dont pick up. It would be the person whose willingness to confide in us at first seems intriguing and flattering but eventually makes us feel kind of gross because the friendship is unearned and the confidence is unjustified. The human incarnation of Twitter, in other words, is the person we all feel sorry for, the person we suspect might be a bit mentally ill, the tragic oversharer.(Meghan Daum, Tweeting: Inane or Insane? Times Union of Albany, New York, April 23, 2009) Often, however, personification is used less directly--in essays and advertisements, poems and stories--to convey an attitude, promote a product, or illustrate an idea. Personification As a Type of Simile or Metaphor Because personification involves making a comparison, it can be viewed as a special kind of simile (a direct or explicit comparison) or metaphor (an implicit comparison). In Robert Frosts poem Birches, for example, the personification of the trees as girls (introduced by the word like) is a type of simile: You may see their trunks arching in the woodsYears afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground,Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hairBefore them over their heads to dry in the sun. In the next two lines of the poem, Frost again uses personification, but this time in a metaphor comparing Truth to a plain-speaking woman: But I was going to say when Truth broke inWith all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm Because people have a tendency to look at the world in human terms, its not surprising that we often rely on personification (also known as prosopopoeia) to bring inanimate things to life. Personification in Advertising Have any of these people ever appeared in your kitchen: Mr. Clean (a household cleaner), Chore Boy (a scouring pad), or Mr. Muscle (an oven cleaner)? How about Aunt Jemima (pancakes), Capn Crunch (cereal), Little Debbie (snack cakes), the Jolly Green Giant (vegetables), Poppin Fresh (also known as the Pillsbury Doughboy), or Uncle Ben (rice)? For over a century, companies have relied heavily on personification to create memorable images of their products--images that often appear in print advertisements and TV commercials for those brands. Iain MacRury, a professor of consumer and advertising studies at the University of East London, has discussed the role played by one of the worlds oldest trademarks, Bibendum, the Michelin Man: The familiar Michelin logo is a celebrated instance of the art of advertising personification. A person or cartoon character becomes the embodiment of a product or brand--here Michelin, manufacturers of rubber products and, notably, tires. The figure is familiar in itself and audiences routinely read this logo--depicting a cartoon man made of tires--as a friendly character; he personifies the product range (in particular Michelin tires) and animates both product and brand, representing a culturally recognized, practical and commercial presence--reliably there, friendly and trusted. The movement of personification is close to the heart of what all good advertising tends to try to achieve.(Iain MacRury, Advertising. Routledge, 2009) In fact, its hard to imagine what advertising  would be like without the figure of personification. Heres just a small sample of the countless popular slogans (or taglines) that rely on personification to market products ranging from toilet paper to life insurance. Kleenex says bless you.(Kleenex facial tissues)Nothing hugs like Huggies.(Huggies Supreme diapers)Unwrap a smile.(Little Debbie snack cakes)Goldfish. The snack that smiles back.(Goldfish snack crackers)Carvel. Its what happy tastes like.(Carvel ice cream)Cottonelle. Looking out for the family.(Cottonelle toilet paper)The toilet tissue that really cares for Downunder.(Bouquets toilet paper, Australia)Youre in good hands with Allstate.(Allstate Insurance Company)Taste me! Taste me! Come on and taste me!(Doral cigarettes)What do you feed a machine with an appetite this big?(Indesit washing machine and Ariel Liquitabs, laundry detergent, UK)The heartbeat of America.(Chevrolet cars)The car that cares(Kia cars)Acer. We hear you.(Acer computers)How will you use us today?(Avery Labels)Baldwin Cooke. Products that say Thank You 365 days a year.(Baldwin Cooke calendars and business planners) Personification in Prose and Poetry Like other types of metaphors,  personification  is much more than an ornamental device added to a text to keep readers amused. Used effectively, personification encourages us to view our surroundings from a fresh perspective. As Zoltan Kovecses notes in  Metaphor: A Practical Introduction  (2002), Personification permits us to use knowledge about ourselves to comprehend other aspects of the world, such as time, death, natural forces, inanimate objects, etc. Consider how John Steinbeck uses personification in his short story Flight (1938) to describe the wild coast south of Monterey, California: 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. . . .Gradually the sharp snaggled edge of the ridge stood out above them, rotten granite tortured and eaten by the winds of time. Pepe had dropped his reins on the horn, leaving direction to the horse. The brush grabbed at his legs in the dark until one knee of his jeans was ripped.​ As Steinbeck demonstrates, an important function of personification in literature  is to bring the inanimate world to life--and in this  story, in particular, to show how characters may be in conflict with a hostile environment. Now lets look at some other ways in which personification has been used to dramatize ideas and communicate experiences in prose and poetry. The Lake Is a MouthThese are the lips of the lake, on which no beard grows. It licks its chops from time to time.(Henry David Thoreau,  Walden)A Snickering, Flickering PianoMy stick fingers click with a snickerAnd, chuckling, they knuckle the keys;Light-footed, my steel feelers flickerAnd pluck from these keys melodies.(John Updike, Player Piano)Fingers of SunshineHadnt she known that something good was going to happen to her that morning--hadnt she felt it in every touch of the sunshine, as its golden finger-tips pressed her lids open and wound their way through her hair?(Edith Wharton,  The Mothers Recompense, 1925)The Wind Is a Playful ChildPearl Button swung on the little gate in front of the House of Boxes. It was the early afternoon of a sunshiny day with little winds playing hide-and-seek in it.(Katherine Mansfield, How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped, 1912)The Gentleman CallerBecause I could not stop for Death--He kindly stopped for me--The Carriage held but just Ourselves--An d Immortality.We slowly drove--He knew no hasteAnd I had put awayMy labor and my leisure too,For His Civility--We passed the School, where Children stroveAt Recess--in the Ring--We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain--We passed the Setting Sun--Or rather--He passed us--The Dews drew quivering and chill--For only Gossamer, my Gown--My Tippet--only Tulle--We paused before a House that seemedA Swelling of the Ground--The Roof was scarcely visible--The Cornice--in the GroundSince then--tis Centuries--and yetFeels shorter than the DayI first surmised the Horses HeadsWere toward Eternity--(Emily Dickinson, Because I could not stop for death)PinkPink is what red looks like when it kicks off its shoes and lets its hair down. Pink is the boudoir color, the cherubic color, the color of Heavens gates. . . . Pink is as laid back as beige, but while beige is dull and bland, pink is laid back with  attitude.(Tom Robbins, The Eight-Story Kiss.  Wild Ducks Flying Backward. Random House, 2005)Love Is a BrutePassions a good, stupid horse that will pull the  plough  six days a week if you give him the run of his heels on Sundays. But loves a nervous, awkward, over-mastering brute; if you cant rein him, its best to have no truck with him.(Lord Peter Wimsey in  Gaudy Night  by Dorothy L. Sayers)A Mirror and a LakeI am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.Whatever I see I swallow immediatelyJust as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.I am not cruel, only truthful--The eye of a little god, four-cornered.Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so longI think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.Faces and darkness separate us over and over.Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,Searching my reaches for what she really is.Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.I see her  back,  and reflect it faithfully.She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.I am important to her. She comes and go es.Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.In  me  she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old womanRises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.(Sylvia Plath, Mirror)Knocks and SighsThe glacier knocks in the cupboard,The desert sighs in the bed,And the crack in the tea-cup opensA lane to the land of the dead.(W.H. Auden, As I Walked Out One Evening)Devouring, Swift-Footed TimeDevouring Time, blunt thou the lions paws,And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tigers jaws,And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets,And do  whateer  thou wilt, swift-footed Time,To the wide world and all her fading sweets;But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:O, carve not with thy hours my loves fair brow,Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;Him  in thy course untainted do allowFor beautys pattern to succeeding men.Yet, do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong,My love s hall in my verse ever live young.(William Shakespeare, Sonnet 19) Its your turn now. Without feeling that youre in competition with Shakespeare  or Emily Dickinson, try your hand at creating a fresh example of personification. Simply take any inanimate object or abstraction and help us see or understand it in a new way by giving it human qualities or abilities.

Is Drug Treatment a Viable Alternative to Prison Time Essay

Prisons and county jails are extremely over populated, so over populated that in some jails inmates are sleeping on the floors. According to Senator Jeanne Shaheen (From Senator Jeanne Shaheen: Prison Overcrowding, 2011), the federal prisons are currently 35 percent over their capacity. The overcrowding is costing the criminal justice system and taxpayers more money to transfer inmates to other facilities and in lawsuits brought by inmates against the prisons. With the prisons and county jails facing major overcrowding issues and drug treatment programs being a viable alternative to prison time, more states need to be implementing drug / treatment programs. Treatment / Drug Courts are specialized courts to help stop drug, alcohol, and†¦show more content†¦Some experts believe that the Drug / Treatment Courts and diversion programs utilizing alternatives to prison time is the reason for the decline in prison population. According to Judge Vito P. Geroulo (Schillinger, 201 0), the national decline might be a sign that other areas are starting to use treatment courts†¦ However, according to Todd Berry, president of the Wisconsin Taxpayer Alliance (Hrodey, 2011), the reduction of prison population may be due to changing demographics in Wisconsin. The changing demographics might be playing a role in the decreasing prison population in Wisconsin; on the other hand, this is not the only factor playing a role in the decrease. The U.S. Department of Justice is reporting the local government prison population has declined 2.3 percent from June 2008 to June 2009 (Schillinger, 2010). Therefore, prison population is decreasing in the United States as a whole, not just in one state. In the United States today, there are many budget and funding cuts, utilizing Drug / Treatment Courts are a more cost effective way of sentencing, saving the criminal justice system and taxpayers money. 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Management Competencies Effectiveness

Question: Discuss about the Management Competencies Effectiveness. Answer: Introduction: Competencies in a workplace are the skill that is required to measure the effectiveness of an individual. Workplace competencies provide employees a clear idea about the expected terms of performance. The competencies can be divided into two board categories behavioral and technical. Technical competencies include the ability to resolve conflict and good communication and writing skills (Daft 2014). A framework on competency of an organization reflects the structure of an organization and integrates the process of using competencies. Discussion: In this essay, I have chosen leadership competencies in an intelligent firm. I have summarized my leadership experience in this essay. I have realized that the ability of a leader can only be recognized in a chaotic and turbulent situation. The leadership competency framework is a self-assessment tool where a leader can apply his leadership skills and tailor it according to the companys situation (Day and Sammon 2013). In the intelligent firm, I have developed some key skills and implemented it to train many managers with the help of a framework for leadership. The rational goal model focuses on the ability of an organization to achieve its objectives. As a leader in an intelligence firm, I had to manage the emotions and understand the minds of the team members. Emotional intelligence is essential for leaders in an intelligence organization. The elements of emotional intelligence that is considered essential for a leader are self-awareness, motivation, self-regulation and empathy (Fitzgerald and Savage 2013). Self-awareness is the about having a deep perception about the strengths and weaknesses and needs and problems of the employees. Having an explicit self-consciousness makes an employee more flexible toward changing his mindset according to the situation (Lussier and Achua 2015). In an intelligence firm, each employee should be aware of his own strengths and weaknesses, which will help them to direct and dedicate their personal skills towards it. Working in this organization involves lots of risk. Hence, self-confidence is essential trait to perform in such organization. Motivation to work with commitment includes perseverance, orientation towards goal and dedication towards work. Optimistic outlook is the base for motivation. Optimism refers to the ability to handle challenging situations (Soieb, Othman and D'Silva 2013). Working in this organization involves lots of risk. Thus, the leader can motivate the employees to undertake the risk by bringing out the optimistic side of a problem. Self-regulation is the ability to redirect disruptive impulses. It represents integrity of character, adaptive capacity, flexibility of behavior, tolerant towards uncertainty, able to handle pressure, respond dynamically to the changing social setting and judgment skills (Soieb, Othman and D'Silva 2013). Social judgment skills are one of the key competencies of leadership. Here the leader can take a problem beyond its particular perspective and possesses the ability to learn from the positive effects of the problem. Political and social awareness is required while working in an intelligence firm. According to me, a leader with social judgment skills and controlled emotion can handle this kind of situation Empathy shows how a leader can interact with his team members or with the employees of an organization. The intensity of empathy has a strong impact on the ability to handle challenging situation, emotional connection with the people from diverse background and to understand the viewpoint of the employees. The main goal is to motivate the employees by exploiting the natural characteristics of an employee (Lussier and Achua 2015). An intelligence organization has to face a number of challenging situations. Therefore, as a leader I had to understand different viewpoint of the employees from diverse background and motivate them to work under pressure. Conclusion: It can be concluded that as a leader in an intelligent organization, I have ascertained certain goals that would direct the efforts of the employees of that organization. The orientation of the goals is according to the Rational Goal model of Management competencies (Hunt, Hosking and Schriesheim 2013). In an intelligence firm, I have experienced certain leadership skills, which I have compared with the rational model. This helps us to get a better overview of the leadership competencies, which motivate the employees of an organization to work more than their potential. Management competencies in an organization are the skills that are required to measure the effectiveness of an individual. Emotional intelligence is important element for leaders in an intelligence organization. Among the components of emotional intelligence Empathy is the most important. Empathy shows how a leader can interact with the employees of an organization (Lussier and Achua 2015). Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) is the organization chosen having its headquarters in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The main objective is to gather and evaluate the foreign signals intelligence and provide assistance on communication industry. As this is an intelligence governed by the Australian government, person I have interviewed is unwilling to reveal his post as well as his name. The rational goal model focuses on the ability of an organization to achieve its objectives. As a leader in an intelligence firm, the leaders had to manage the emotions of the team members. Empathy component of emotional intelligence is essential for leaders in an intelligence organization. In the journal organizational emotional intelligence: development of a model by Gabriele Giorgi. Emotional intelligence is defined as the capability to supervise the ones own emotions as well as the emotions of others, which in turn steer the thinking process and actions of a person (Giorgi 2013). Emotional iis de?ned as the ability to monitor ones own and others feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide ones thinking and actions References: Daft, R.L., 2014.The leadership experience. Cengage Learning. Day, C. and Sammons, P., 2013.Successful Leadership: A Review of the International Literature. CfBT Education Trust. 60 Queens Road, Reading, RG1 4BS, England. Fitzgerald, T. and Savage, J., 2013. Scripting, ritualising and performing leadership: Interrogating recent policy developments in Australia.Journal of educational administration and history,45(2), pp.126-143. Giorgi, G., 2013. Organizational emotional intelligence: development of a model.International Journal of Organizational Analysis,21(1), pp.4-18. Hunt, J.G., Hosking, D.M. and Schriesheim, C.A. eds., 2013.Leaders and managers: International perspectives on managerial behavior and leadership. Elsevier. Lussier, R.N. and Achua, C.F., 2015.Leadership: Theory, application, skill development. Nelson Education. Soieb, A.Z.M., Othman, J. and D'Silva, J.L., 2013. The effects of perceived leadership styles and organizational citizenship behaviour on employee engagement: The mediating role of conflict management.International Journal of Business and Management,8(8), p.91.