Is there any personification in "The Tell-Tale Heart"?

Personification is a literary device in which the author attributes human characteristics and features to inanimate objects, ideas, or animals. Personification allows the reader to connect and identify with nonhuman or inanimate objects, which offers a better image of what is happening throughout the text. Edgar Allan Poe personifies the old man's eye throughout the short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" by referring to it as the "Evil Eye." Poe gives the eye the human attribute of being evil, which evokes the terrible, wicked emotions that the narrator feels toward the old man's eye.

Poe also personifies the "world" by writing, "Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept" (3). The world cannot literally sleep, but this gives the reader the feeling of a calm, quiet night. By personifying the night, the reader has a better understanding of the atmosphere of the night that the narrator is describing.

Poe once again utilizes personification by writing,

All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim (5).

Death is given human attributes and referred to by the personal pronoun "him." Personifying death signifies an ominous image of a malevolent criminal who stalks his victims before taking their lives.

In Animal Farm, how do the pigs become what they hated?

George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945) is a political allegory about the Russian Revolution of 1917 and Stalin's subsequent rule over the Soviet Union. The story begins with Old Major, a representation of the creator of communism, Karl Marx, assembling the farm animals to revolt against the humans. The revolt is successful, and the pigs establish the Seven Commandments of Animalism to help secure their new society.

After the animals defend the farm from a human...

George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945) is a political allegory about the Russian Revolution of 1917 and Stalin's subsequent rule over the Soviet Union. The story begins with Old Major, a representation of the creator of communism, Karl Marx, assembling the farm animals to revolt against the humans. The revolt is successful, and the pigs establish the Seven Commandments of Animalism to help secure their new society.

After the animals defend the farm from a human attack, Napoleon begins to subvert Snowball. Napoleon represents Joseph Stalin, the tyrannical dictator of the Soviet Union from the 1920s until 1953. Snowball, on the other hand, represents Leon Trotsky, a one-time compatriot and later opponent and vocal critic of Stalin's. Napoleon argues for Snowball's removal from the farm and begins adopting human characteristics himself. He wears clothes, walks on two legs, and, with the death of Boxer, suppresses the other animals to advance his own interests. He eventually becomes as oppressive as the animals' former human master, Mr. Jones. This results in the novel's haunting last line: "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which" (Orwell). This represents how the communist revolution in Russia, intended to elevate the working classes, ultimately resulted in the degradation of the proletariat under Stalin's rule. The communist leaders became the very thing that they intended to destroy.

The pigs, meaning Napoleon and his followers, become what they hated by gradually adopting the tyrannical practices of the very humans they initially sought to overthrow. With this, Orwell establishes the corrupting nature of political power through the case study of the communist revolution in Russia.

For more information, please explore the guide to Animal Farm linked below!

Where can I find quotes about depression in Act 1 of Hamlet?

Hamlet's depression is pretty well documented throughout the play, beginning as early as Act 1, scene 2, where his uncle and his mother ask him to take off his dark mourning clothes. Queen Gertrude states,

"Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark..." (1,2,68-70)

Hamlet refuses Gertrude's request, indicating that what others see on the surface is only a hint at the great pool of depression that...

Hamlet's depression is pretty well documented throughout the play, beginning as early as Act 1, scene 2, where his uncle and his mother ask him to take off his dark mourning clothes. Queen Gertrude states,

"Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark..." (1,2,68-70)

Hamlet refuses Gertrude's request, indicating that what others see on the surface is only a hint at the great pool of depression that he's currently wallowing in. He realizes how he comes across to others, but quite literally can't help it. He knows that other people want him to behave normally, but he can't believe that his mother could marry his uncle so quickly after his father's death, and he's still reeling from the loss of his father. 

"'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black, Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage, Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief, That can denote me truly. These indeed “seem,” For they are actions that a man might play. But I have that within which passeth show,

These but the trappings and the suits of woe." (1,2, 76-86)

How does Steinbeck present the brutality of ranch life at the time Of Mice and Men is set?

In Of Mice and Men, the brutality of ranch life is depicted through characterization.

• In Chapter One as George and Lennie camp out before heading to their new job, and George alludes to the reason they have to start anew: Lennie wanted to feel a girl's dress.

She yells and we got to hide in a irrigation ditch all day with guys lookin' for us, and we got to sneak out in the dark...

In Of Mice and Men, the brutality of ranch life is depicted through characterization.

• In Chapter One as George and Lennie camp out before heading to their new job, and George alludes to the reason they have to start anew: Lennie wanted to feel a girl's dress.

She yells and we got to hide in a irrigation ditch all day with guys lookin' for us, and we got to sneak out in the dark and get outta the country.

• In Chapter Two, after Candy gossips about Curley, the son of the boss with George and Lennie, he begs them not to repeat what he has said because "[H]e'd slough me. He just don't give a damn."


• When Curley enters the bunkhouse, he is immediately hostile toward Lennie, shouting, "By Christ, he's gotta talk when he's spoke to."


• After Curley leaves, Candy explains how pugnacious Curley is, "Seems like Curley ain't givin' nobody a chance."


• In Chapter Three Carlson heartlessly offers to shoot Candy's old dog.


• In this chapter when Curley antagonizes Slim, Whit becomes excited and leaves the bunkhouse to watch the "fireworks."


• Lennie suggests his propensity for violence when he imagines that some might try to take his dream rabbits: "I'll break their God damn necks." Later, he breaks every bone in Curley's hand when Curley comes at him.


• In Chapter Four, Crooks takes a sadistic delight in telling Lennie that George, who has gone to town, may not return. "Crooks's face lighted with pleasure in his torture."


• In Chapter Five, Curley is ready to wreak vengeance on Lennie after learning of his wife's death. Candy tells George, "Curley gon'ta wanta get 'im lynched. Curley'll get 'im killed."


• When Carlson runs into the barn, shouting that his Luger is gone, Curley tells him that Crooks has a shotgun and to take it.


• Then, when George asks Curley not to shoot Lennie. "Don't shoot 'im?" Curley cried. "He got Carlson's Luger. 'Course we'll shoot 'im."

Why does Jeanne decide that if she faces hostility, she will "have to allow it"?

Although Jeanne makes that comment in Chapter 16, when she says that she'll have to allow hostility because something about her deserves it, we'll find a more detailed explanation of that idea in Chapter 20: "A Double Impulse," when Jeanne reflects on the way in which her experiences have shaped her attitudes and her sense of self.

In that chapter, she describes the victims of internment (such as herself and her family) as somewhat...

Although Jeanne makes that comment in Chapter 16, when she says that she'll have to allow hostility because something about her deserves it, we'll find a more detailed explanation of that idea in Chapter 20: "A Double Impulse," when Jeanne reflects on the way in which her experiences have shaped her attitudes and her sense of self.

In that chapter, she describes the victims of internment (such as herself and her family) as somewhat at fault for allowing it to happen. She says that in order for the 110,000 people to allow themselves to be locked up in the camps, those people have to have some kind of "acquiescence," some small belief that they actually deserved to be locked away in the camps.

Consider how Jeanne's elders would tell each other "Shikata ga nai," or "It must be done"/"It can't be helped" when Jeanne's father was wrongly imprisoned and when the family was experiencing the chaos of being moved around. This idea of acquiescence, of interpreting injustice as unavoidable and allowing it to happen, has been bred into Jeanne. "I had inherited it," she tells us in Chapter 20.

So when people see Jeanne as someone foreign and strange, or someone not worth associating with, she doesn't fight back. For example, when she's rejected from participating in the Girl Scouts simply because she's Japanese, she simply accepts it. She simply allows that hostility to exist, although on the inside, she yearns for both invisibility and self-assertion (the "double impulse" mentioned in the chapter title).

Krakauer observes that it is not unusual for a young man to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders. Identify an example from...

Recklessness can be thought of in terms of both what you do and how you do it. On the "how", for example, driving to the store under the speed limit on major roads in good weather is not reckless, but getting drunk and then driving very fast on icy roads in the dark is reckless. Extreme sports or solo wilderness travel are by their nature dangerous. This means that most people who do them (especially those...

Recklessness can be thought of in terms of both what you do and how you do it. On the "how", for example, driving to the store under the speed limit on major roads in good weather is not reckless, but getting drunk and then driving very fast on icy roads in the dark is reckless. Extreme sports or solo wilderness travel are by their nature dangerous. This means that most people who do them (especially those who survive doing them for many years) take an extremely cautious, almost scientific, approach to planning and execution. 

First, this includes building up skills on shorter trips, especially navigation skills using topographic maps, compasses, and altimeters. Next, one gradually adjusts one's gear to suit the environment and learns how to create safe, comfortable campsites protected from the weather. Most people involved in extreme wilderness travel carry satellite phones for emergencies. 

McCandless did none of these things. Most important to the material discussed in Chapter 17, he did not have a good map or compass nor even the basic common sense needed to follow a river downstream to find a good spot to ford. Thus he chose what is a dangerous activity and rather than minimize the dangers by learning the necessary skills and having the correct equipment, he went about his journey into the wild in a reckless manner. 

Why does Winnie get reminded about her grandfather's funeral when talking to the stranger?

But Winnie, though she was half charmed, was suddenly reminded of the stiff black ribbons they had hung on the door of the cottage for her grandfather's funeral.

Winnie meets the man in the yellow suit in chapter 4.  The man is perfectly cordial and friendly to Winnie.  In fact, he is even a bit charming, and those are Winnie's initial feelings about the man; however, Winnie does not fully trust the man.  She feels...

But Winnie, though she was half charmed, was suddenly reminded of the stiff black ribbons they had hung on the door of the cottage for her grandfather's funeral.

Winnie meets the man in the yellow suit in chapter 4.  The man is perfectly cordial and friendly to Winnie.  In fact, he is even a bit charming, and those are Winnie's initial feelings about the man; however, Winnie does not fully trust the man.  She feels as if something is "off" about the guy.  The black ribbons and the funeral thoughts help the reader and Winnie better understand that the man in the yellow suit isn't what he seems.  The black ribbons at a funeral might look nice and neat, but they represent a terribly sad situation.  A loved one has died.  Like the ribbons, the man in the yellow suit might appear and sound nice and neat, but he most definitely represents a dark, evil force in the novel.  Winnie being reminded of her grandfather's funeral is her internal warning system going off about the stranger.