Answer to Question #285408 in English for Kelsey Jand

Question

Lord of the Flies Study Guide Questions

Direction: Your answers need to be thorough, and where possible, quote the text (with citation).

Chapters 2-3

Figurative Language: Personification bestows human characteristics upon anything nonhuman. What is being personified in these chapters? Give specific examples. A metaphor compares two unlike objects without using connective words such as like or as, whereas a simile uses the connective words to make the comparison. List at least three examples of each as you read, and consider the purpose of figurative language in these examples.

Answer 1

A friendly, cool breeze slapped playfully at the car, and the long shadows stretched out lazily from the trees and bushes.''

What is happening in this quote that is personification? What things are happening that are normally only done by people? Can a breeze ''slap playfully at the car?'' A person could do that, but a breeze couldn't. Also, Juster wrote that the ''shadows stretched out lazily.'' Shadows can't stretch out lazily, but people can. These are both examples of personification.

Does fog have fingers?

fog

''The wind howled cruelly in an effort to tear them loose, and the fog dragged clammy fingers down their backs…''

This is a fantastic example of personification! How does the author describe the howl of the wind? Can a wind ''howl cruelly?'' Only people can be cruel; the wind can't be. Can the fog drag ''clammy fingers down their backs''? Fog doesn't have fingers, but people do. Both the wind and the fog are being given human qualities.

''The shore line was peaceful and flat, and the calm sea bumped it playfully along the sandy beach.''

Can you find the personification in this quote? Think about what's being described and the words the author chooses. He does say the shore is ''peaceful and flat,'' but that's not giving it human characteristics. He also says the sea ''bumped it playfully.'' Can a sea be playful? That's a human characteristic, so that's the personification in this quote.

Chapter 2: Fire on the Mountain

He was a shrimp of a boy, about six years old, and one side of his face was blotted out by a mulberry-colored birthmark.

Here the narrator compares one of the littluns to a shrimp, suggesting that he is smaller than other boys on the island.

The sun in the west was a drop of burning gold that slid nearer and nearer the sill of the world.

In this poetic metaphor, the narrator likens the setting sun to a “drop of burning gold” sliding down a windowpane toward the windowsill.

Chapter 3: Huts on the Beach

Jack himself shrank at this cry with a hiss of indrawn breath, and for a minute became less a hunter than a furtive thing, ape-like among the tangle of trees.

This simile, which describes Jack hunting pigs in the jungle, likens his stealthy behavior to that of a wild animal.