Giving Human-like Qualities to Animals or Objects

Definition of Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism is a literary device that tin be defined every bit a technique in which a writer ascribes human traits, ambitions, emotions, or entire behaviors to animals, not-man beings, natural phenomena, or objects.

Difference Between Anthropomorphism and Personification

Anthropomorphism is also a blazon of personification that gives human characteristics to non-humans or objects, peculiarly animals. However, at that place is a slight difference betwixt these ii. Personification is an act of giving human characteristics to animals or objects to create imagery, while anthropomorphism aims to make an animal or object conduct and appear like it is a human being.

Pinocchio, the famous wooden doll, was anthropomorphized when he was given the power to talk, walk, think, and feel like real boy. Fables and fairy tales usually have characters that can serve as anthropomorphism examples.

Examples of Anthropomorphism in Literature

Case #1: The Jaguar (By Ted Hughes)

"Only who runs like the rest past these arrives
At a cage where the oversupply stands, stares, mesmerized,
Every bit a child at a dream, at a dream, at a jaguar hurrying enraged
Through prison darkness after the drills of his eyes

On a short fierce fuse. Not in boredom –
The eye satisfied to exist blind in fire,
By the bang of blood in the brain deaf the ear –
He spins from the bars, just at that place'southward no cage to him

More than than to the visionary his cell:
His step is wildernesses of liberty:
The world rolls under the long thrust of his heel.
Over the cage flooring the horizons come."

This verse form is based on a jaguar, a fierce brute. Hughes is showing the world to his readers through the eyes of a jaguar that is thinking similar a human.

Case #2: Creature Farm (By George Orwell)

"Comrades, yous have heard already about the foreign dream that I had last night. But I volition come up to the dream later. I have something else to say first. I do not retrieve, comrades, that I shall be with you for many months longer, and earlier I die, I feel it my duty to pass on to yous such wisdom equally I take caused. I take had a long life, I take had much time for thought as I lay alone in my stall, and I think I may say that I understand the nature of life on this earth too as whatever animal at present living. It is well-nigh this that I wish to speak to you lot … Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does non lay eggs, he is also weak to pull the plough."

Animal Farm is one of the perfect examples of anthropomorphism. In this excerpt, 1 of the pigs named Sometime Major is delivering a political speech to his fellows confronting the evils imposed by the homo rulers. Hither, Old Major is instigating them to rise to rebellion against a tyrant human. This entire use is a good example of anthropomorphism.

Case #3: A Dog's Tale (By Mark Twain)

"My begetter was a St. Bernard, my mother was a collie, only I am a Presbyterian. This is what my female parent told me, I do not know these nice distinctions myself. To me they are only fine large words meaning nada. My mother had a fondness for such; she liked to say them, and see other dogs look surprised and envious, equally wondering how she got and then much instruction … When I was well grown, at terminal, I was sold and taken away, and I never saw her again. She was broken-hearted, and so was I, and nosotros cried; but she comforted me too as she could …"

The protagonist of this story is a dog, which is describing his life as a puppy. The story is told from the loyal pet's perspective. The domestic dog possesses human being traits like emotions, shame, fright, ache, happiness, and hopelessness.

Role of Anthropomorphism

In that location are various reasons for using anthropomorphism. The principal i is to make a wider appeal to the readers. With the apply of objects or animals, the story can become visually appealing and non-threatening to readers. Hence, it could concenter the attention of a broad audience (including children) by presenting animated characters in tales and animated movies. In literature, it serves equally an constructive tool for creating political and social satires. Hence, information technology has a wider scope than merely to entertain children.

Jennifer Difewore1986