Which line illustrates personification?

• A. My alarm clock screamed at me from the corner of the room
• B. The dictionary definition of a word
• C. Eric is a monster on the field
• D. Grandma clucked like a hen as she fussed over the sick child

Answer: (A)

Personification is giving human actions or qualities to something that isn’t human. In this line, the alarm clock is said to scream at me. Since clocks don’t literally scream, treating the clock as if it can perform a human action shows personification.

The other lines aren’t personification. A dictionary definition is a literal explanation. Saying someone is “a monster on the field” is a metaphor comparing a person to a monster, not attributing a human action to a nonhuman thing. And “Grandma clucked like a hen” uses animal sounds to describe her behavior, which is vivid imagery but not giving a nonhuman thing a human action.