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Pretty Personification


Hey guys!

This week we read a story called Sealed Off by Zhang Ailing. The theme that is most emphasized would be the personification given to the city, Shanghai, in the story. Sealed Off takes a look at many different perspectives of people on a tramcar, waiting to go home. Their loud thoughts and worries contrast with the stillness of the city that is given human characteristics to further relate the reader to the story.



An example of creating a character of the city would be this sentence used in the first paragraph of the story:

“The huge, shambling city sat dozing in the sun, its head resting heavily on people’s shoulders, its spittle slowly dripping down their shirts, an inconceivably enormous weight pressing down on everyone.” – Sealed Off

Through the use of this literary device, the reader can be transported to the time and place and feel the aura of this city. It demonstrates the struggles and the affect the city has on the people and they heavy burdens of life that they carry with them.

Personification is a great literary device to teach to students because it can be seen in all sorts of works and daily life. There are many options to teach it to students to keep them engaged and interested and one is to have them read Sealed Off and then have them write their own version of the story but adding the personification to a different object such as the tramcar itself. One could also just have their students write their own story using the personification that they read as an example and allow them to express themselves creatively.
Another great activity to have your students do to further teach them about personification is to have them find books with it vividly present. Team up with the librarian and have them discover and read for themselves the personification that is used in many books. It will teach them to analyze literary works for the future while still maintaining a level of simplicity for them.
Personification is widely popular in pop culture of all kinds. One movie, Beauty and the Best uses it best and in a way that makes a person truly understand personification. You could have your students watch the movie in class (whether it be the original or live action) and have them jot down all the personification that they see. They should write down the human characteristics that are given to each object as well as the characteristics of the object that are kept. It would look something like this:
Beauty and the Beast
Mrs. Potts
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Human: Speaking, moves, feels emotion, given grandma like tendencies to show the old-fashioned nature of a good cup of tea.
Object characteristics: pours tea and bubbles automatically. Has a son named “chip” who is a tea cup. Has very strong emotions towards tea and how much it helps. Looks like a tea pot and is named “Mrs. Potts.”
Scenes from the movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNpxWngkCCk
Cogsworth
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Human: Speaks, moves, feels emotion. Very “tightly wound” and is strict.
Object characteristics: Always needs to be on time, and follows orders. Strives to be the leader and keeps everything in order, much like how a clock keeps everyone on time and runs everyone.
Scenes from the movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH3J6zmRsMM
 
With all the personification shows throughout the movie, you can then talk afterwards and compare each students finds with one another and dive deeper into personification.
Connections
After watching Beauty and the Beast, and making sure they got the hang of looking for personification. You can let the students choose a classic book of their own choice and look for personification within the first five chapters or so. This gives them experience with classic literature as well as practice for looking for literary devices within more seemingly complicated reading.
 

 
 
And without further ado, I am off to watch Beauty and the Beast to look for all the personification! Have a blessed day!
Lily

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