Personification
Giving human qualities, actions, or emotions to animals, objects, or abstract ideas.
Personification animates the nonhuman, letting nature, objects, or concepts act with intention or feeling. Writers use it to heighten mood, dramatize forces beyond human control, and make abstract ideas vivid. It can make a setting feel alive, hostile, or sympathetic.
Example
The Yukon wilderness is portrayed as a cold, watchful adversary, so that nature itself seems to judge and outlast the overconfident man.
To Build a Fire ยท Jack London
See it in action
Analyses on StoryBites that use personification:
The Story of an HourKate ChopinThe Masque of the Red DeathEdgar Allan PoeA Christmas CarolCharles DickensThe Last LeafO. HenryThe Rocking-Horse WinnerD.H. LawrenceHow Much Land Does a Man Need?Leo TolstoyMiss BrillKatherine MansfieldThe Cop and the AnthemO. HenryA White HeronSarah Orne JewettThe ShawlCynthia Ozick