Personification: Reference to abstractions or inanimate objects as though they had human qualities or abilities. The English term for prosopopeia (pro-so-po-pe’-i-a) or ethopoeia (e-tho-po’-ia): the description and portrayal of a character (natural propensities, manners and affections, etc.).
The onions said nothing, but they made me cry. Maybe they were telling me that silence isn’t golden after all. Or maybe I wasn’t crying. Maybe my eyes were just irritated by the onion as I chopped it into little pieces. My knife said “Go Johnny, mince that little sucker!” Then I thought: There’s violence in the kitchen—the ruthless cutting, peeling, poking, boiling, baking, sautéing, frying, chopping, tossing, pounding. Meat, fish, vegetables, birds, it doesn’t matter. Then I thought: OMG, smoothies! Whirring razor-sharp blades slashing solids into liquids.
There is violence up and down the vegetable food chain. Yanking a happy red tomato off its vine. Digging a snug russet potato up by its roots. Cutting a resting rhubarb leaf away from its mother plant. Ripping young corn cobs from their trembling stalks. Thrashing helpless grain.
But hey, we’ve got to eat.
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)
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