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What is an example of anthropomorphism


What Is Anthropomorphism in Writing?

Have you ever stopped and thought about who Mr. Fox of Fantastic Mr. Fox really is? He’s a walking, talking, crafty red fox with harebrained schemes. If you’ve ever met a fox in real life, chances are it’s not as cunning and charismatic as Mr. Fox, doesn’t cooperate with other animals, and can’t speak a human language. Assigning these humanlike qualities to a fox is an example of anthropomorphism, a literary device that pops up all the time in storytelling.

What is anthropomorphism?

Anthropomorphism (pronounced an-thruh-puh-MOR–fi-zm) is the attribution of human traits to nonhuman things. We anthropomorphize all the time whether we’re conscious of it or not. When you tell your computer to “hurry up,” you are anthropomorphizing it (as if it has intentionality and can be pleaded with).

It is slightly different from personification, which uses metaphorical language to impart human qualities onto objects, phenomena, or abstract concepts. For example, in Winnie-the-Pooh, Pooh Bear exhibits literal human qualities, like walking, talking, contemplating, and wearing clothes. If the author, A. A. Milne, described a wild wind howling through the Hundred Acre Woods, he’d be ascribing wildness to a natural phenomenon—personifying the wind, but not anthropomorphizing it. Both are useful literary devices that give your writing depth and character.

Anthropomorphism is so ubiquitous in literature—especially children’s literature—that we don’t even think twice about it. Of course Mr. Fox is a strategic fox; Winnie-the-Pooh is a timid, honey-colored bear; and Buzz Lightyear is a heroic talking toy. We don’t have to try hard to accept these qualities because anthropomorphism has roots in psychology. In other words, our brains naturally want to anthropomorphize.

What does

anthropomorphic mean?

Anthropomorphic is the adjective used to describe something with human qualities. To return to the Mr. Fox example, Roald Dahl, the author of Fantastic Mr. Fox, uses anthropomorphism to generate the character. Mr. Fox himself is an anthropomorphic fox (Vulpes vulpes to be exact).

When is anthropomorphism used?

Anthropomorphism is all around us—in myths, movies, and everyday life. 

Some of the earliest uses of anthropomorphism are in religion and mythology. Ancient cultures gave their deities humanlike qualities in order to understand them better. For example, the gods in Greek mythology eat, drink, love, dance, and make war the same way humans would, despite being more than human. Other early uses are traditional allegories that use anthropomorphic animals to teach moral lessons, like Aesop’s Fables.

Anthropomorphism is useful in narrative writing as a tool for creating characters. With anthropomorphism you can write a story about friendship between a rabbit and a squirrel, about war between a squirrel and a dog, or about love between a dog and a cat. A reader will understand that these characters are not literally behaving as a squirrel, dog, or cat would. They are behaving the way a human would as a squirrel, dog, or cat.

Anthropomorphism doesn’t have to be complex. In fact, most of the time we use it in order to simplify. If you’ve ever been to an art museum where you felt you didn’t “get” the work, you could anthropomorphize to understand it. You might interpret the color red in a Rothko painting as aggressive or a streak of blue as wanting to provide the viewer solace. Giving things human characteristics helps us understand them.

Why do we anthropomorphize?

Anthropomorphism is much more than a clever literary trick, it has a major psychological function. Humans are a social species, so children generally learn quickly how to pick up social behaviors and understand social cues. This recognition of human behaviors is embedded in us early on. On the other hand, we do not pick up mechanics and nonhuman behaviors as easily. A child is much more likely to comprehend what a smile means before they understand how a bicycle works. As we grow up, we’re still naturally inclined to assign ambiguous things a human behavior before we understand how they work. 

Anthropomorphism is one of many literary devices that our brains are capable of using to make sense of the world. We also turn to analogy and metaphor to explain the world around us. Engaging literary devices in your everyday thinking has the added benefit of creating a more poetic worldview.

Anthropomorphism examples

Anthropomorphism is incredibly common in storytelling because it is a powerful way for an audience to connect with characters. It is especially prevalent in children’s books, movies, and TV shows. Many of Disney’s characters are anthropomorphic animals or objects—Mickey and Minnie are anthropomorphic mice, Donald Duck is a duck, Goofy is a dog, and so on. But it’s not exclusive to children’s stories. Many famous poets and authors have used anthropomorphism to convey interesting, complex, or dark messages with unusual characters.

Anthropomorphism in literature

Animal Farm by George Orwell

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a 1945 novella about a group of farm animals that rebel against their farmer, hoping to create a new society where the animals can be free and equal. The animal characters in the novel have all the capabilities of humans, like critical thought, greed, and the ability to hold meetings. Anthropomorphism was not only a clever way to tell this tale but also essential to Orwell’s safety. The novella is a thinly veiled allegory that exposed Orwell’s political stance. By using animals rather than people, Orwell could hide beneath the guise of its clearly fictional characters.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

The Metamorphosis is a straightforward example of anthropomorphism because the main character, Gregor Samsa, is a human who has transformed into a cockroach (or a “monstrous vermin,” as the original text puts it). As a cockroach, Gregor maintains his human thoughts and feelings, despite his appearance. The story follows Gregor and his family as they are all forced to adjust to his new form.

Anthropomorphism in fiction

Beauty and the Beast

In the Disney classic Beauty and the Beast, not only is the Beast an anthropomorphized creature but the castle is filled with human characters cursed as animate objects. Lumiere the candelabra is rebellious, romantic, and French. Cogsworth is a loyal pendulum clock who can be a bit neurotic.

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland, both the movie and the book, is replete with anthropomorphism. Animals (the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Dodo), plants (daisies, pansies, tulips), and even a deck of cards (the Queen of Hearts) take on curious and whimsical human characteristics.

Anthropomorphism in everyday life

Brands use anthropomorphism to create fun and relatable mascots, like Cheetos’ Chester Cheetah and the Geico Gecko. Similarly, sports teams use mascots with human qualities and often send them into the stands or onto the field during halftime shows.

Anthropomorphism FAQs

What is anthropomorphism?

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics to nonhuman objects. It shows up in storytelling, art, mythology, movies, and everyday life.

When is anthropomorphism used?

Anthropomorphism is used in literature and media to create a diverse cast of characters. Anthropomorphizing animals and other objects gives a writer freedom with their characterizations because they are not bound by the technical conventions that humans are.

Why do we anthropomorphize?

Anthropomorphism helps us make sense of the world. Early examples of anthropomorphism are found in religion and mythology because they helped humans understand gods and deities. Giving foreign or ambiguous concepts human qualities helps us relate to, and therefore understand, them better.

What are some examples of anthropomorphism?

Examples of anthropomorphism are Disney characters, like Mickey and Minnie Mouse or the candlestick, teapot, and clock in Beauty and the Beast; the animals in George Orwell’s novella Animal Farm; and brand mascots, like Cheetos’ Chester Cheetah.

Anthropomorphism - Definition and Examples

Anthropomorphism - Definition and Examples | LitCharts

Definition

Examples

Function

Resources

Anthropomorphism Definition

What is anthropomorphism? Here’s a quick and simple definition:

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics, emotions, and behaviors to animals or other non-human things (including objects, plants, and supernatural beings). Some famous examples of anthropomorphism include Winnie the Pooh, the Little Engine that Could, and Simba from the movie The Lion King.

Some additional key details about anthropomorphism:

  • A character is anthropomorphic if they are not human but behave like a human. 
  • Anthropomorphism can occur in many kinds of stories, but it is especially common in folktales, fantasy, and children's stories. 
  • Anthropomorphism is related to, but distinct from personification, in which things are described figuratively (rather than literally) as having human characteristics.  

Anthropomorphism Pronunciation

Here's how to pronounce anthropomorphism: an-thro-poh-more-fizz-um. 

Anthropomorphism Explained

It's likely that some of your favorite stories from childhood made use of anthropomorphism in one way or another. Classic children's stories like The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Berenstain Bears series, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and The Giving Tree all feature anthropomorphic characters. Anthropomorphism also features prominently in folk tales, mythology, and religious stories: for example, in the biblical book of Genesis, Eve is tempted into eating from the Tree of Knowledge by a talking serpent. Here are some other important facts about anthropomorphism:

  • Anything physical can be anthropomorphized. While animals are perhaps the most commonly anthropomorphized creatures, anthropomorphism can be used to turn other kinds of objects and beings into characters with human-like qualities, too. For example, the french fairytale and Disney film, The Beauty and the Beast, is full of anthropomorphic furniture like clocks and wardrobes that walk and talk.
  • The degree to which anthropomorphic characters act like humans can also vary. For example, in Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree, a tree cares for a boy over the course of its life in the same way a human would, and although the tree is limited in the ways it can express its love for the boy—it can't walk or talk, for example, because it's a tree—it is nevertheless anthropomorphic because it feels human emotions.
  • Humans and anthropomorphic characters can exist side-by-side. Just because a story uses anthropomorphism to bring non-human things to life doesn't mean those stories won't have human characters, as well. Some stories, like Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the film Ratatouille, use anthropomorphism to create non-human characters who behave in human ways, and who interact with humans in the world of the story.  In other stories,  anthropomorphic characters stand in for humans. For example, in the picture book and children's television show Arthur, the title character is an aardvark who lives in a world entirely populated by anthropomorphic animals. Some of Arthur's friends are anthropomorphic dogs, rabbits, and so on—but the audience is meant to understand that in the world of the story, these animals are people.

Anthropomorphism vs. Personification

Anthropomorphism is easy to confuse with a similar literary device called personification, but they're actually quite different. Here's a quick rundown of personification:

  • Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down on the wedding guests, indifferent to their plans." Describing the rain as "indifferent" is an example of personification, because rain can't be "indifferent," nor can it feel any other human emotion. However, saying that the rain feels indifferent poetically emphasizes the cruel timing of the rain. Personification can help writers to create more vivid descriptions, to make readers see the world in new ways, and to more powerfully capture the human experience of the world (since people really do often interpret the non-human entities of the world as having human traits).

And here are the key differences between the two terms:

  • In anthropomorphism, the human qualities assigned to non-human things are not just figurative ways of describing them, as they are in personification.
  • Rather, in anthropomorphism the non-human entities actually do human things like talking, falling in love, wiggling their eyebrows, and generally behaving like people behave.

Anthropomorphism Examples

The following examples of anthropomorphism draw from children's books, novels, as well as film. In other words, anthropomorphism is quite common in all types literature and different media.

Anthropomorphism in

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll used anthropomorphism to create many of the characters in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Midway through the novel, Alice, the protagonist, meets a large caterpillar who behaves very much like a human:

She stretched herself up on tiptoe and peeped over the edge and her eyes immediately met those of a large blue caterpillar, that was sitting on the top, with its arms folded, quietly smoking a long hookah and taking not the smallest notice of her or of anything else.

At last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and addressed Alice in a languid, sleepy voice.

"Who are you?" said the Caterpillar.

The Caterpillar in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is clearly not the kind of caterpillar you might find in your back yard: he smokes, he crosses his arms, he speaks slowly and in a slightly condescending tone. He acts like a human, and more specifically, like a wise and weary old professor. 

Anthropomorphism in

Animal Farm by George Orwell

The satirical novel, Animal Farm, is all about animals behaving like humans—both for better and for worse. At the beginning of the novel, a pig named Old Major encourages the other animals to rebel against the men running farm, using language reminiscent of Karl Marx's communist manifesto:

Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever. Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself.

Yet once the pigs overthrow the men, they become tyrants who exploit the other animals in the same way that the men once exploited all the animals. In real life, pigs could not make political speeches or stage a rebellion, but in Animal Farm, they do. Orwell uses anthropomorphism to critique how the Soviet Union used Marxist ideology to oppress many people, rather than to free them. The hypocrisy of the pigs represents the Soviet Union's failure to create a state where power was truly in the hands of the people. 

Anthropomorphism in

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Markus Zusak's novel The Book Thief is narrated by the figure of Death, who kindly and frankly introduces himself to the reader as follows:

Where are my manners? I could introduce myself properly, but it’s not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A color will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.

Zusak anthropomorphizes Death by making him a speaking character with feelings and sense of humor. Death has a job to do—he must keep carrying people away when they die—but this doesn't mean he feels indifferent to the suffering of the people he carries away. Instead, Zusak makes Death a soulful witness to human tragedy. 

Anthropomorphism in Film

Many popular movies and cartoons feature anthropomorphic characters, non-human objects, or beings who behave in human ways. Movies featuring anthropomorphic characters tend to be animated, but there are live-action movies that feature anthropomorphic characters, too. Here are just a handful of examples:

  • Buzz Lightyear and Woody in Toy Story 
  • Simba in The Lion King
  • Mr. Tinkles in Cats & Dogs
  • Remy in Ratatouille
  • Aslan and Mr. & Mrs. Beaver in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
  • Nemo and Dory in Finding Nemo
  • Buster Moon (and every other character) in SING
  • Pinocchio in Pinocchio

Why Do Writers Use Anthropomorphism?

Here are a few of the main reasons why writers use anthropomorphism to bring their characters to life:

  • It helps create vivid, imaginative characters that readers can relate to because they are more human. (It's not always easy to relate to inanimate objects, for example.)
  • It suggests that certain human characteristics are universal—shared by all creatures.
  • It allows writers to imagine and tell different stories than they would be able to tell about humans.
    • Finding Nemo, for instance, is a story that could only have been told about fish—but there would be no story to tell if the sea creature characters didn't think, act, and feel like humans.
  • It can be used to add a symbolic dimension to a character, and thereby make a story more allegorical.
    • In Animal Farm, for example, the pigs represent the ruling class because pigs are associated with greed.

Other Helpful Anthropomorphism Resources

  • Why We're All Animal Lovers: This blog post discusses anthropomorphism's use in children's literature—and why stories that use anthropomorphism can be so powerful.
  • William Wegman And His Legendary Weimaraners: Photographer William Wegman is famous for his photographs that anthropomorphize dogs by showing them doing human activities like roller-skating, playing twister, or wearing overalls.  
  • Inky the Octopus and the Upsides of Anthropomorphism: This article explores the implication of the human tendency to anthropomorphize animals in everyday life.

What is anthropomorphism? - Writer's Handbook

Anthropomorphism is a literary technique by which the author endows animals and inanimate objects with human features. So the wolves start talking, the blizzard gets angry, and the rain starts crying.

The term is formed by a combination of the ancient Greek words ανθρωπος - man, μορφή - form. The term "anthropomorphism" has many synonyms - from personification familiar to everyone from school textbooks to prosopopoeia, anthropopathism and personification. nine0004

Examples

The car snorted angrily but eventually started up.

The sun, as if holding a grudge against the inhabitants of the city, did not appear for the second week because of the clouds.

“Are they going to eat all this without me?” Kitten thought indignantly and jumped onto the festive table.

Examples from Literature

Anthropomorphism in literature can be found anywhere from ancient legends to modern postmodern works. Most famous anthropomorphism in fairy tales , where animals talk, think and behave like humans, such as the dog Totoshka from The Wizard of the Emerald City.

In works that dispense with fantastic assumptions, anthropomorphism is no less common. So in Tatiana Tolstaya's story "Darling Shura" one of the characters realizes that "time has gone astray, stuck halfway, somewhere near Kursk, stumbled over nightingale rivers, got lost, blind, on sunflower plains." nine0017

The use of anthropomorphism

Advertising

Anthropomorphism in fairy tales is represented by animated objects and talking animals. In the same way, it is implemented in advertising, making the videos more lively, emotional and catchy. A typical example of anthropomorphism in advertising is the humanoid M&M's.

Anthropomorphism manifests itself not only in full-scale commercials, but also in individual slogans. For example, the drug "Nurofen" "knows how to beat pain" and Head & Shoulders shampoo "loves color, hates dandruff" .

Ordinary speech

Since ancient times, anthropomorphism has been a feature of human worldview. It was believed that all nature - animals, plants, objects, phenomena - is endowed with a soul and character. Echoes of old superstitions still persist in everyday communication: "the sky is frowning" , "it's raining like crazy" etc.
Science

Anthropomorphism in philosophy is considered a source of misconceptions and an outdated form of knowledge, nevertheless, its manifestations are found in modern scientific works. Physicists talk about "lifespan" of elementary particles , and humanists - about old age and death of Western culture . Anthropomorphism is especially common in the technical sciences - there they constantly apply words to computers that are more appropriate for a person: memory, intelligence, "problem solving" .

IMPORTANT!

Anthropomorphism gives the work liveliness, dynamics, energy. It exacerbates feelings, enhances impressions, more accurately conveys shades of mood.

The use of anthropomorphism must be thoughtful and justified. Too frequent use of this literary device can lead to the characters fading against the background of the revived nature.

Similar terms

Allegory is a literary technique in which a certain idea is revealed through an artistic image. For example, if there is a talking pig among the characters of the work, this is anthropomorphism, but if the pig, as in the work “The Pig under the Oak” by the classic fabulist Ivan Krylov, is identified with stupidity and short-sightedness, there is also an allegory here.

ANTHROPOMORPHISM | Encyclopedia Around the World

ANTHROPOMORPHISM (Greek anthropos 'man' and morphe 'view, form'), endowing with human qualities, likening to a person.

The following meanings of this term differ.

1. An ideological principle expressed by various, primarily, nominative means of language. In accordance with this principle, inanimate objects, living beings and fictional entities that do not have human nature are endowed with human qualities, physical and mental. These objects are attributed, in particular, the ability to feel, experience experiences and emotions, talk, think, and perform meaningful human actions. nine0004

Linguistic reconstructions and other data indicate that anthropomorphism was the dominant principle of cognition and explanation of incomprehensible natural phenomena and patterns of the structure of the world at the early stages of the development of society ( there is a thunderstorm , the sky is frowning , etc. ). Anthropomorphism was characteristic of most religious systems and was expressed in the transfer of the physical properties and mental qualities of a person to objects of worship: inanimate objects (stone, rock, sun), living beings (tree, crocodile, lion), as well as fictional entities of the earthly or average (goblin, brownies), upper (gods, angels) and lower (devils) worlds. The inhabitants of the upper and lower worlds, along with common signs of similarity with humans, as a rule, have signs that distinguish them from people. These usually include gigantic or dwarf growth, enormous strength, the presence of a tail, excessive hairiness, etc.

At present, anthropomorphism as a worldview principle is preserved within the framework of religious systems, especially the most archaic of them. It is also characteristic of the early stage of child development. Preschool children explain any causal relationships in the environment by analogy with the relationships that exist between people, for example: "There is no month in the sky, because he went to visit. " In everyday life, anthropomorphism continues to be preserved not as a principle of worldview, but as one of the principles of language nomination. This also applies to the languages ​​of science and technology. In particular, anthropomorphic nominations are widespread in computer terminology: intelligent networks , computer memory , dialogue program .

2. The technique of poetic speech, consisting in the fact that the subject of the image is likened to a person, or endowed with human properties, in particular, the ability to conduct a conversation with a person:

About times simple and rude

Horse hooves repeat

(O. Mandelstam)

In poetic speech, it is not uncommon for the entire presentation to be carried out on behalf of an inanimate object:

I am a cactus ! I have difficulty the great

I give an sometimes root of ,

I clumsy and with the kind of wild

pricks and burned that only

(K. Sluchevsky)

Anthropomorphism in poetic and some types of non -eetic speech is an example of face/non-face switching. The prevalence of anthropomorphism in certain kinds of prose and poetry is so high that rather the refusal to see partners in dialogue in inanimate objects and living beings that are not people will be considered a deviation from the norm here: “fabulists who love“ talking ”animals, as well as philosophers, studying the development of consciousness in plants and even in matter in general, retained numerous followers ”(J. Dubois. General rhetoric ).

3. A rhetorical device for including spiritual and other imaginary entities, dead or unborn people, or personified inanimate objects in an argumentative or persuasive discourse. Arguments are put into the mouths of these entities in favor of the point of view defended by the speaker or the expression of a certain attitude towards what is being reported. So, in the old Polish literature, the complaints of the fatherland-mother about the ingratitude of children-citizens are popular. Other examples: Our glorious ancestors are ashamed , looking at you , throwing swords and fleeing ; Descendants entrusted us with the care of our blue planet ; Animals will only thank you , if you stop logging on an industrial scale ; Any computer , answering this question , will show the assembler code on the screen.

4. Language units resulting from the use of the techniques listed above (in this sense, the term anthropomorphism is also used in the plural. number), i.e. denoting the corresponding "human" signs, qualities, actions and relations of similarity between a person and other objects and phenomena (plants, animals, objects of inanimate nature, mythological creatures, etc.).

Anthropomorphisms can be divided into lexical and syntactic ones. The anthropomorphic nature of the former is present in their dictionary meaning: these are lexical units representing the names of objects that are not parts of the human body or do not denote human qualities, but etymologically ascending to the names of the latter. Lexical anthropomorphisms include, in particular, a rich arsenal of obsolete metaphors: handle ( door ), spout ( kettle ), eye ( needle ), mouth ( river ), etc. Syntactic anthropomorphisms are combinations of the names of objects that are not related to a person and do not actually have human qualities, with the designations of qualities, actions and relationships that characterize people or are characteristic of people. Among syntactic anthropomorphisms, the bearers of living and worn-out imagery are clearly distinguished (cf.: three proud palm trees Lermontov and stable terminological combinations charmed particles , metal fatigue etc.).

Some linguists and philosophers believe that the abundance of anthropomorphisms in speech is one of the indicators of how much truth is distorted in the course of using natural language. H. Weinrich notes: “a linguistic lie, if we understand things literally, is the majority of such rhetorical figures as euphemisms, hyperboles, .

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