The Birds

The literary device of personification appears whenever an animal, object, or natural force takes on human qualities. The device works well in the narrative because it enhances the story’s horror element, particularly as it involves the idea of birds behaving like humans to inflict violence on actual humans.

The narrator and Nat often describe the birds in military terms; the nonhuman creatures have the human ability to form into ranks and test different methods of attack. As Nat and his family are hunkered down in the fortified cottage, Nat listens and realizes the “shuffling” and “tapping” of the birds has abated, so it seems the birds are no longer scoping out his building. He thinks, “They’ve got reasoning powers, […] they know it’s hard to break in here. They’ll try elsewhere. They won’t waste their time with us” (85). His eerie assessment of the birds’ “reasoning powers” indicates he has developed a connection with the birds and how they think.

There are other, similar moments when he thinks of the birds’ self-organizing, their complex premeditation, and their capacity for intellectual growth—all qualities usually possessed by humans. Likewise, as the violence escalates and the birds hone their strategies, Nat considers what memories drove them to violence, as if they are like the humans who prepared.