Read the given passage and answer the four questions that follow:-
I still remember the summers of my childhood, when the air in our ancestral village carried the scent of ripening mangoes. Our orchard, an expanse of towering trees with branches heavy with fruit, was my sanctuary. The afternoons were spent sprawled on a charpoy under the largest tree, listening to my grandmother's tales of kings and sages, while the cicadas hummed a lazy tune. One evening, when the sky blushed orange, my cousin Rohan and I dared each other to climb the ancient mango tree — the one no one had scaled in years. "It's cursed," the elders warned, "a snake guards its highest branches." But we were twelve, and fear was something we laughed at. With scraped knees and racing hearts, we ascended, our fingers sticky with the sweetness of half-eaten mangoes.
Then, suddenly, I froze. Just inches from my hand, nestled between two branches, lay a coiled serpent, its beady eyes fixed upon me. Panic gripped my chest, my breath shallow. "Don't move," Rohan whispered. Trembling, I heeded his words, inching backward ever so slowly. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I bolted, my heart pounding louder than the temple bells at dusk.
We never climbed that tree again. But to this day, whenever I taste a mango, I remember that evening — the thrill, the terror, and the inexplicable joy of childhood.
Which literary device is used in "the sky blushed orange"?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Personification
Personification is a figure of speech in which a thing, an idea or a part of nature is given human qualities or actions. Blushing is a human response; "the sky blushed orange" gives the evening sky a person's reaction, so the device is personification.
Example: The wind whispered through the trees.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Allegory — Incorrect. An allegory is a whole story in which characters and events stand for deeper moral or political ideas. A single phrase about the sky is not an allegory.
Example: Animal Farm is an allegory of the Russian Revolution.
Option 2: Simile — Incorrect. A simile compares two things using "like" or "as". The phrase has no "like" or "as"; it says directly that the sky blushed.
Example: Her smile was as bright as the sun.
Option 3: Alliteration — Incorrect. Alliteration is the repetition of the same first sound in nearby words. "Sky blushed orange" does not repeat a starting sound.
Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Contrast: personification gives a non-human thing a human action ("the sky blushed"); a simile compares with "like" or "as", alliteration repeats the same first sound, and an allegory is a whole story with a deeper meaning.