Identify the figure of speech used in the following sentence:
“The silence screamed louder than their arguments.”
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Personification
Only a person can scream, yet here silence screams. The heavy silence after the quarrel is felt more sharply than the noisy arguments, and the human action makes that feeling vivid.
| Option | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| (1) Anaphora | the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines or clauses. No word is repeated in this sentence. | We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds. |
| (2) Personification (answer) | Personification: it gives human actions, feelings or qualities to things that are not human: objects, animals, ideas or forces of nature. | The old door groaned as it opened. |
| (3) Hyperbole | deliberate exaggeration for effect. "Louder than their arguments" compares, but the figure rests on silence doing what only a person can do. Nothing is merely blown up in size or amount. | I have told you this a million times. |
| (4) Metaphor | A metaphor calls one thing another ("A is B") without "like" or "as". Silence is not called something else here, it is given a human action. | Time is a thief. |