Function of Personification: Fiction/Drama Practice Test

In the following excerpt from an original drama, an adult son (Cal) returns to his father’s barbershop after years away:

FATHER: Sit.

CAL: I’m not here for a haircut.

FATHER: The chair doesn’t care. It’s been waiting with its mouth open.

CAL: You kept it.

FATHER: The mirror kept you. Every day it held your face up and asked where you went.

CAL: That’s—

FATHER: Don’t argue with glass. It remembers what you try to forget.

CAL: You talk like this place is a witness.

FATHER: It is.

What is the primary function of the personification in the father’s dialogue?

In the following excerpt from an original drama, a teacher (MS. RIVERA) speaks privately with a student (DARIUS) after class.

MS. RIVERA: You didn’t turn in the essay.

DARIUS: I wrote it.

MS. RIVERA: Then where is it?

DARIUS: On my desk. At home.

MS. RIVERA: That’s not the same as here.

DARIUS: I know.

MS. RIVERA: You’ve been quiet lately.

DARIUS: Because every time I try to talk, the paper stares at me. The blank page waits like it’s patient, like it has all day to watch me fail.

MS. RIVERA: The page isn’t your enemy.

DARIUS: It acts like one.

What is the primary function of the personification in Darius’s lines (“paper stares,” “blank page waits”)?