Personification is a rhetoric device that entails giving human characteristics to inanimate objects or abstract ideas

Eg.
a. Once again the heart of America is heavy. (Us President Lyndon Johnson).
The use of personification in (a) can give the speech a poetic effect.


b. Germany is the bully in the playground. (British TV news 1990s)

The use of personification in (b) has an ideological effect: indicating Germany’s strong and influential position in the European Union or its dominance in Europe

Further examples:

c. Germany is the conductor of the orchestra.
d. Germany is the captain of the ship.