In "The Sniper," how is the armored car personified?

Liam O'Flaherty's short story "The Sniper" is about the action between Republican and Free State snipers on the rooftops above Dublin during the Irish Civil War. The reader follows the story from the point of view of the Republican sniper.

Scanning the streets below, the sniper sees an armored car coming across the bridge over the River Liffey through the central section of the city. O'Flaherty uses both personification and metaphor to describe the armored...

Liam O'Flaherty's short story "The Sniper" is about the action between Republican and Free State snipers on the rooftops above Dublin during the Irish Civil War. The reader follows the story from the point of view of the Republican sniper.

Scanning the streets below, the sniper sees an armored car coming across the bridge over the River Liffey through the central section of the city. O'Flaherty uses both personification and metaphor to describe the armored vehicle.

Personification is when a non-human thing is given human qualities. In this case the motor of the car is compared to a person breathing heavily: "The sniper could hear the dull panting of the motor." It is like a person panting or breathing because of the thick, raspy sounds it makes as it advances up the street. The heavy noise alerts the sniper to the approaching danger.

A metaphor is a comparison of two unlike things to reveal the quality or appearance of one of those things. O'Flaherty compares the armored car to a "gray monster."

His bullets would never pierce the steel that covered the gray monster.