Personification

Chapter 10, though incredibly short (it may be the shortest one yet), was filled with a great range of emotion. As I first began to read this chapter I found it sort of endearing (okay maybe it was on the verge of being creepy) the way Dobbins was described wearing his girlfriend's stockings. The reason i found this (almost) endearing was because of the faith he had in those stockings to keep him out of harm's way. The way he saw them as good luck. O'Brien uses personification to express just how important those stockings really were to Dobbins. "They kept him safe. They gave access to a spiritual world, where things were soft and intimate, a place where he might someday take his girlfriend to live". This reminded me of the way athletes tend to wear a lucky pair of socks...or underwear. The athlete knows that those lucky items aren't really what helps them win the game- but they give them a peace of mind. Like a safety net. A sense of routine and familiarity. I believe that's exactly how Dobbins felt about those stockings- even after his girlfriend dumped him (which i found to be an extremely low point in the story).