How does personifying the bolts in this sentence affect the narrative? anyhow, you can't see the bolts in this diving platform from the ground, which is good if your objective is to get more people to scale this crazy tower because those bolts are pockmarked and look wounded, like they’re bleeding rust, which doesn't inspire copious amounts of confidence. it lends a mysterious, eerie mood to the setting by revealing details that were previously unseen. it develops an anxious tone by inserting imagery associated with damage and injury into the passage. it makes the narrator seem untrustworthy by having her describe the bolts in ways that are not grounded in reality. it shows that the narrator is more interested in the structure of the board than in diving off it.