The purpose of using personification in the excerpt is to show how difficult it is to get a job working on the railroad.
The statement that was personified in the excerpt is "the train ate him up"
The "train" in the statement was used as a noun. Normally a train cannot eat somebody up but an animal can. Hence using a train in that context means it was personified.
The train eating Enrique up according to the passage shows how difficult it is to get a job on the railroad to make ends meet.
Therefore the purpose of using personification in the excerpt is to show how difficult it is to get a job working on the railroad.
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