1. Scary Stories: Revenge From the Grave Creative Writing Benjamin Way 5/20/14

2. Overview  “Revenge from the Grave” description  Varieties  Purpose  Pros and Cons

3. Description  “Revenge from the Grave” ghost stories are tales in which a person who was killed is able to avenge themselves by haunting someone.  Sometimes they haunt the person who wronged them, but sometimes they haunt someone else to bring the real culprit to light.

4. Varieties  Ghost leads person to evidence of crime, leading to conviction of culprit.  Ghost haunts culprit, making them die.  Ghost haunts someone else, making culprit die somehow.  Ghost haunts culprit, making them confess.

5. Purpose  “Revenge from the Grave” stories aren’t just about scaring people.  They are also about making people afraid to do evil things – the moral of the story is that the evil-doer will get punished eventually, even if they initially get away.

6. Differences  In contrast to other stories just intended to scare,  These stories tend to have very satisfying endings where everything is resolved.  Because the ghost is directed at a single individual, the reader doesn’t feel like they could be next  These stories usually keep the protagonist alive and well, so the reader doesn’t feel threatened.

7. Review  “Revenge from the Grave” stories are much less scary.  There are several varieties, but they all focus on sending a message that evil will be punished.