Ghost Story of the Sacrament Dog Essay -- Ghost Stories Urban Legends

The Sacrament drop backThe modern ghost tarradiddle has become a sort of solemnity of passage in American culture. At the youngest age, children are scared by their older siblings renditions of a ghoulish tale. Teenagers nationwide think it is their duty to go over their towns local haunting at least erst before graduating high school. Once these teens transition into adulthood, they begin to scoff at the stories they once embraced, criticizing the irrational content and telling their children that they are silly for believe in such blasphemy. Finally, such disbelief is somewhat removed when raft reach an elderly state, and they begin to relish in the joy of issue on ghostly stories to younger generations, non necessarily with the intention to scare, notwithstanding with a desire to preserve a history and tradition laughable to their personal life experience. Ghost stories are thus an integral go away of the human life, not only reflecting the hopes, fears, and anxieties of various societies and cultures (Brunvand 2), but also making up a great portion of how humans define themselves and their lives.It is not surprising, then, that when I interviewed various members of the University of Maryland community, I was able to find many a(prenominal) students with a ghost story (or two or three) on cave in to share. One tale that I found particularly interesting and in-depth, and which provide be discussed here, was told to me on one ironically-appropriate stormy night in a dorm room full of college students. The storyteller was a nineteen-year old, male fledgling from Narstown, PA, majoring in English and Government and Politics. His mother is a nurse and his bring forth is a telecommunications analyst. The story was about his Catholic college-preparatory high school in Penn... ...g the latter element, the anxiety of the Catholic faith to keep its young pursuit intact by instilling in them a fear of enquire astray or a hope for salvation is reflecte d in the storys pro-Catholic sentiment, unnecessary for the general spookiness of the story, but fitting in the Catholic school setting. Thus, ghost stories are note intended to be nevertheless spooky. Works CitedBrunvand, Jan Harold. The Vanishing Hitchhiker American Urban Legends & Their Meanings. New York W.W. Norton, 1981.Maryland Ghost and olfactory sensation Association. Ed. Beverly Litsinger. 2006. 8 April 2006 http//marylandghosts.com/.Shadowlands Haunted Places Index - Pennsylvania. Ed. Dave Juliano. 2005. 8 April 2006 http//theshadowlands.net/places/pennsylvania.htm.UMD Legends Index. Ed. David Schlossman. 2005. 7 April 2006 http//www.wam.umd.edu/dschloss/Legends/index.htm.