The Fall of the House of Usher

Edgar Allan Poe is the bomb.com when is comes to haunted houses or horror stories. Just look at the "The Fall of the House of Usher" for example, he keeps readers sitting on the edge of their chair and wondering what'll happen next throughout the entire story while also making it twisted and haunted. He uses several techniques that most haunted stories use today and that would be superb to copy if one was to make their own scary story.

One thing that Edgar Allan Poe uses in his story that I would personally copy if I were to create my own scary story (which I wont ever do unless Mr. Thomas makes us, so please don't! I'm not that creative) is imagery. Anything that is scary is scary because of the appearance and how its presented which is due to what? Why, imagery of course! Imagery can create a scary, gloomy, spooky and eerie setting which is perfect for a haunted story and is exactly what Poe did especially at the beginning of the story when the narrator approaches and enters the house.

Now of course every haunted story has to have a psychopath or crazy person, that's haunted stories 101. In "The Fall of the House of Usher" this person is Madeline since, well lets face it... She dies and comes back to life. Not to mention before her "death" she was very ill with a mystery sickness. She also has an incestuous relationship with her twin brother which just adds to her psychotic personality giving her an abnormal and twisted back story. Perfect for a haunted story!

Another thing I would use for my (hypothetical) haunted story is Personification. With this, the author can make an inanimate object come to life and be that much more scary. If I were to say there was a full moon out tonight vs. the molten moon peered down upon me, isn't that much more eerie? Such as Poe did with the house when it is described to be crumbling away and decaying, just like how the family of Usher is decaying, probably due to incest.

Poe did a fantastic job of leaving the end of the story open to mystery, definitely worthy of copping. With this, it will add mystery and give the reader questions that will never be answered which will in turn make the reader think about the story more.

Finally, the last thing that would be amazing to have in my own scary story copied from Edgar Allan Poe is to have someone rise from the dead. Hey, it worked for Poe and it worked for Frankenstein and they were both a huge hit. With this it adds a thrill and excitement and a fantasy that will also satisfy America's obsession with the occult.

Now I do not like challenges, nor would I like one so sorry Mr. T I don't know what I'd do differently than Poe if I were to create my own short story.