Haunted Elevators at the University of Maryland :: Urban Legend Myths

stalk Elevators at the University of MarylandA good urban legend is standardised a play so well written and delivered the audience can non fork if the performers are acting. The legend is carefully crafted to resonate with the audiences hopes, fears, and anxieties and the delivery works to forfend their disbelief. One urban legend epitomizes these characteristics.This urban legend was told by an eighteen-year-old African American college student at the University of Maryland. The urban legend dealt with Denton Hall, where he shortly lives. The teller claimed that iodin of the dormitorys early residents was a miss who, due to some kind of calcium deficiency, had an unusually weak jampack structure. The storyteller could not recall her name, but indicated that it had just slipped his mind and was on the tip of his tongue. One day, she was going to the dining hall with a booster rocket of hers when she realized she had forgotten her I.D. card. She asked her friend to hol d the ski lift while she ran subscribe to her room to get it. She was just reaching the elevator with her card when the elevator, having been held disperse for as well long, began buzzing and the doors closed. The girl tried to jump onto the elevator at the last second but the doors closed on her and crushed her. gibe to the storyteller, some of her brain fluid, composed of neurotransmitters and other electrically conductive chemicals, sprayed into the elevators overcome panel and fried some of the circuitry. From that point on, the elevators in Denton have been on the fritz and break down whenever anyone holds them open for too long.The urban legend was delivered excellently. The storyteller had also selected a perfect time for his performance. He was speaking too a small group of other Maryland students who were waiting for the elevator in Denton. He had enough time to finish his story, because only one of the elevators was working. The storyteller presented the story as if he was simply relating the facts. He did not fill the story with dramatic pauses or extensive efforts to get an stirred up response from the audience. If he thought his audience was going to find a part of the story disturbing or unbelievable he strung-out it by saying Now I thought this was really gross.