Why a graveyard?

 The setting of "The graveyard book" by Neil Gaiman is an interesting topic to reflect on. With all the different possible setting that Gaiman could have told the story in, one may wonder "Why a graveyard?" The main idea of the book, an orphaned boy learning lessons from a variety of characters, could have been told in a variety of settings. It could have been told in a school, the wilderness, a typical neighborhood, or a variety of other places. With any of these settings, Gaiman still would have gotten his idea and point across in the big picture. However, the graveyard gives Gaiman access to other elements of story telling that the other settings many not have allowed him to use. One is a historical context. Throughout the story there are brief mentions of historical context that teaches the reader about life at some different moments in time. Eliza Hempstock teaches the reader briefly about how people thought of people they believed to be witches, and how society handled witches at the time of her death. The other aspect that would be lost in the story if a different setting was used is element of scary characters. Due to the graveyard setting, Bod comes across characters and situations that are typically considered evil or scary. However, not all the characters are truly how they seem. Bod finds that these traditionally scary characters are actually good and help him in a variety of situations. A different setting may not offer Gaiman these types of characters, which would impact the "don't judge a book by its cover" lesson that is taught during the first half of the story.