History TheDogBitesBack / Literature

%%* This trope is pretty much the entire plot of Stephen King's ''Literature/{{Carrie}}''. That is one dog that bites back hard.
* In Vivian Vande Velde's ''Literature/TheChangelingPrince'', the BigBad releases TheDragon from his restraint...at which time the audience discovers that he was a ''literal'' dragon and not happy about his forced servitude.

* This is the main plot of ''Mice'' by Gordon Reece. The main characters are a timid, sensitive, conflict-averse teenage girl and her equally timid mother, who quietly endure extreme school bullying, spousal abuse, and workplace harassment until finally a burglar who breaks into their house and threatens them with rape and murder pushes them too far, and they discover that they are just as capable of violence and savagery as any other human being.

* Two related examples in the ''Literature/SisterMaryHelen novel ''Death of an Angel''. First, Angelica Bowers means to murder her domineering, often abusive mother. [[spoiler:Her plan is to go on vacation for a week or two after smothering Mama, and in the days leading up to this she makes sure the dogs get just enough food to survive but not enough that they won't still be hungry. Then, when Mama is dead, she will set them loose on the corpse. It doesn't work out that way; she is injured in the fracas with Mama, the criminal the A plot is concerned with pays a [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty very hostile]] call, and then Sisters Mary Helen and Eileen show up (saving her from him in the process) followed by the police -- about that time the dogs emerge from the basement and smell the blood from Angelica's face wound. They also have to know that she's the one been keeping them hungry all this time. She dies of the resulting injuries the next morning.]]

* Twoflower to Lord Hong in ''Literature/InterestingTimes''. It would have ended quite badly for him too, if it weren't for the UU faculty.

* In Creator/JackChalker's ''Four Lords of the Diamond'' series, the antagonist had captured one of the four mental clones (mind-wiped criminals with the agent's personality and memory imprinted on them) of the agent sent to stop him and had changed him into a female sex-slave. He brings her to a face to face meeting with the agent in order to gloat... only for the agent to utter a [[BrownNote trigger phrase]] that causes her to assassinate the villain.

* Renfield from ''{{Literature/Dracula}}'', [[RedemptionEqualsDeath even though it costs him his life]].

* At the end of the Creator/DaleBrown novel ''Edge of Battle'', [[spoiler: Zakharov gets killed by a sheriff who he had shot InTheBack earlier]].
* Creator/RoaldDahl's ''The Enormous Crocodile'' has the titular character's abuse of his fellow jungle animals coming back to, well, bite him. One of these animals, Trunky the elephant, repays the favour by grabbing him and [[HurlItIntoTheSun throwing him into the Sun]].

* Two related examples in the Sister Mary Helen novel ''Death of an Angel''. First, Angelica Bowers means to murder her domineering, often abusive mother. [[spoiler:Her plan is to go on vacation for a week or two after smothering Mama, and in the days leading up to this she makes sure the dogs get just enough food to survive but not enough that they won't still be hungry. Then, when Mama is dead, she will set them loose on the corpse. It doesn't work out that way; she is injured in the fracas with Mama, the criminal the A plot is concerned with pays a [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty very hostile]] call, and then Sisters Mary Helen and Eileen show up (saving her from him in the process) followed by the police -- about that time the dogs emerge from the basement and smell the blood from Angelica's face wound. They also have to know that she's the one been keeping them hungry all this time. She dies of the resulting injuries the next morning.]]

* This trope is the reason as to why Nezumi in ''Broken Gate'' put a curse on her brother Ryuuuji, as he had been cruel to her before then. However, while he was cruel to her, her curse wasn't out of deep-seated hatred or anything of the sort, actually, she put the curse on him out of punishment for his arrogance and necessity. While she cursed him, she did offer to lift it and make amends.

* This trope is pretty much the entire plot of Stephen King's ''Literature/{{Carrie}}''. That is one dog that bites back hard.

* In Vivian Vande Velde's ''The Changeling Prince'', the BigBad releases TheDragon from his restraint...at which time the audience discovers that he was a ''literal'' dragon and not happy about his forced servitude.

** A darker example would be Kreacher who after constant abuse by Sirius Black, and hating him for "betraying" the family by running away from their abuse as a teenager, eventually starts working for someone else and finally deceives Harry into going to the Department of Mysteries room in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]''. Indirectly Kreacher [[spoiler:got Sirius killed at the hands of Bellatrix]].

* ''{{Literature/Chrysanthemum}}'': Victoria bullies Chrysanthemum all through the book for her last name. In the epilogue, Chrysanthemum gets the last laugh as she giggles over Victoria playing the Fairy Queen and forgetting all of her lines in the class play.

* In ''Literature/AfterTheRevolution'', Sasha ends up inflicting this on the Heavenly Kingdom and [[spoiler:Alexander specifically]]. After willingly smuggling herself into the Kingdom and trying to join it as a willing participant, the constant put-downs and humiliations she suffers as a young girl in a christo-fascist state [[BabyFactory that views her as nothing but breeding stock]] she eventually snaps [[spoiler:and helps Manny and Roland rescue a trio of hostages from the Kingdom for a way out. On the way, she ends up beating her {{Catfishing}} recruiter and main abuser Alexander to death with a helmet in an ExtremeMeleeRevenge.]]

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!

* Grí­ma Wormtongue of Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' turned on Saruman after one taunt and demand too many -- and after [[IronWoobie Frodo]] had deliberately spared both their lives and ordered the other hobbits to do the same.
** The aforementioned hobbits stuck Grí­ma full of arrows as soon as he killed Saruman and started his escape, most likely as payback for Wormtongue's murder of Lotho Sackville-Baggins, Frodo's kinsman and Saruman's accomplice. Either that, or they (correctly) figured a person who stabs someone in the back isn't someone you want running around your homes.

** One of the prophecies of Dagor Dagorlad, the final battle of Middle-earth as a whole, would have Morgoth end up being killed by Turín Turambar, who Morgoth had cursed to a life of hardship and woe, as a final revenge for both himself and his children that had also suffered under the curse.

* After having [[TraumaCongaLine his work sabotaged, his wife desert him, his friends vanished without a trace, his great attempt seemingly ruined, and having been forced to burn down his own house]], all while his enemy [[NotSoDifferentRemark gloats at him and tells him how they're no different]], it is immensely satisfying to see Montag in ''Literature/{{Fahrenheit 451}}'' turn his fire-spraying hose on Captain Beatty, especially for the look on his face in TheMovie.