Well, I have to give up on watching the movies and shows if I’m ever going to make progress on my little experiment. I made it through the first Carrie movie but haven’t found the time to watch the other three. It’s still a little surprising that there are 4 total Carrie movies.
For the rest of this, there will be spoilers. I figure most people who get even this far will have an idea of what happens in Carrie so probably no issues.
Carrie is a great short(ish) horror story. Stephen King’s first published novel, he famously threw the unfinished manuscript in the trash in frustration that the story wasn’t forming well. His wife, Tabitha, fished it out of the bin (trash can, wastepaper basket, take your pick. I’ve been seeing a lot of Tiktoks about the differences between American English and British English recently) and read the pages. She pressed him to continue the book and helped with the menstruation parts so he could get them right. Carrie was then rejected 30 times before being accepted by a publisher and published in 1974. The novel is a mix of narratives by an omniscient narrator and various scientists and writers in Carrie’s world writing articles to attempt an explanation of Carrie and the events on prom night.
My take on Carrie:
High school sucks. People are mean. Even nice people will be mean when the group is in mean mode. Carrie was the perfect victim of high school meanness and had a very public moment of weakness to feed the mean.
I relate in a small way to Sue Snell, the nice girl who is mean to Carrie. I remember joining in on teasing once in a while in middle and high school. I never tried to be mean, but I was mean. I would and still do feel bad for that. The victims of the meanness were, like Carrie, the oddballs. They didn’t behave like the rest of us. Of course, I’m one to talk there. I didn’t behave like the rest of them either, but I was close enough to whatever normal was to avoid most attacks.
Sue was different though. She was popular and could make a heroic effort to atone for her meanness. And, by all appearances, she would have been successful if not for the truly mean, mean girl, Chris. Sue’s sincere gesture to have her popular boyfriend, Tommy, take Carrie to the prom and give Carrie a chance to fit in was embraced by her peers enough that Carrie began to feel accepted before her and their doom literally fell on her head.
When the blood fell, I preferred King’s description to the movie. In the movie, the kids all just laughed at Carrie, making them seem to still fall into the mean category. In the book, the first laugh was a shocked response to Carrie’s shocked expression. Everyone else was shocked. The first laugh wasn’t born of any malice, but surprise. Unfortunately, that first laugh started a chain reaction that was part shock and part lack of knowing what was going on and part following the crowd. People are mean.
The best and most awful part of this story is how it still resonates today. Even with all the anti-bullying rhetoric over the years, kids still pick on each other relentlessly. There is little tolerance for behavior that stands out as odd and the mean kids will find pleasure picking on those who don’t fit the mold well enough. Parents of the mean kids aren’t helpful. They either don’t believe their angels would act that way or they support it. Have to be tough to survive mentality.
As for Carrie’s supernatural abilities, the book helped build that into her background in a way that was missing in the movie. Knowing that she’s always had this ability but hadn’t learned to use it was more satisfying than simply developing the power when she was made fun of once.
Also in the book, Carrie’s mother mentions that a demon came to them once and was sent away. The description reminded me of Randall Flagg (a King character that represents evil first in The Stand and then in later works as well) and now Google tells me I’m not the only one to notice that similarity. Some even suggest that Flagg is Carrie’s father. Certainly, a possibility in the world of Stephen King that would account for Carrie’s ability, but the book seemed to put a divide between Ralph White and the demon. Great tie in if the character is the same regardless of Carrie’s parentage.
All-in-all, I like the book. It’s a little rougher than King’s later work, but that’s expected for a new novelist. Even one who was destined to be one of the most successful of all time. It’s also a quick read for those who want a short read with lots of breaks to pause at.
Next book is Salem’s Lot. Vampires yay!
Summary of Carrie:
A girl with some innate, buried psychokinetic abilities grows up in a repressed, ultra-religious house with a widowed mother. Her abilities have shown up once or twice during her childhood with the biggest event happening during abuse by her mother after she observed a neighbor sunbathing in a bikini. Carrie made stone rain down on her house. Her mother didn’t seem to connect the event with Carrie, or at least she blew off the inclination to think the girl was responsible.
Fast forward, and Carrie is sixteen. She starts her period in the gym locker room shower. All the girls tease her and throw feminine products at her until the gym teacher intervenes. She shoos away the girls and gets Carrie cleaned up. She and the principal decide to send Carrie home.
Back home, her mother berates her for sinning and bringing on the period. Here’s the first part where I’m cheering Carrie on. Up to now, she’s been a passive victim and now she asks her mother why she never taught Carrie about menstruation. Her mother becomes indignant and forces Carrie into a closet she uses for punishment. Carrie begins to realize she can control things with her mind.
In the meantime, the gym teacher punishes the bad behavior of the girls by giving them a week’s detention with the threat of losing their prom tickets if they do not show up. One girl, Chris, doesn’t show up and isn’t allowed to go to prom. She’s the daughter of a prominent lawyer in town and her father threatens the principal with a lawsuit. The principal holds his ground. Chris and her bad boy boyfriend come up with a plan to get back at Carrie at the prom.
Another girl, Sue, from the gym class feels bad about the way Carrie was treated and wants to try to help Carrie come out of her shell and make friends. Sue asks her popular boyfriend to ask Carrie to the prom. Carrie refuses the invitation at first but is pressured into saying yes. Her mother hates the idea, convinced Carrie will sin and fornicate, but Carrie scares her with her powers. Carrie sews her own dress for the dance and is excited to be accepted by her peers.
At the prom, Carrie and her date are on the ballot for prom king and queen and win. After they’ve been crowned on the stage with everyone watching, Chris dumps a bucket of pig’s blood over Carrie’s head. The kids start to laugh, and Carrie begins to use her psychokinetic abilities to trap the kids and chaperones in the gym. A fire starts and most of the prom attendees die. Carrie continues walking through the town causing destruction and mayhem as she makes her way home. At home, she kills her mother, but is injured in the process. Then she hunts down Chris and kills her and her boyfriend before dying herself.
References:
King, S. (2020). On writing: A memoir of the craft. Hodder.
Tyler, A. (2022, August 3). Wild Stephen King Theory Claims Randall Flagg Is Carrie’s Father. ScreenRant. https://screenrant.com/stepen-king-randall-flagg-carrie-white-dad-theory/
S. E. Baran 