#carrie analysis

By continually casting thin, beautiful women in the role of Carrie, the films 1) imply that fat women cannot believably have Cinderella moments without shedding any pounds and 2) remove one of the most crucial aspects of the story: audience introspection.

I feel the same way-- Though I'm not sure how one can read the book and not realize that Carrie's rampage was neither meditated nor rational to her. She was having a panic attack/dissociative episode from the second she opened her eyes and saw the blood.

"and her thought was coloured a ghastly purple with her revulsion and her shame... In a flickering kaleidoscope of images she saw the blood running thickly down her naked thighs, heard the constant bearing of the shower on the tiles, felt the soft patter of tampons against her skin as voices exhorted her to 'plug it UP' tastes the plump fulsome bitterness of horror." (Page 227)

"And suddenly it broke. The horrible realization of how badly she had been cheated came over her, and a horrible soundless cry tried to escape her." (Page 228)

"Her traitor mind had slowed time to a crawl; as if God had switched the whole scene from 78 rpm to 33. Even the laughter slowed to a slow sinister rumble." (Page 228)

She didn't even plan to kill anyone when she went to set off the sprinklers:

"Turn on the sprinkler system and close all the doors. Lock them on and let them see her looking in, watching and laughing while the shower ruined their hairdos and took all the shine off their shoes. Her only regret was that it couldn't be blood." (Page 232)

When the first person is electrocuted, she thinks: "He looked funny. She began to laugh. By Christ, let them all look funny."

Sinister, yes, but not the thoughts of a sane, cognizant woman.

When Rhonda accidentally catches her dress on fire, that is when she goes over the edge. Literally, it says it right there: "It might have been at that moment that Carrie went over the edge." (Page 234) (Might here implying that she went over the edge even earlier)

Immediately after this line, King follows it with her description: "Her face was livid, but full red fever spots stood on each cheek. Her head throbbed thickly, and conscious thought was lost."

I could write more, but my sister is rushing me to get out the door so we can go to dinner. Point is, Carrie had completely snapped from the moment of the prank. She didn't know what she was doing, and she was driven by an onslaught of horrible emotions only amplifying her power and dimming her control. I've said it before and I'll probably say it many times again, but Carrie White is not a slasher, nor is she anywhere near the category! She was barely functioning and aware during the prom destruction, can anyone really read the rest and think she was calculated in her murder? She's literally described at one point as laughing while tears ran down her face and she tried in vain to wipe the blood off her hands. (An illusion to Lady Macbeth, who had also gone fully insane by the time she started seeing the "spot")

I love insane murderous women! I love angels of vengeance and wrath! Carrie White might have committed atrocities (and she girl bossed pussy SLAYED while commiting them) but people would do damn well to understand the circumstances surrounding them and know that she wasn't even in control.

Also, here is a screenshot from the original script of Carrie (2013). A script that drew very heavily from the novel before it was scrapped by Pierce and the studio for a more 1976-esque remake.

If she were at home, with Momma, it was existence as a 'normal' teenager of the 70s that was sinful: sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll were the harbingers of a soul's apocalypse and absolutely would never be permitted to touch Carrie even in the form of her physical maturation into adulthood.

However, there was an exception to Momma's frenetic, fanatical, and paranoid condemnation of Biblical sin as lurking behind Carrie's every breath: indulgence in food was not only accepted, but was essentially forced upon Carrie:

"You haven't touched your pie, Carrie." Momma looked up from the tract she had been perusing while she drank her Constant Comment. "It's homemade."

"It makes me have pimples, Momma."

"Your pimples are the Lord's way of chastising you. Now eat your pie."

Carrie's mother herself is described as being overweight despite carrying herself according to Biblical standards of good Christiandom otherwise (dressing in all-black, wearing plain clothing, and showing absolutely no hint of shapeliness):

Momma was a very big woman, and she always wore a hat. Lately her legs had begun to swell, and her feet always seemed on the point of overflowing her shoes. She wore a black cloth coat with a black fur collar. Her eyes were blue and magnified behind rimless bifocals.

It is an expression of her hypocrisy, yes, and of the true nature of her obsession with sin (which is singularly focused, it seems, on sexuality, having been borne of the guilt she felt in having experienced lust), but it likewise functions perfectly as the singular Biblical sin that elicits special cruelty even in those who hold no Christian inclinations (which may very well have been intentional on the part of Carrie's mother - what better way, after all, to stave off sexuality than to make oneself conventionally unattractive to others in one's time period?).

Carrie is punished to sadistic degrees by her mother for threatening the sin of existing in the outside world (even for a crime as mild as liking a boy or being curious about women having breasts), or for even considering submitting herself to sin by way of conforming to the corrupting influences of said outside world (by way of accepting the invitation to a school dance from said boy).

Carrie is likewise punished to sadistic degrees by those inhabiting the outside world for indulging in the singular 'sin' of gluttony (which, in the 70s in teenaged America, could be qualified as merely admitting that one enjoyed the taste of cake). She is punished for existing within the confines of her mother's world, in which food is to be taken in at her mother's discretion whether she wants it or not, just as she is punished for attempting to exist within the confines of the outside world.

There is no middle ground within which she may find safety; at all times she is punished for the things that bring her comfort. She may not feel pretty, for that is a sin to Momma; she may not exist as she is, for that is a sin to others; she may not refuse to eat, for that is a sin to Momma; she may not eat as much as she wishes, for that is a sin to others; she may not integrate with the other kids, she may not be left alone until she learns to be like the other kids.

Hi, anon! I'd be happy to explain how King alludes to the idea of her being an angel. So in the beginning of the novel, as Carrie is walking home from school, she thinks bitterly on how horribly she's treated by her peers and how she'd like to punish them all. She recognizes that her mother would remind her of "savior Jesus, meek and mild," and that vengeance is not hers to take. But Carrie is not content with that. Her mother doesn't go through hell every day.

"That was good for Momma. All right for her. She didn't have to go among the wolves every day of every year, put into a carnival of laughters, joke tellers, pointers, snickerers. And didn't mama say there would be a day of judgment? And an angel with a fiery sword?

If only it would be today, and Jesus would come with a boulder in each hand to crush the laughers and the snickerers. To root out the evil and destroy it screaming. And if only she could be His sword and His Arm."

This is a piece of foreshadowing that, once you have read the novel once, and are familiar with the ending, hits you in the face like a fucking truck. A day of judgment *did* come, and it came along side her wrath. Now with this, Stephen King, through Carrie's internal thought, has set up the student body as a body of evil. Carrie sees them all as evil, and she wants the lord to stop them, and she wants to help him to stop them. Now, keep the angel with a fiery sword thing in mind, this comes back at the end of the novel.

Now, the rain of stones. That piece in regard to Carrie being an angel of vengeance, is a bit more subtle, though I don't think it is unintentional. When Carrie is three years old, she is caught talking to the "whore of Babylon" next door. The "whore" in question is a teenage girl named Estelle innocently sun bathing in her back yard. Margaret is livid when she finds Carrie talking to Estelle, and accused her, a three year old, of looking upon the girl in lust. As a result, she decides the best course of action is to gauge out the toddler's eyes. Yep. You read that right. Now in the scripture, Jesus says that all children go to him. They are pure souls and should not be harmed. So when Margaret tries to gauge out Carrie's eyes this causes Carrie, a three year old, with very undeveloped powers, to freak out and bring down a destructive rain of stones on to the property. Just the White Bungalow. No where else. In the novel, Carrie has to work really hard to build up her power once she's rediscovered it, and it is quite the strain on her heart. So how does Carrie at three years old, with undeveloped powers, rain down a storm of that proportion on her house with boulders that did not exist before she brought them down? Perhaps heavenly interference working through the girl. Later in life, Estelle is interviewed, and in her account of the day she says this:

"...He left the house insured too, but she never got a penny of that. The damage was caused by an act of God. Poetic justice, huh?" In a super natural novel, rife with religious imagery, I would be very hesitant to say that in writing this line King meant "An act of God" in purely a sense of insurance terminology. There is certainly a deeper meaning there.

Later in the novel, as Carrie summons the courage to tell her mother that she is going to prom, she reflects on that day from when she was three, and this is what she remembers:

"and something flexed. Not flex, but FLEX. Something huge, and well formed, and titanic. A well of power that was not hers and never would be again."

Again, this suggests that the rain of stones was an act of heavenly intervention, not solely Carrie and her (at the time) weak telekinesis.

Carrie is then summoned to dinner, and in writing this scene, King includes a detail that seems very minute and makes one wonder why he bothered to write it. Now, King kind of has a tendency to add unnecessary details, so this may perhaps be me reaching, but I'm not too sure. This is what he wrote:

"She got up and fixed her hair with a dark with a dark blue head band, and then she went down stairs."

I remember reading this, and being perplexed, because, why is she putting on a head band to go eat dinner? Well, in writing this response, I decided it might be worth something to find the Christian meaning of the color. I found that in the faith, it is a colour that represents God's healing, hope, and good health. The scene that we've arrived at in the novel is a huge turning point. Carrie has finally taken charge of her own life, and for the first time, she is hopeful that things may change for the better. That she might heal from all of this. She is willing to move on and forget, so long as her mother and Them (her peers) remembers that things are going to change. They, of course, do not let her move forward, and they are punished for that. Maybe don't disrespect the color blue and the angel who adorns her hair with it.

Now, after Carrie has left for prom, Margaret is left alone in the house and she is. Well. Flipping her shit. Getting ready to murder her only child. You know. Nurturing motherly stuff. Now Margaret has been wrong about just about everything she's said up to this point. She believes that the period is a curse, that sexual fantasies are a work of the devil (rather than plain old human horniness), that her pregnancy with Carrie was a cancer, that sex in all forms is a sin (How could this be true, if God encourages us to reproduce and share the gift of life with our children? To bring more people into the world to uphold his values?) Now she believes that Carrie's power is the work of the devil, when at this point, the readers know quite well that TK is a result of genetics. It is my opinion, that Margaret's declaration of Carrie's power being a work of Satan, is enough to discourage any argument that her power came from satan and that she was evil. Because it is well established that Margaret is wrong. about. everything.

Now. The time has come. Judgment day! Chris has just poured blood all over Carrie, and has unintentionally signed her own death certificate. Now, as someone who has never read the book, you might be surprised to learn that Carrie does not go straight to murder. She actually runs away and ends up collapsing on the school's lawn. Initially, she plans on picking up her pride and returning home to ask for forgiveness. But then she remembers her power, and she sets out to ruin the prom night for everyone. She intends to do this by turning on the sprinklers and ruining everyone's nice clothes, hair, and make-up. But when the water mixes with the electric, something inside of her snaps and she loses all conscious thought.

Much like when she was three, she kind of blanks out and unleashes this incredible, unearthly power. She kills all the sinners, and as she makes her way through town, causing havoc, she stops at a church to pray.

She is frustrated when she finds no answers to her questions, and the line that follows is this:

"God had turned his face away, and why not? This horror was just as much his doing as it was hers."

When she leaves the church, there is a crowd of people on the street and she regards them as animals. She kills them all and this line is what follows,

"Let the streets burn with the smell of their sacrifice. Let this place be called Racca, Ichobod, Wormwood."

In the bible, human sacrifice is 100% not okay. However, animal sacrifice is permissable. Carrie, in her altered state, is not sacrificing humans, but animals, and this is okay to God. Now, let's look at the meanings of Racca, Ichobod, and Wormwood.

Racca in the bible means empty headed, foolish, and vain. This is a pretty good summation of a town who allowed obvious and rampant abuse to continue in their town for years. This is fitting for a town who, upon hearing the horrible screams of a woman in labor (Margaret), turned a blind eye, and hoped that she might die. They hated that woman.

Ichobod means a place without glory. For what glory lies in a town of people who allow horrible abuse to happen to one little girl? For a town whose children, the product of adults and their apathy, commit violent assault as a joke? For a town whose entire school, including teachers, finds Carrie's ultimate undoing to be a funny spectacle?

Wormwood in the bible, is a star (or angel depending on which bible you read) that fell from heaven and turned the waters bitter. Killing the sinners of the earth.

"The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many died from the water, because it was made bitter."

(This is from the book of revelations, not Carrie.)

Wormwood was sent down by heaven in a trail of blazing, fiery glory, and it killed many people.

Carrie, was perhaps, sent down by heaven, and in a trail of fiery (literally) heavenly rage, she destroys the town and the sinners within it.

Now, when Carrie finally returns home, she is fully intending to kill Margaret. But when Margaret says they should pray for forgiveness, Carrie allows this, and seems to forget her plan. That is until Margaret squanders this forgiveness by bringing a knife down into her back. This turns Carrie right back to "murder mode." She begins the process of stopping Margaret's heart, and as Margaret prays the Lord's prayer one last time. She reaches the point in the prayer where it goes:

"Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven"

Carrie interjects here and says "My will, Mama."

Now, this could be read as Carrie being smug and hungry with power, but seeing as she was willing to forget her plan and let Margaret live just a few moments ago, and given the other subtextual context, I'm going to say that is not the case. Instead, perhaps Carrie has finally realized who she and her power truly represents.

Now at this point, Carrie has been stabbed, and she is really putting her heart through the fucking wringer. She should be dead at this point. She should have keeled over from exhaustion and died. But nope. She continues three miles to the road house. The root of all of this abuse, and hate, and carnage. (The roadhouse is where Carrie was conceived.)

She is driven by the need to carry out one last act of God.

"There was something she was supposed to do. The Angel with the sword. The fiery sword."

And so she goes, answering the final call of the night.

At this point, miss Susan Snell is on the case and she is following Carrie's trail.

She thinks it's amazing that Carrie is still going. And it is. Home girl should be dead. Dead as a door nail.

When Sue finds Carrie, she is at Carrie's mercy. And she knows this.

"Suppose she could find her. What then? Set on fire? heart failure, controlled and forced to walk into incoming traffic?"

But Carrie doesn't kill her. Or at least, she doesn't get the chance to before Sue tells her to look inside her mind and see that she had nothing to do with any of this. And so she does. And like God who knows everyone's heart, she realizes that Sue was genuinely sorry for what had happened in the showers. That she had truly tried to repent by having Tommy take her to prom. That she held no ill will towards Carrie. Sue, a sinner who has hurt Carrie before just as the rest of the town has, has done the one thing that no one else ever thought to do.

She repented. And she was forgiven, like sinners always are when they truly yearn for it.

There was nothing in Sue's heart for Carrie to take vengeance upon. She helped her to see the stars one last time before she died. She sat with her as it happened. And later, she would go on to defend Carrie against the public.