The following review contains spoilers.
“They laughed at me. Threw things. They’ve always laughed.”
Carrie White has always been the butt of every joke amongst her classmates. If that wasn’t enough, there’s another special thing that makes Carrie different from those around her; Carrie can move things with her mind, especially when she’s upset. As an outcast, set apart due to her looks, her fanatically religious mother, and her inability to socially coexist with her peers, she cannot take much more of the torture. Something’s got to give. On prom night, she’s finally had enough.
I can confidently say that I finally get what everyone is talking about when they rant about Stephen King. This book begins with an old news report of a house being pelted by stones that seemingly fell from the sky. Moving from there, readers get insights to Carrie White and the event on prom night through other news reports, research articles, biographies, and, of course, a typical narrative structure. I found King’s inclusion of these formats to be rather interesting because of the way in which the different mediums tell the events of the story, as well as how the events are told. In a way, they are going back in time by initially informing the reader of this horrible event that happened prom night to a high school, but working its way backwards to describe all the details that led up to that night and the night itself. Along with that typical narrative structure are those research articles and news reports that tell the story through a matter of fact format. It is through those different mediums that readers get the full story of what happened to Carrie White and her town of Chamberlain, Maine.
Carrie White is a quiet, unassuming young lady whose whole sense of being is marked by cruelty and torture. She has no friends, everyone picks on her, and some people even seem to hate her. King takes this type of character and makes the readers sympathize with her because, well, she is kind of pathetic. It seems as if there is no break for Carrie, and this is a constant thing she has dealt with and will continue to deal with her entire life. Having a character like Carrie gives the reader someone to focus on, but from a distance, for Carrie is an anomaly. Perhaps everyone knows of the one kid from high school with a tough home life and was bullied, but none compare to Carrie and the torment she faces each day from her mother and peers.
King is rather unforgiving when he describes the cruelty of teenagers, specifically teenage girls, and spares no details in the shower scene at the beginning of the novel. This scene is notorious and famous for many reasons, but thematically speaking, it is the official beginning mark of what is to come by the end of the novel. The beginning of the end, and a rather bloody beginning and ending indeed. Despite the controversy surrounding King, a cis male, writing a scene in which a young girl gets her period, I have to state that the scene is not about her starting her period. It’s about a transitional moment in her life where a huge change takes place, one her mother scorns her for, but also one that is completely normal to everyone except for Carrie. Not only that, one cannot ignore the connection between the blood shown in that scene and the blood thrown onto Carrie in the prom night scene. It’s almost as if this monster she becomes was born in blood and dies in blood. In addition to that, this scene is a spectacular showcase into how cruel teenage girls can be to those that are different from themselves. Without this scene, the torture readers know Carrie faces would not be as visceral, moreover, would not be as believable. This scene also makes characters like Chris more realistic, for she is the leader of the chants of “plug it up” as Carrie is screaming and thinking that she is quite literally dying. Seeing their peer in sheer panic and choosing to mock her and throw things at her is a cruelty that is rather unspeakable. As stated before, this is a pivotal moment for Carrie because she slowly begins to break more and more as the torment continues, forcing her to build so much rage and resentment inside of her that it will eventually explode into an anger-fueled chaos and destruction.
As the novel progresses, readers get more insight into the dynamics of Carrie’s life- be it her home life or her social life. At home, Carrie is bombarded by religious mania at the hands of her mother. While at school she is seen as a giant weirdo and has literally no friends. King does something interesting in that he uses those two components and plays them off of one another. At home, all the things that would make her well-liked at school are seen as evil and sinful, whereas at school, the religious mania she grew up around further ostracizes her from her peers. This is effective because readers see that Carrie gets no reprieve from any of the torment, getting it both at school and at home, further pushing her to her breaking point. If Carrie had a friend or a more understanding mother, the ending would not have been as believable, moreover, gut-wrenching because readers would not be able to follow her descent into madness. That is why Sue Snell’s act of penance is so striking- asking her boyfriend to take Carrie to the prom is the first form of kindness Carrie has seemingly ever received. As readers, we find ourselves rooting for Carrie as she emerges as this beautiful butterfly the night of prom, with finally defying her mother, and being treated like an actual human being for once. However, due to the popularity of the prom night scene in pop culture, everyone knows the kindness does not last long.
One thing, amongst many, to note is King’s ability to write a character. He has a way of developing characters so deeply that they seem like real people. While reading this book, readers notice the way he would write the inner dialogue, including the way he grammatically wrote it, was so impactful that it feels like readers knew Carrie personally. Readers will feet the shame she felt, the embarrassment, the torment, the fear. If it weren’t for the characters, I do not think this book would have been so moving in the sense that it makes readers feel something for the characters. My favorite character is her mother, for she is one of the scariest elements of the whole novel, and I cannot exclude Chris from that list of scary characters. Without them, I don’t think Carrie’s trauma would have been as believable nor as detrimental to her psychological well being. Readers see how much of an impact her mother’s religious mania has made on her from quotes like “If only it would be today and Jesus coming not with a lam and a shepherd’s crook, but with a boulder in each hand to crush the laughers and the snickers, to root out the evil and destroy it screaming- a terrible Jesus of blood and righteousness.” when referencing getting payback for what the girls did in the locker room and “She was alone with Momma’s angry God.” when her mother forced her into the closet to pray. To me, those scenes are particularly terrifying because it shows Carrie’s rage and fear as a precursor to what’s to come at the end of the novel. All of these outside happenings and people help create the monster that Carrie becomes, for she was never born a monster, despite having the power to move things with her mind. I find it important to consider that as readers take in the scene at prom night. What happens is a direct result of the trauma her mother forces her to endure each day at home, as well as the cruelty she faces each day at school.
For horror readers, horror has become synonymous with names like Stephen King. King writes with such depth that it propels characters forward in the plot while also developing them in a way that makes them believable. Without his ability to write characters as complex as Carrie, I do not believe his books would be as successful as they are today. However, this book in particular really takes the cake when it comes to character development on many levels for many of the characters. Little things like how he writes internal dialogue and how readers are able to physically feel what the characters are feeling alongside them demonstrates his talent and ability. Although my knowledge is limited when it comes to being well-versed in all things Stephen King, I can easily say this is one that everyone should read and would thoroughly enjoy.
