Carrie | Stephen King Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia "Jesus watches from the wall, But His face is cold as stone, And if He loves me As she tells me Why do I feel so all alone?" - Words of Carrie White (describing both the crucified Jesus statuette and her loneliness in her poem/journal. (Carrie 1974) Carrie "Crash in her head with a rock, with a boulder. Crash in all their heads. Good. Good." - Carrie White fantasizing about getting revenge against the girls in the locker room. (Carrie 1974) Carrie is an American epistolary novel and author Stephen King's first published novel, released on April 5, 1974, with an approximate first print-run of 30,000 copies.[1] Set in the then-future year of 1979, it revolves around the eponymous Carrietta N. "Carrie" White, a misfit and bullied high school girl who uses her newly discovered telekinetic powers to exact revenge on those who torment her, while in the process causing one of the worst local disasters in American history.

King has commented that he finds the work to be "raw" and "with a surprising power to hurt and horrify." It is one of the most frequently banned books in United States schools.[2] Much of the book is written in an epistolary structure, using newspaper clippings, magazine articles, letters, and excerpts from books to tell how Carrie destroyed the fictional town of Chamberlain, Maine while exacting revenge on her sadistic classmates. Several adaptations of Carrie have been released, including a 1976 feature film, a 1988 Broadway musical, a 1999 feature film sequel, a 2002 television movie, and a 2013 feature film remake. The book is dedicated to King's wife Tabitha: "This is for Tabby, who got me into it – and then bailed me out of it." Contents [ show ] Telekinesis (Psychokinesis) Carrie, was mysteriously born with extraordinarily strong and advanced telekinesis. Which gave her the psionic ability to move, manipulate, throw, and control things (a multitude of objects or people all at once) with her mind whenever she concentrated hard enough.

Carrie refers to her telekinesis as "flexing". At first this seemed like a rare and special gift, a miracle in Carrie's eyes that she strictly kept to herself, not telling a soul. Despite Carrie's effort to keep it a secret, she subconsciously had one or two outbursts infront of few people who witnessed this phenomenon but chose to be in denial or simply ignore choosing to believe it simply didn't happen. Carrie thought her telekinesis was a blessing, but, in the end, it all turned into a curse as Carrie did not know how to control her powers inside. And Carrie finally let it take over her mind, body and spirit, which lead not only to her eventual demise but sadly many others also. In the book, Carrie was also telepathic and could sometimes read people's thoughts when they were near her, but had only been utilized once. Such as Ms. Desjardins, her Physical Education teacher, which were a mixed feeling of sympathy and disgust in all of her lying compassion. She also had the telepathic ability to let other people read her thoughts, specifically after the prank on the night of her prom, which people later said were of hatred, venom, and vengeance.

Months after the incident and town tragedy occurred, one witness stated that, when he saw Carrie White on the street, he could read her thoughts rather clearly. The thoughts of which consumed her thinking she would never get the pig's blood off of her dress, and that she was going to pour blood on the town of Chamberlain Maine and make everyone pay. It is hinted that Carrie's deceased father was telekinetic in his own life, but never knew it or tapped into the full strength and potential his own telekinetic, telepathic abilities. It is arguably possible, he might have known he was telekinetic, if so, he kept it to himself like Carrie would. Despite her eventually turning into a homicidal, sadistic and destructive force to be reckoned with, Carrie was not a monster in the beginning. Throughout her story in both the book and the movie, Carrie was a loner, shown as a shy and timid young woman with no confidence. Carrie was a fractured young soul, in need of support and love. But it was only handed to her in small amounts, and at a very high cost. Carrie was a girl who had a traumatizing childhood and longed for a friend and someone who truly understood her pain and suffering.

Alas, she let her powers get the better of her and this, coupled with all the abuse she suffered, caused her to undergo a villainous transformation. Notably, even after her descent into villainy and unfathomable madness, Carrie is usually shown to still not be completely bereft of redeeming qualities. In several versions, she spares Miss Desjardin's life due to appreciating the kindness she had shown to her earlier and also chooses to let Sue Snell live even when she does not forgive her. Finally, she sought comfort in her mother following her rampage, suggesting that she still loved her and wanted to be loved by her even after all of the abuse Margaret showed to her. Prior to snapping, Carrie was very sensitive and misunderstood. She would cry silently in her room late at night, dreading the next day of school. When she had her period for the first time, she was hysterically frightened, because she thought she was bleeding to death internally and was going to die. She appeared to be a mysterious student, who kept to herself much of the time and never bothered anyone.

Thus, leaving an intriguing mystery which fascinated and intrigued many people long after her death, as everyone wondered "who was Carrie White, really?" A Stephen King Fairytale: While reading the original book, notice that it is Stephen King's version of Cinderella, there are many similarities in the horror story of King's that reflect as a metaphor to the classic fairytale of fairy godmothers and pumpkins transforming into carriages. For example: After the prank, Carrie rushes out of the school auditorium before midnight, just like Cinderella ran out of the castle ballroom as the clock stroke twelve and broke the magic's spell, turning Cinderella's beautiful ball gown back into old rags. And like Cinderella's glass slipper, a blood drenched Carrie loses both her prom slippers as well when fleeing down a flight of steps as the magic of that special night, for both characters is officially over. Sadly, unlike Cinderella, Carrie unluckily never got that second chance to have her own happily ever after.

Crowned in Blood The story continued with carrie wearing a beautiful homemade dress of rich crushed red velvet that shows off her cleavage and is adorned with a matching corsage and high heels, Carrie White arrives at the Prom and at first is taken back by the glamour of it all. But things look as if they are turning around for her at last. She's accompanied by Tommy Ross, the most athletic and popular boy in school, who, surprisingly, forms a small crush for Carrie in secret. Carrie talks to some of the cool and popular kids and even cracks a few jokes, that makes her peers actually laugh with her and finally not just at her. The night seems to be going fairly well, as she gets complimented on her appearance. It is stated that Carrie looked really beautiful and normal for the first time in her short life. The social anxiety within her slowly begins to lift, letting Carrie radiate with high hopes and glow, as she was free to finally feel normal and out of her shell to enjoy herself. For Carrie this is a long awaited dream come true. For everyone else it will be a real life Nightmare.

Carrie's wishful fantasy is ultimately shattered, as fate steps in, when she is tricked and humiliated by vindictive and sociopathic students into being elected as Queen of the Prom by one vote. Due to phony ballots, that were rigged in plans to successfully out number all the other contestants and runner ups, Carrie is crowned on stage with Tommy, as the audience below cheers and congratulates her as they all sing the school song. Strangely no one questions the surprising odds of Carrie winning. While sitting on the Queen's throne, suddenly a banging metallic sound is heard that cuts through the music. Seconds later, Carrie is showered in what feels to her at first like a cold, thick, wet blanket which comes to find out was very smelly rotting blood from a pig. After the blood is dumped on her from a metal bucket high above, Carrie is drenched from head to toe in front of the entire school, everything and everyone turns dead silent as time seems to stand still, as if in slow motion. Her red velvet dress she made for the special night is completely ruined. It is stated, that Carrie looked, as if someone had dipped her in a red bucket of paint.

Carrie's date, Tommy Ross, unfortunately is also showered in pig's blood as he's beside Carrie sitting on the King's throne with a second bucket above as his own. There were two buckets above, one for the Queen, another for the King. Despite this Carrie gets soaked the worst. Still, Tommy's bucket falls later and hits him right on the top of his head. He is knocked out cold, hitting the floor unconscious and dies. She feels Tommy´s death. The prank was followed later by a rain of cruel laughter, yet the laughter crept in slowly at first, a chuckle here, a chuckle there. Then more began to follow after it, growing louder and louder, until it became one. Like a giant tidal wave of laughter that swallowed Carrie whole and ate her alive. Carrie's dream had been crushed by a reality beyond her worst nightmare. "Oh...I..., COVERED- with it, ....they're LOOKING at ME!" Carrie thinks to herself. (Carrie 1974) The laughter was only getting louder by the second, one voice after the other, like a chain reaction.

A voice joined the first, and was followed by a third - girl's soprano giggle - a fourth, a fifth, six, a dozen, all of them, all laughing. The laughter was accompanied by even the teachers, including Ms. Desjardin, the teacher who was nice to Carrie, like a trusted friend before. Ms. Desjardin's face was still frozen, but Carrie could see it, she could see just the same as everyone else in the room, deep down, the laughter was in her also, hidden deep behind professionalism, but there just the same. Inside, she wanted to laugh. Ms. Desjardin tries to comfort Carrie who is reading her thoughts, which are of lying compassion, accompanied by a mixed with guilt and disgust. Carrie strikes out at Desjardin using her telekinetic energy without having to physically touch Desjardin, who flies across the gym room so very hard and so forcefully, she gets a bloody nose in the process of her fall. In utter embarrassment, Carrie then tries to flee the stage, and is reported to be hopping like a frog with her hands in front of her face, trying to hide the humiliation and shame.

To add insult to injury, an anonymous student in the crowd of prom-goers sticks their foot out to trip Carrie as she passes by. Carrie's feet tangle together and lose coordination causing her to fall clumsily, leaving a big streak of blood behind her as she slides on all fours across the room and the laughter grows louder. Carrie then expects someone to kick her in the backside next, but no one does. While on the floor, Carrie looks up and into the faces of the many people crowded around her. Carrie knows everyone is hysterical and laughing uncontrollably. Some people are said to be laughing so hard they are crying and rolling on the floor holding they're tummies. But they are all dressed in glittering ball gowns and expensive tuxedos, with perfect hairdos, attractive smiles and clear skin. They are all wrapped within the warm, bright and luminous light of popularity and social acceptance, a rite of passage of belonging, a light that Carrie will never be a part of. Humiliated, Carrie is still on the floor, crawling like a pig.

Carrie gets back up on her feet and runs out of the school so fast and ungainly that she loses her prom slippers like Cinderella on the way out. She finally makes it to the school's front lawn to collapse on the wet moist grass outside to catch her breathe as she realizes she has just been tricked and made a fool of once again. They tricked her again. Carrie's Venom While a barefoot Carrie is all alone outside in a state of utter shock, she tries to come to terms and accepts what has happened. Carrie plans to just slip away into the dark night and take the back streets, so no one will see her, but just as she decides to go home and admit to Momma that she was right, her mind snaps. Something snaps within Carrie's mind, like a dark epiphany. A psychological breaking point inside of her is released after so many years of repression. It quickly takes over Carrie, as she remembers her telekinesis. It's time to teach them all a lesson or two. So she pulls herself together, returning to the school with a deep and ruthless vengeance. It´s time to teach everyone a lesson.

Carrie locks everyone inside the auditorium and turns on the sprinkler system to wet everyone and ruin their prom outfits and nice hairdos. What seems to be just innocent fun to Carrie, wetting everyone, the sprinklers water gets to close to all the electrical cords on the stage. Carrie looks in through the windows of the gymnasium doors and smiles, as she see's everyone inside panicking as sparks fly everywhere and people are getting electrocuted one by one. Carrie even laughs when one female student is electrocuted and her body moves like a crazed puppet as volts of electricity dance through her body. Students are still desperately trying to open the doors and even looking back at Carrie through the thick glass. As the building quickly catches fire and spreads. Carrie looks happy and smiling as she seeks her revenge and watches her fellow classmates and peers electrocuted to a crisp and ultimately burned alive before leaving to destroy the town next. Back in the gym, they were all trying to get out the doors again, the few who were not on fire or cooked yet. A dozen or so, pushing on the doors, like cockroach's trapped in a roach-motel. But she held the doors shut easily with her power.

That alone was no strain. Some obscure sense tells that a few were getting out the fire doors, but let them. She would get them later. She would get all of them. Every last one of them! Carrie descends down the street and slowly approaching the town all while still holding the gymnasium doors closed. It was easy. For Carrie, all you had to do was see them in your mind being shut and held shut. The towns emergency whistle begins to go off as the entire school by this time is completely up in flames with only a few people inside left to die. For a moment the town whistle interrupts her train of flexing. Carries mind's eye lost sight of the gymnasium doors and some of them almost, just almost got out free. NO, NO!!! Naughty, naughty. Carrie slams them shut again, this time even tighter, catching somebody's fingers in the jamb and severing one of them. Good. Good. Carrie thinks...

Only a few lucky students and one teacher survived the night of "The Black Prom." The Black Prom From "We Survived the Black Prom" by Norma Watson (Published in the August, 1980, issue of The Reader's Digest as a 'Drama in Real Life' article): "... and it all happened so quickly that no one really knew what was happening. We were all standing and applauding and singing the school song. Then - I was at the usher's table just inside the main doors, looking at the stage - there was a sparkle as the big lights over the stage apron reflected on something metallic. I was standing with Tina Blake and Stella Horan, and I think they saw it, too. All at once there was a huge red splash in the air. Some of it hit the mural and ran in long drips. I knew right away, even before it hit them, that it was blood. Stella Horan thought it was paint, but I had a premonition, just like the time my brother got hit by a hay truck. They were drenched. Carrie got it the worst. She looked exactly like she had been dipped in a bucket of red paint. She just sat there.

She never moved. The band that was closest to the stage, Josie and the moonglows, got splattered. The lead guitarist had a white instrument, and it splattered all over it. I said: 'My God, that's blood!' When I said that, Tina screamed. It was very loud, and it rang out clearly in the auditorium. People had stopped singing and everything was completely quiet. I couldn't move. I was rooted to the spot. I looked up and there were two buckets dangling high over the thrones, swinging and banging together. They were still dripping. All of a sudden they fell, with a lot of loose string paying out behind them. One of them hit Tommy Ross on the head. It made a very loud noise, like a gong. That made someone laugh. I don't know who it was, but it wasn't the way a person laughs when they we something funny and gay. It was raw and hysterical and awful. At the same instant, Carrie opened her eyes real wide. That was, when they all started laughing. I did too, I admit, I confess...yes, I laughed at Carrie White. God help me. It was so...weird.

When I was a little girl I had a Walt Disney storybook called Song of the South, and it had that Uncle Remus story about the tar baby in it. There was a picture of the tar baby sitting in the middle of the road, looking like one of those old-time Negro minstrels with the blackface and great big white eyes. When Carrie opened her eyes it was like that. They were the only part of her that wasn't completely red. And the light had gotten in them and made them glassy. God help me, but she looked for all the world like Eddie Cantor doing that pop-eyed act of his. That was what made people laugh. We couldn't help it. It was one of those things where you laugh or go crazy. Carrie had been the school goat, the butt of every prank and joke for so very long, and we all felt that we were part of something special that night. It was as if we were watching a person rejoin the human race, to be sent back into reality and put back in their proper place. I for one thanked the Lord for it. And that happened. That horror. And so there was nothing else to do.

It was either laugh or cry, and who could bring himself to cry over Carrie White after all those years? She just sat there, staring out at them, at us, and the laughter kept swelling, getting louder and louder. People were holding their bellies and doubling up and pointing at her. Tommy was the only one, who wasn't looking at her. He was sort of slumped over in his seat, as if lied gone to sleep. You couldn't tell he was hurt, though he was splashed too bad. And then her face ... broke, I don't know how else to describe it. She put her hands up to her face and half-staggered to her feet. She almost got tangled in her own feet and fell over, and that made people laugh even more. Then she sort of ... hopped off the stage. It was like watching a big red frog hopping off a lily pad. She almost fell again, but kept on her feet. Miss Desjardin came running over to her, and she wasn't laughing any more, but it looked like she wanted to burst out at any given moment. She was holding out her arms to her. She went to hug Carrie, I think.

But then she veered off and hit the wall really hard and fast, the wall beside that stage - It was the strangest thing. She didn't stumble or anything. It was as if someone had pushed her, but there was no one there. Carrie ran through the crowd with her hands clutching her face, and somebody put his foot out. I don't know, who it was, but she went sprawling on her face. leaving a long red streak on the floor. And she said, 'Ooof!' I remember that. It made me laugh even harder, hearing Carrie say Oof like that. She started to crawl along the floor like a dog and then she got up and ran out after looking up at everyone crowded around her. She ran right past me. You could smell the vile scent of that blood. It smelled like something sick and rotted. She went down the stairs two at a time and then out the doors. And was gone. The laughter just sort of faded off, a little at a time. Some people were still hitching and snorting. Lennie Brock had taken out a big white handkerchief and was wiping his eyes.

Sally McManus looked all white, like she was going to throw up, but she was still giggling and she couldn't seem to stop. Billy Bosnan was just standing there with his little conductor's stick in his hand and shaking his head. Mr Lublin was sitting by Miss Desjardin and calling for a Kleenex. She had a bloody nose. You have to understand that all this happened in no more than two minutes. Nobody could put it all together. We were stunned. Some of them were wandering around, talking a little, but not much. Helen Shyres burst into tears, and that made some of the others start up. Then someone yelled: 'Call a doctor! Hey, call a doctor quick!' It was Josie Vreck. He was up on the stage, kneeling by Tommy Ross, and his face was white as paper. He tried to pick him up, and the throne fell over and Tommy rolled on to the floor. Nobody moved. They were all just staring. It's like everyone came to the realization that Tommy might have been a goner. I felt like I was frozen in ice. My God, was all I could think. My God, my God, my God.

And then this other thought crept in, and it was, as if it wasn't my own at all. I was thinking about Carrie. And about God. It was all twisted up together, and it was awful. Stella looked over at me and said: 'Carrie's back.' And I said: 'Yes, that's right.' The lobby doors all slammed shut at the exact same time and it startled us all. The sound was like hands clapping. Somebody in the back screamed, and that started the stampede. They ran for the doors in a rush. I just stood there, not believing it. And when I looked, just before the first of them got there and started to push, I saw Carrie looking in, her face all smeared, like an Indian with war paint on. She was smiling. They were pushing at the doors, hammering on them, but they wouldn't budge. As more of them crowded up to them, I could see the first ones to get there being battered against them, grunting and wheezing. They wouldn't open. And those doors are never locked. It's a state law. Mr. Stephens and Mr.

Lublin waded in, and began to pull them away, grabbing jackets, skirts, anything. They were all screaming and burrowing like cattle. Mr Stephens slapped a couple of girls and punched Vic Mooney in the eye. They were yelling for them to go out the back fire doors. Some did. Those were the ones who lived. That's when it started to rain ... at least, that's what I thought it was at first. There was water falling all over the place. I looked up and all the sprinklers were on, all over the gym. Water was hitting the basketball court and splashing. Josie Vreck was yelling for the guys in his band to turn off the electric amps and mikes quick, but they were all gone. He jumped down from the stage. The panic at the doors stopped. People backed away, looking up at the ceiling. I heard somebody - Don Farnham, I think - say: 'This is gonna wreck the basketball court.' A few other people started to go over and look at Tommy Ross. All at once I knew I wanted to get out of there. I took Tina Blake's hand and said, 'Let's run.

Quick.' To get to the fire doors, you had to go down a short corridor to the left of the stage. There were sprinklers there too, but they weren't on. And the doors were open - I could see a few people running out. But most of them were just standing around in little groups, blinking at each other. Some of them were looking at the smear of blood where Carrie fell down. The water was washing it away. I took Tina's hand and started to pull her toward the exit sign. At that same instant there was a huge flash of fight, a scream, and a horrible feedback whine. I looked around and saw Josie Vreck holding on to one of the mike stands. He froze, he couldn't let go. His eyes were bugging out and his hair was on end and it looked like he was dancing. He looked like a scarecrow or a marionette doll with strings attached to his body...just wiggling all about, up and down. But it wasn't a funny type of wiggle dance, it was the dance of death. His feet were sliding around in the water and smoke started to come out of his shirt.

He fell over on one of the amps - they were big ones, five or six feet high - and it fell into the water. The feedback went up to a scream that was head-splitting, and then there was another sizzling flash and it stopped. Josie's shirt was on fire. 'Run!' Tina yelled at me. 'Come on, Norma. Please!' We ran out into the hallway, and something exploded backstage - the main power switches, I guess. For just a second I looked back. You could see right out on to the stage, where Tommy's body was, because the curtain was up. All the heavy light cables were in the air, flowing and jerking and writhing like snakes out of an Indian fakir's basket. Then one of them pulled in two. There was a violet flash when it hit the water, and then everybody was screaming at once. Then we were out the door and running across the parking lot. I think I was screaming. I don't remember very well. I don't remember anything very well after they started screaming.

After those high-voltage cables hit that water-covered floor." The Devil comes to Chamberlain, Maine By now Carrie's velvet dress is tattered and ripped to shreds. It is said, that she appeared, as if she had crawled out of a fatal car accident. Her feet are raw and bleeding and the blood that covers her body, has began to dry and clot. Carrie is now in a deep catatonic trance and has descended into complete madness. Carrie proceeded to go on a hellish rampage of rage and insanity while walking home to Momma. Destroying everything and anything in her path of rage. Witnesses see Carrie burning cars and houses with people trapped inside and blowing up gas stations. She knocks over electric poles causing sparks to fly into the smokey air and she even is seen breaking fire hydrants which flood the streets. Carrie sets a good majority of the small town of Chamberlain, Maine ablaze and kills as many people as she can rather if they are guilty or not. Innocent bystanders are running and screaming through the streets in all of the chaos and confusion throughout the town as fire trucks, cop cars and sirens wail.

The wild fire in the town becomes uncontrollable as the high flames are so fierce that a bright orange glow can be seen high up into the sky even from a far off distance. Meanwhile, Carrie begins to think about God and believes, that this is all of his doing just as much as hers. Carrie then goes to pray at the town's Cathedral. Carrie then returns home finally, determined to kill her mother, and from her mother learns the truth about how she was conceived. Though at first Margaret appears to comfort her bloody distraught daughter, she tricks Carrie and brutally stabs her in the back, hitting an artery, which she had planned all along for being a witch and having gone to the Prom, which Carrie, deep down knew. Carrie defended herself and retaliated by stopping her mother's heart, until Margaret died from a heart attack. A tired and drained Carrie makes her way outside again to finish, what she started and kills the two main antagonists who were the ringleaders of the prank, Chris Hargensen and her boyfriend Billy Nolan. Chris and Billy know what Carrie has done, and underestimate her by stupidly attempting to kill her by running her over.

Carrie uses her strongly advanced telekinesis once again and crashes the oncoming vehicle into the building of a nearby strip club and destroys it as the car explodes in flames of fire. After killing Chris and Billy, Carrie becomes drained of most her strength and loss of blood. She is found lying in the middle of a dirt road near the town by Sue Snell, her former classmate. Carrie is nearly dead by this point, but has a final deep conversation with Sue (via telepathy) before her dying minutes later. Carrie does not forgive Sue and chooses to hold a grudge. Carrie, however, does believe her when she states she had nothing to do with the prank at the Prom. Thus, Carrie leaves her alive showing her some mercy, but also shows Sue all of the soul crushing torment she received as an outsider throughout her life. Sue finally sees and feels the misery of Carrie's sad life, that she would not have ever known about otherwise, Sue's heart breaks for Carrie in a selfless and honest way. Carrie cries out loud for her mother, wanting to be comforted and held, as she dies in Sue's arms.

Seconds later, as Sue gets up to call for help she strangely has her period on herself which was late, as the menstrual blood runs down her leg. Earlier in the story Sue believed she might have been pregnant with her boyfriend Tommy Ross's baby. But her period coming confirms she either had a miscarriage or she was never pregnant to began with. It hints that Sue received the "Curse of Blood" from Carrie as an act of forgiveness. Rather Sue's period coming at the exact same time of Carrie's death was coincidental or caused by Carrie's telepathic abilities herself is left to the unknown. The authorities found her later and took her body away for investigation after she was identified by Sue Snell. The cause of Carrie's death remains an open mystery. Carrie either died due to a combination of exhaustion, severe brain hemorrhaging from overusing her exceptionally strong telekinesis, blood loss from her wounds, or she used her telekinetic abilities to shut her own body down and committed suicide, after realizing what she had done. And the monster that she became.

It also is very possible that Carrie couldn't live with herself knowing she killed her own mother, whom she loved unconditionally and died to possibly be with Margaret in the afterlife in either Heaven or Hell. The Aftermath 458 people died in the disaster, 99 of them were at the Junior-Senior Prom and 67 of them were Seniors. Carrie's controversial story becomes a widely discussed subject, one that is immediately taken to the Supreme Court, where witnesses are asked to tell everything they knew about Carrie or saw during the night of the tragedy. Some people insist it was a natural disaster and Carrie White was not a monster, yet simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, therefore being used as the scapegoat even in death. Others say it was a conspiracy of some sort with Carrie being used as a scapegoat. Finally others insist that Carrie was responsible for the wildfire, possessing a type of unexplainable strength and power. No one can prove this true nor false. If Carrie is truly guilty for the tragic deaths of so many people remains a cold case. Carrie's story becomes so popular that it is eventually made into a movie.

This disgusts Sue, because she feels that the tragedy is being glamorized so people can forget about it. But Sue warns and advices everyone that forgetting Carrie White and tarnishing her memory may be a much bigger mistake than anyone may realize. Meanwhile, Chamberlain, Maine, is a nearly abandoned ghost town. The tragedy by now has made headlines across America. The Night of The Black Prom has hit the nation bigger than the JFK Assassination. Science begins to take telekinesis very seriously. Miss. Desjardin resigns as a teacher due to her guilt over Carrie as well as Principal Grayle and a heartbroken Sue Snell goes on to write a memoir about her high school experiences and her involvement with Carrie White. titled "My Name is Sue Snell". It is implied, she has begun embracing death because of the experience and the attempts of the White Commission to make her a scapegoat. The majority of the few survivors and their families are grieving over the tragic deaths of loved ones, who were killed at the prom, when Carrie White telekinetically locked everyone inside, or were caught in the chaos of the wildfire and explosions and didn't evacuate quick enough.

They are also haunted by the guilt of having caused, one way or the other the rampage of Carrie and the fact of being seen as fools and assholes by the rest of the world makes matters even worse. Even looking at each other forces them to remember, what happened. After the funeral services are held for the dead, people are packing up and leaving town for good, never to return. Chamberlain therefore turns gradually into a ghost town. It is also implied, that the ghost town has become a tourist attraction since then for all those, who want to know everything regarding Carrie White. With all the destruction intact, it was also easy to achieve that. The White Commission, however, plays, to a certain extent, the catastrophe down and the book closes with a letter written by a woman in Tennessee, where it is implied her niece is developing very strong, advanced telepathic and telekinetic abilites of her own. This, however, could also indicate that Carrie's hurt and lonely spirit had been reborn and reincarnated into a more loving family to start over again in the hope of having a real friend.

Cameo Appearance StephenKing.com - Carrie Carrie Formats: Hardcover / Paperback / Audio / Kindle First Edition Release Date:April, 1974 Synopsis: The story of misfit high-school girl, Carrie White, who gradually discovers that she has telekinetic powers. Repressed by a domineering, ultra-religious mother and tormented by her peers at school, her efforts to fit in lead to a dramatic confrontation during the senior prom. Rereading Stephen King: week one – Carrie | Books | The Guardian Rereading Stephen King Rereading Stephen King: week one – Carrie James Smythe has read everything Stephen King has ever written – and now he's revisiting each novel in chronological order. First: a young girl with some dangerous powers Statement of intent ... Sissy Spacek as Carrie in the 1976 film adaptation of Stephen King's first published novel. Photograph: Snap/Rex Features Thursday 24 May 2012 08.02 EDT First published on Thursday 24 May 2012 08.02 EDT Share on Messenger Close Carrie is Stephen King's first novel.

A large part of its fame comes from the fact that it was actually the fourth novel he wrote and submitted to publishers – a story that people love to tell when discussing the roads to publication of big-name authors. "Did you know King wrote three books before he was accepted?" goes the common confidence-boosting phrase. And, nearly as famously, he actually threw his only draft of it away at one point, until his wife convinced him to rescue it from the rubbish. The rest is, as they nearly say, a 70ish-strong publication history. (The first three books King wrote, incidentally, were Rage, The Long Walk and Blaze, all of which found publication in later years, and all of which will be covered soon enough.) Carrie ended up being quite a zeitgeisty novel: published in the same rough timeframe as Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist , and when cinemas were showing Don't Look Now and The Wicker Man . The public were beginning to fall in love with the weirder, more human side of the paranormal – moving away from ghosts and hauntings, which used to preoccupy horror fiction.

The book itself is the story of Carrie White, a high-school student with latent – and then, as the novel progresses, developing – telekinetic powers. It's brutal in places, affecting in others (Carrie's relationship with her almost hysterically religious mother being a particularly damaged one), and gory in even more. By the end of the novel, there's a pretty impressive body count, and it's a body count you don't necessarily see coming given the general tone of the novel. Or, bluntly, given the character of Carrie herself. Structurally it's a really weird one, with a standard Kingian third-person narrative voice interspersed with extracts from other media: newspaper reports, autobiographies of characters, transcripts of police interviews, that sort of thing. It's not a structure that entirely works, as the extracts are still slightly too close to King's standard narrative voice, and are often the worst (read: slowest) parts of the novel. While still reeling from the excitement of some of the third-person sections – particularly the classic prom scene – being dragged somewhere else entirely and presented with an often less-interesting viewpoint isn't always ideal.

(In particular, there's a series of extracts from Susan Snell's fake biography; none are very interesting. Apart from anything else, they don't read like biography: they read like monologues.) But, it's a really good story. Carrie herself is a fascinating character: an archetype (the damaged girl with powers beyond her sphere) to which King would return later in his career, and the book drags the reader along at a fair-old whack. King himself has described the novel as being "a cookie baked by a first grader – tasty enough, but kind of lumpy and burned on the bottom". And that's a pretty fair assessment, I'd say. As a debut novel, it's a fairly good piece of juvenilia. As a statement of intent – that intent being to write stories that deal with the weird, twisted and human in equal measure – it's exceptional. Kingisms In every review, I'm going to look at the tropes and common stylistic touches that appear in King's novels. Carrie's obviously interesting as it was the first, and it throws up a few ideas he would repeat throughout his career. The big one in Carrie is the internal monologue. King has a habit (habit?

habits are formed, this is something innate) of indenting brackets or dropping the italicised thoughts of his characters into his third-person narratives. (See what I did there?) It's an easy way to bypass "She thought", and actually pretty elegant. In Carrie, it's a stylistic device that's still new to him, and whereas he now uses it sparingly, here, it's everywhere. By the end of the novel, some pages are almost more internal monologue than not. Carrie is also a relative tone-setter of a novel: the narrative is distinctly King's, covering themes he would revisit again, and to greater effect; and some of the dialogue – particularly in Carrie's conversations with her mother – is delivered in voices he would also return to in later novels (Misery, the Dark Tower series, Dolores Claiborne). Flagg-raising One last thing. King has a character who has officially appeared in nine novels: Randall Flagg (aka Walter O'Dim, the Dark Man, the Man in Black, the Walkin' Dude).

He's not a nice chap, and I'll take a much closer look at him in later novels – starting, if memory serves, with 1978's The Stand. But there are plenty of arguments to be made for his appearance in other King texts, and Carrie is no different. Carrie's mother, in her religious fervour, frequently refers to – either directly, or through Carrie's prior indoctrination – "the black man … his cloven feet striking red sparks from the cement". Now, while it's meant to be the devil in this instance – or, rather, a more direct suggestion of the devil than Randall Flagg's usual appearances – that particular being is never mentioned by name.

And "the black man" is awfully close to the Man in Black and the Dark Man, I'd say … Next up Not to be confused with the inane adaptation starring Schwarzenegger, this dystopian tale has real pathos, and a point Published: 22 Nov 2012 Stephen King was in an alcoholic stupor while writing this unrelenting novel about a rabid dog – and in the process produced one of literature's bluntest metaphors for addiction Published: 2 Nov 2012 The horror in this story of a man undone by grief is not supernatural, but still deeply unsettling Published: 16 Oct 2012 James Smythe takes a long and painful road trip back to an early work that has lost its special powers Published: 27 Sep 2012 How Carrie changed Stephen King's life, and began a generation of horror | Books | The Guardian Stephen King How Carrie changed Stephen King's life, and began a generation of horror Writers and readers recall the shock of reading the debut novel about a high-school outcast who discovers paranormal powers, and reflect on its huge influence Friday 4 April 2014 08.02 EDT First published on Friday

 4 April 2014 08.02 EDT Share on Messenger Close "Plug it up, plug it up," yell Carrie's classmates in the extraordinary opening to Stephen King's debut novel.

Carietta White, bullied for years at school, the daughter of a domineering, ultra-religious mother and the owner of unsuspected telekinetic powers, has just got her first period at the age of 16 while in the showers at school, and thinks she is bleeding to death. "Carrie looked down at herself. She shrieked. The sound was very loud in the humid locker room," writes King. "The laughter, disgusted, contemptuous, horrified, seemed to rise and bloom into something jagged and ugly, and the girls were bombarding her with tampons and sanitary napkins, some from purses, some from the broken dispenser on the wall." That story, written by a 26-year-old teacher and laundry worker and published for the first time on 5 April 1974, would go on to transform King's life. Paperback rights sold for $400,000 (£240,000) to Signet Books, and the book itself "shook the horror field up like a bomb", says Ramsey Campbell , one of Britain's most respected horror writers.

With millions of copies sold today, Carrie also launched the career of one of the world's bestselling novelists. "It's notable as a marker for what is to come: the career of the most influential horror novelist of his, or perhaps any, generation," says John Connolly , author of the Charlie Parker mystery thrillers. "Although Carrie helped usher in a boom period of huge popularity for horror fiction, it's also a very strange and unusual book – uncompromising," believes American author Jeff VanderMeer . "Carrie changed the paradigm by announcing a very American form of horror that broke with the past. That process might've been ongoing anyway, but a lot of horror and weird fiction was still in a kind of post-MR James/Lovecraft mode of parchment and shadowy alleys and half-seen horrors, and here was King dropping buckets of blood over everything and making characterisation both more relaxed and more contemporary. But just as sophisticated, if more naturalistic, less stylised." The novel retains its power to shock and disturb, as Carrie discovers her telekinesis, and goes on to attend what must surely be most memorable prom in literature.

Written in a mix of voices, from third person narration to newspaper reports and academic papers, "to this day, the structure and voice still feel radical, and the characterisation of Carrie by a male writer remains startling," says horror author Adam Nevill. "The book's power endures. Carrie has the energy and vision of an idiosyncratic early work that burned its way out of a young writer who wasn't following conventions, or even second-guessing reader expectations; maybe it just had to be written in that way at that time. In hindsight, the fact that such an unusual book in a popular genre launched the most successful literary career in modern times, is the most encouraging and curious legacy of Carrie." James Smythe, novelist and the Guardian's resident King expert , agrees. "One of the primary joys of Carrie for me – once I get past the astonishing jealousy that it was King's debut published novel, and that he was only 26 when it was published – is the structure," he says. "It was the first thing I can remember reading that showed me that a novel didn't simply have to be a linear single narrative.

It uses so many different voices and ways of delivering the story that it's almost giddying; and it's astonishing assured and neat to boot." The manuscript, though, was almost consigned to the bin, King recounts in On Writing, and the book might never have seen the light of publication if it were not for his wife Tabitha. It brought together a series of strands – his discovery when working as a janitor at a high school one summer that girls' showers had curtains, an article in LIFE magazine suggesting that some poltergeist activity might actually be telekinetic phenomena, and his memories of two girls at his own school, both dead, who would form the character of Carrie White. From these, he made "three single-spaced pages of a first draft, then crumpled them up in disgust and threw them away," he writes. "I couldn't see wasting two weeks, maybe even a month, creating a novella I didn't like and wouldn't be able to sell. So I threw it away. The next night, when I came home from school, Tabby had the pages.

She'd spied them while emptying my wastebasket, had shaken the cigarette ashes of the crumpled balls of paper, smoothed them out, and sat down to read them. She wanted me to go on with it, she said. She wanted to know the rest of the story. I told her I didn't know jack-shit about high school girls. She said she'd help me with that part," King says in On Writing. "I never got to like Carrie White and I never trusted Sue Snell's motives in sending her boyfriend to the prom with her, but I did have something there. Like a whole career. Tabby somehow knew it, and by the time I had piled up 50 single-spaced pages, I knew it, too." Carrie's UK publisher, Philippa Pride at Hodder & Stoughton, says the book continues to sell strongly year on year, with a boost from a new film starring Chlöe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore last year. But Brian De Palma's 1976 dramatisation, starring Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie, remains the definitive version.

"Part of the enduring appeal is the universal, timeless tale of a lonely girl wanting to fit in, be liked and go to the dance. Part of the underlying impulse for Steve's writing Carrie was to take the Cinderella fairy tale and twist it by its tail," says Pride. "He had also seen the damage religious fanaticism does at first hand, when kids raised in strictly fundamentalist homes have to try and exist in a secular world. It can be very hard for them." "Steve once told me that he had intended for Carrie to leave one of her dancing shoes at the prom, as a tip of the hat to Cinderella," she adds, "but he simply forgot it". Campbell believes that what brings the novel to "its own unique life" is the author's intensely precise focus on his characters, his genius for inhabiting their core, so that we don't just feel with them but seem almost to share their breaths". "Even if you know the film, don't deny yourself the novel, with its spectacular trashing of the town and its piercing glimpse of a dying consciousness. Carrie prefigures any amount of great work to come, but it's secure within itself – a haunting experience," says the author.

"Much as I admire De Palma's version, I find the book richer. Like many of the classics of the field it draws on popular myth – in its case surely a nightmare version of Cinderella's transformation for the ball, or indeed a twisted Ugly Duckling tale." As well as the pig's blood and the stones raining from a clear sky, the horror of Carrie's hours shut in a closet by her revolting mother and the looming crucifixes, the novel also stands out for its unerring insights into life as a teenager, for King's moving and disturbing look at not fitting in. In the introduction to the novel, he writes of the "wavelength only other kids can pick up", which broadcasts "STRANGE! NOT LIKE US! KEEP AWAY!" about certain individuals. "It is like a pirate radio station of the heart. I can no longer pick up on that wavelength, but I can remember it very well," writes the author. "I first read Carrie when I was 11," says the author Sarah Lotz, who writes horror as one half of writing duo SL Grey . "You couldn't have pried it out of my hands.

I was being bullied at school at the time, and completely identified with Carrie's desire to fit in and her anguish at being sidelined. But I could escape when I was at home. Carrie couldn't. I remember desperately hoping that she'd find a way to escape her monstrous mother. Even back then I knew that King couldn't have ended the novel any other way – from word one it was clear Carrie was destined for a tragic end (and there's no coming back from committing a telekinetic Columbine-sized massacre). Deeply scarred by this, I made up my own ending, one in which Carrie ducks the prom, escapes, and basically becomes one of the X-Men (only more of a bad-ass). This hasn't stopped me putting my own characters through the mill though. Carrie taught me that sometimes you don't always get the endings you deserve." Sarah Pinborough, the British horror novelist, is another writer to have been inspired by a young reading of the novel. "I read Carrie when I was about 10 or 11. It must have been the first King I read.

It completely fascinated me with its tale of high-school tauntings and the need to fit in – in many ways so similar to the those I could identify with at English schools, and yet with the added glamour of American high school life that intrigued us all so much," she says. "Somewhere in my future puberty was waiting for me, a mysterious black magic I didn't want and was afraid of, and for me Carrie will always be about that terrible scene in the gym when her period first arrives and the enormous changes that come when shifting from being a child to being a woman. Stephen King has always been an inspiration to writers with his characterisation and in his portrayal of teenagers in Carrie, his first novel, I think he's at his deftest." Carrie (1976) - IMDb IMDb 17 January 2017 4:34 PM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends.

Error Carrie White, a shy, friendless teenage girl who is sheltered by her domineering, religious mother, unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated by her classmates at her senior prom. Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 37 titles created 15 Nov 2010 a list of 32 titles created 02 Aug 2012 a list of 24 titles created 17 Jul 2013 a list of 34 titles created 4 months ago a list of 31 titles created 3 months ago Search for " Carrie " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 5 nominations. See more awards » Photos A family's home is haunted by a host of ghosts.

Director: Tobe Hooper 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X Several people are hunted by a cruel serial killer who kills his victims in their dreams. While the survivors are trying to find the reason for being chosen, the murderer won't lose any chance to kill them as soon as they fall asleep. Director: Wes Craven When a teenage girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter. Director: William Friedkin Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield to kill again. Director: John Carpenter Two siblings visit their grandfather's grave in Texas along with three of their friends and are attacked by a family of cannibalistic psychopaths. Director: Tobe Hooper A young couple move into an apartment, only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbors and occurrences. When the wife becomes mysteriously pregnant, paranoia over the safety of her unborn child begins to control her life.

Director: Roman Polanski A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a new killer, who targets the girl and her friends by using horror films as part of a deadly game. Director: Wes Craven A group of camp counselors is stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp which, years before, was the site of a child's drowning. Director: Sean S. Cunningham Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist? The Devil's own son? Director: Richard Donner There is panic throughout the nation as the dead suddenly come back to life. The film follows a group of characters who barricade themselves in an old farmhouse in an attempt to remain safe from these flesh eating monsters. Director: George A. Romero 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5.9/10 X A reimagining of the classic horror tale about Carrie White, a shy girl outcast by her peers and sheltered by her deeply religious mother, who unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom.

Director: Kimberly Peirce After a famous author is rescued from a car crash by a fan of his novels, he comes to realize that the care he is receiving is only the beginning of a nightmare of captivity and abuse. Director: Rob Reiner Edit Storyline It's nearing the end of the school year. High school senior Carrie White is a social outcast, largely due to being unwise to the ways of the world based on her upbringing. Her mother, Margaret White, is a religious fanatic, her extreme views primarily targeted against sex, which she believes is a sin. She even believes natural associated processes such as menstruation are a sin, about which she has refused to mention to Carrie. Mrs. White's beliefs were taken to that extreme largely because of her own failed marriage and her husband Ralph long ago having run off with another woman. The only adult authority figure who tries to help Carrie with her life is her phys ed teacher, Miss Collins, who is nonetheless warned not to get too close to go against how Mrs. White chooses to raise Carrie, Mrs. White whose beliefs are well known in the community. An impromptu event that happens among Carrie's phys ed classmates against her leads to her classmates being punished. One of those students, ...

Written by Huggo If you've got a taste for terror... take Carrie to the party. (Great Britian) See more » Genres: 16 November 1976 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Carrie - Lo sguardo di Satana See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know? Trivia When Sissy Spacek was preparing for her character, she isolated herself from the rest of the ensemble, decorated her dressing room with heavy religious iconography and studied Gustave Doré 's illustrated Bible. She studied "the body language of people being stoned for their sins," starting or ending every scene in one of those positions. See more » Goofs Stephen King 's name is spelled "Steven King" in the trailer. See more » Quotes Margaret White : Carrie, you haven't touched your apple cake. Carrie : It gives me pimples, Mama. Margaret White : Pimples are the Lord's way of chastising you.

Featured in Superstar (1999) See more » Soundtracks Written by Mike Towers , Eugene Garfin, Stephen Bonnem, Joseph Walter Newton Jr., & Carmine Lauro (Mexico) – See all my reviews It is a classic offbeat horror-melodrama merging harmoniously the family Gothic extravaganza, supernatural power, and a woman's movie of a peculiar kind It remains the cinema's best adaptation of a Stephen King novel The film initiated De Palma's inclination for surprise diverts between playful imagination and reality, as in the opening, which swifts from a soft-core porn fantasia of girls taking a shower in the locker room to the fact of Carrie's menstruation for the first timethe first sign of "otherness" that will reserve her as an horrifying monster from her small-minded colleagues All the oppression that Carrie undergoes both at home (with a bible beating maniacal mother played by scary Piper Laurie who develops twisted bizarre ideas) and at school to suppress tension which takes the shape of super telekinetic power, the ability to move objects with the strength of her mind We observe with ambivalence as Carrie's insatiable revenge jumps the line into uncontrolled mass murders ever filmed Sissy Spacek is amazing as

 the mocked, helpless girl pushed over the edge Her face and body twist like a living special effect to unleash her pent up rage, as well as her character's alarming progress from painfully shy high-school teenager to Angel of Vengeance 57 of 64 people found this review helpful.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes Carrie - Stephen King - Google Books Stephen King 2580 Reviews Since the publication of Carrie in 1974, neither misfit Carrie White nor her catastrophic high school prom has been forgotten. That's because the story of Carrie, her extraordinary telekinetic powers, and her violent rampage of revenge introduced a fresh and distinctive new voice in American fiction -- Stephen King. Although Carrie first captured America's attention with its shocking climax, it remains as vibrant today as when it was first published because of Stephen King's ability to tap the collective unconscious of our commercial society. He brilliantly underscores the inherent fears and driving forces that fester in adolescence and later manifest themselves in various forms. Whether it's public high school's proclivity for suppressing individualism and creativity, the bigotry of cliques, or male apprehension of women's emerging sexuality and equality, Carrie lays bare our ritualistic, cruel, and base tendencies. Ultimately, we discern that it's not Carrie White but the ineffectual people surrounding her that we truly dread -- which is why Carrie endures as one of Stephen King's most riveting and disturbing novels.

What people are saying - Write a review User ratings Review: Carrie User Review - sanne - Goodreads 3.5/5 I went in to this book not knowing what to expect. I loved how religion was put into the story because it was not the religion you expect at first. You see how religion turns into fanaticism and ... Read full review Review: Carrie User Review - Lenke Bruyns - Goodreads Although the book went through a slow spot early on I convinced myself to continue reading and I am really glad I did. The way Stephen King hihlights the effects of bullying while incorporating Carrie ...

Read full review View all » Common terms and phrases asked began Billy Nolan Bob Dylan Bobby Pickett buckets burning called Carlin Street carrie carrie Carrie White Carrie's Cavalier Chamberlain Chris Hargensen Citgo closed cuckoo clock dance dark daughter dead door Doyle dress Ewen High eyes face feel feet fell felt fire flash floor girl going gone Grayle grinning hair hand happened hate head Hearts in Atlantis hemophilia high school huge hurt Jackie Jesus kids knew laugh light looked Maine Margaret White mind Miss Desjardin Momma Mortimer Snerds Morton mother mouth never opened parking lot pray Prom Night pulled Quillan screamed seemed Shadow Exploded shower Shyres smell smile someone Spring Ball stared Stephen King stood stop struck suddenly Sue Snell Susan Snell Telekinesis tell thing thought Tina Tommy Ross town turned walked Westover White Commission window yelled About the author (2000) Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. Among his most recent are Hearts in Atlantis, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Bag of Bones, the screenplay Storm of the Century, and The Green Mile. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

CARRIE by Stephen King | Kirkus Reviews Tweet KIRKUS REVIEW Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution). All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one gift who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such.

But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town. King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself." Pub Date: April 8th, 1974 ISBN: 0385086954

Question: What is the surname of Carrie in Steven King’s novel ‘Carrie’?
Answer: White