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'''Carrie''' (1974) is Stephen King's first published novel. 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 U.S. schools ^[1] and the film version was banned in Finland. Much of the book is written in epistolary structure in the form of newspaper clippings, letters, excerpts from books, etc. Brian De Palma created a film version in 1976.

Contents

Plot summary

Background

Trivia

Cultural references

Adaptations

Editions

References

External links

Plot summary

The book uses fictional documents, such as book excerpts, news reports, and hearing transcripts, to frame the story of Carietta "Carrie" White, a teenage girl from Chamberlain, Maine. Carrie's mother, Margaret, a fanatical Christian fundamentalist, has a vindictive and unstable personality, and over the years has ruled Carrie with an iron rod and repeated threats of damnation. Margaret's mentally and emotionally abusive behavior has occasionally crossed over into physical abuse as well.
Carrie does not fare much better at her school, Thomas Ewen High School, where her plain looks, unfashionable attire and lack of friends and no popularity make her the butt of ridicule; at the beginning of the novel, she has her first period while showering after a physical education class. The terrified Carrie has no understanding of menstruation; her mother never spoke to her about it, and she has been a social outcast throughout high school.
That this could be Carrie's first period, or that sympathy might be appropriate, never occurs to her classmates; they use the event as an opportunity to taunt her. Led by Chris Hargensen, a spoiled rich girl who has a record of targeting outsiders, they throw tampons and sanitary napkins at her. When gym teacher Miss Desjardin happens upon the scene, she at first berates Carrie for her stupidity but is horrified when she realizes that Carrie has no idea what has happened to her. She helps her clean up and tries to explain. Carrie is excused from school by the assistant principal and sent home to her mother, who shows no sympathy for Carrie's first encounter with "the woman's curse".
Miss Desjardin, still incensed over the locker room incident, wants all the girls who taunted Carrie suspended and barred from attending the upcoming school prom as punishment. The school principal finds this too harsh and instead remands the girls to detention under the gym teacher's unforgiving eye. When Chris refuses to appear for the detention, she is suspended and barred from the prom. She tries to get her father, a prominent local lawyer, to intimidate the school principal into reinstating her prom privileges. The principal, however, is disgusted with Chris's behavior and stands up to Mr. Hargensen, who decides the matter is not worth pursuing.
Carrie gradually discovers that she has telekinetic powers. She has apparently possessed the gift since birth, but conscious control over it disappeared after her infancy, although she remembers incidents throughout her life that could be attributable to telekinesis; for example, a shower of rocks on her house at the age of three (similar to an incident involving Shirley Jackson's heroine Eleanor in The Haunting of Hill House). Carrie practices her powers in secret, developing strength, even though this is physically tiring and she is frequently pressed to the limit. She also finds that she is somewhat telepathic, enough to be able to discern people's thoughts about her; for instance, she knows that the gym teacher has mixed feelings of sympathy and disgust towards her.
Meanwhile, Sue Snell, another popular girl who had earlier teased Carrie, begins to feel remorseful about her participation in the locker room antics. With the prom fast approaching, Sue convinces her boyfriend, Tommy Ross, one of the most attractive and popular boys in the school, to ask Carrie to the prom (Sue suspects that she is pregnant by Tommy). Carrie is suspicious but accepts, and makes her own outfit, a red velvet gown. Carrie's mother won't hear of her daughter doing anything so "carnal" as attending a school dance and reveals much of her own past as she explains why. She believes that sex in any form is sinful, even after marriage. She also knows all about Carrie's telekinetic powers, which she considers a form of witchcraft; it seems that they appear every third generation in her family. Carrie, however, is tired of hearing that everything is a sin; she wants a normal life and sees the prom as a new beginning.
Chris Hargenson, still furious with Carrie, devises her own plan of revenge with her boyfriend Billy Nolan. Billy, along with some friends, drives out to a farm, slaughters two pigs and fills two buckets full of blood, and, breaking into the school gym, suspends the buckets over the stage with a pull cord. Chris then rigs Carrie's election as prom queen. When Carrie and Tommy go up to be crowned, Chris will pull the cord, ruining the happiest moment of Carrie's life.
The plan succeeds beyond their wildest hopes. Tommy is knocked unconscious by one of the falling buckets, and he and Carrie are drenched in blood. Everyone in attendance, even some of the teachers, find themselves laughing at Carrie. As Sue says later, "after all those years of laughing at Carrie, what else could you do?" Carrie is finally pushed over the edge. She leaves the building in agonized humiliation, but once outside, she remembers her telekinetic gift and decides to use it for vengeance. Initially planning only to lock all the doors and turn on the sprinklers to destroy the dresses and ruin the hair of all of the snobbish girls who had bullied her, Carrie remembers about the electrical equipment set up for the dance band and the PA system. Carrie turns the sprinkler system anyway, finally going over the edge. Watching through the windows, she witnesses the death of two of the students and a school official by electrocution. She decides to kill everyone, eventually causing a massive fire that destroys Thomas Ewen High School, trapping almost everyone inside.
Walking home, she burns virtually all of downtown Chamberlain. A side-effect of Carrie's gift is "broadcast" telepathy; anyone within a certain radius becomes aware that the hideous carnage at the school and the explosions and fires downtown are being caused by Carrie White, even if they do not know who Carrie is. A few even catch details of her thoughts. She makes power lines break, gas stations explode, and wreaks other forms of vengeance on the town. She also mentally keeps the school's doors locked, although she allows the few students who remember the fire escape to leave, thinking that she'll get to them later.
Carrie returns home to confront her mother, who believes Carrie has been possessed by Satan and that the only way to save her is to kill her. Revealing that Carrie's conception was a result of marital rape, she stabs Carrie in the shoulder with a kitchen knife. Carrie kills her mother, using her telekinesis to cause her heart to slow and ultimately stop.
Mortally wounded but still alive, Carrie makes her way to the roadhouse where her father got drunk the night she was conceived. Seeing Chris and Billy leaving, and upon their attempt to run her over, she telekinetically takes control of the vehicle and wrecks the car, killing them both and setting the roadhouse on fire. Sue Snell, who has been following Carrie's telepathic "broadcast," finds Carrie collapsed in the parking lot.
Carrie and Sue have a brief telepathic conversation. Carrie had believed that Sue and Tommy had set her up for the prank, but Sue invites her to look into her mind. Realizing that Sue is innocent and has never felt animosity towards her, Carrie forgives her and dies; however, before doing so, Carrie causes Sue to miscarry, which can be seen as an act of revenge or friendship. However, Sue believes that she is finally having her period.
''Carrie'' posits a strong relationship between the onset of puberty, particularly a young woman's menstruation, and psychic powers.

Background

''Carrie'' was actually King's sixth novel but the first to be published. It was written while he was living in a trailer in Hermon, Maine, on a portable typewriter that belonged to his wife, Tabitha. It started as a short story originally intended for ''Cavalier'' magazine, but King tossed the first five pages of his work-in-progress in the garbage. Of King's published short stories at the time, he recalls "Some woman said, 'You write all those macho things, but you can't write about women.' I said, 'I'm not scared of women. I could write about them if I wanted to.' So I got an idea for a story about this incident in a girls' shower room, and the girl would be telekinetic. The other girls would pelt her with sanitary napkins when she got her period. The period would release the right hormones and she would rain down destruction on them... I did the shower scene, but I hated it and threw it away."^[2]
His wife, Tabitha King, fished the pages out of the garbage and encouraged him to finish the story. He followed his wife's advice and expanded it into a novel.^[3] King says "I persisted because I was dry and had no better ideas... My considered opinion was that I had written the world's all-time loser."^[4]
The character of Carietta (Carrie) White was based on a combination of two girls in King's past; one of them went to school with him, the other was a student of his. The young girl King went to school with lived down the street from him when he lived in Durham, Maine. King recalls, in an interview with Charles L. Grant for ''''Twilight Zone Magazine'''' (Apr 1981), "She was a very peculiar girl who came from a very peculiar family. Her mother wasn't a religious nut like the mother in ''Carrie''; she was a game nut, a sweepstakes nut who subscribed to magazines for people who entered contests . . . The girl had one change of clothes for the entire school year, and all the other kids made fun of her. I have a very clear memory of the day she came to school with a new outfit she'd bought herself. She was a plain-looking country girl, but she'd changed the black skirt and white blouse--which was all anybody had every seen her in--for a bright-colored checkered blouse with puffed sleeves and a skirt that was fashionable at the time. And everybody made ''worse'' fun of her because nobody wanted to see her change the mold."
King told biographer George Beahm that she later "married a man who was as odd as her, had kids and eventually killed herself."''Stephen King From A to Z: An Encyclopedia of His Life and Work'' Beahm, George 1988 Andrews McMeel
According to the audio commentary for the 1976 Brian DePalma film version of ''Carrie'', Carrie is based on a composite of two girls who were bullied and abused at school, one of whom had a religious fanatic for a mother. King says he wondered what it would have been like to have been reared by such a mother. He based the story itself on a reversal of the Cinderella fairy tale.
Carrie’s telekinetic powers resulted from King’s earlier reading about this topic. King also did a short stint as a high school English teacher at Hampden Academy, a job he eventually quit after receiving the payment for the paperback publishing sale of ''Carrie''. It is presumed that he drew inspiration from his time as a teacher while he was writing the book.
At the time of publication, King was working as a teacher at Hampden Academy and barely making ends meet ($6,400 annually). To cut down on expenses, King had the phone company remove the telephone from his house. As a result, when King received word that the book was chosen for publication, his phone was out of service. Doubleday editor, William Thompson (who would eventually become King's close friend), sent a telegram to King's house which read: "CARRIE OFFICIALLY A DOUBLEDAY BOOK. $2,500 ADVANCE AGAINST ROYALTIES. CONGRATS, KID - THE FUTURE LIES AHEAD, BILL." ^[5] New American Library bought the paperback rights for $400,000, which according to King's contract with Doubleday, was split with them. ^[6]
King recalls, "''Carrie'' was written after ''Rosemary's Baby'' but before ''The Exorcist'', which really opened up the field. I didn't expect much of ''Carrie''. I thought who'd want to read a book about a poor little girl with menstrual problems? I couldn't believe I was writing it." ^[7]
The book is dedicated to his wife, Tabitha: "This is for Tabby, who got me into it - and then bailed me out of it."
''Carrie'' was published April 5, 1974 with an initial print run of 30,000 copies for a cover price of $5.95 USD.
The hardback sold a mere 13,000 copies, while the paperback, released a year later, sold over 1 million copies in its first year. Brian DePalma's film adaptation was released ten weeks after King's second book, ''Salem's Lot'', was published. ^[8]
Prior to ''Carrie'', King's novel ''Getting it On'', later retitled ''Rage'' and released under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman, had been rejected by Doubleday. He had also written ''The Long Walk'' and ''The Running Man'', both later published under the Bachman pen name.
In a talk at the University of Maine at Orono, King said of ''Carrie'', "I'm not saying that ''Carrie'' is shit and I'm not repudiating it. She made me a star, but it was a young book by a young writer. In retrospect it reminds me of a cookie baked by a first-grader- tasty enough, but kind of lumpy and burned on the bottom."

Trivia

★ Stephen King later reprised the notion of a child who uses telekinetic ability, consciously or unconsciously, to cause a shower of rocks onto a house, in ''Rose Red''. Annie Wheaton, who is supposed to be autistic, has full control of her powers at a younger age than Carrie and destroys two houses with rock showers.

★ Teddy Duchamp from the King novella The Body is briefly mentioned. Carrie sabotages an Amoco gas station once operated by Teddy, leading to its destruction. Minor character Thomas Quillan testifies during the White Commission that "Teddy Duchamp's been dead since 1968, God love him, but his boy locked those pumps up every night just like Teddy himself used to do."

★ Auditions for ''Carrie'' and ''Star Wars'' were held together. William Katt auditioned to play Luke Skywalker in ''Star Wars'' but instead played Tommy Ross in ''Carrie''. ^[9] There is a rumor that similarly, Sissy Spacek auditioned to play Princess Leia and Carrie Fisher auditioned to play Carrie; however, Fisher herself dispelled this rumor.

★ CKY frontman Deron Miller is a huge Carrie fan, frequently wearing t-shirts of the film at concerts. He also claims that his song "To All of You" from the "Volume 1" album was inspired by Carrie.

Cultural references

★ The film has been parodied twice on ''That '70s Show''; both occurrences involve the character of Hyde (Danny Masterson): In the episode "Prom Night", when Hyde leaves the house to go to prom, his mother is heard offscreen yelling "They all gonna laugh at you!" -- the line spoken by Carrie's mother (played by Piper Laurie) in the film before Carrie leaves for the prom. In the episode "Halloween", the characters bury their elementary school permanent records in the ground. As the end credits roll, Hyde goes back to the grave and a hand comes up out of the ground. This is a reference to Sue Snell's dream at the end of the film version of ''Carrie''.

★ The novel is parodied in an episode of ''American Dad''. At Stan's prom, a group of bullies plan to drop pig's blood on him. However, the one who was assigned to get the pig's blood didn't finish reading the sentence and a large number of pigs are dropped on Stan.

★ The novel is also parodied in the ''Drawn Together'' episode "A Tale of Two Cows" when Toot Braunstein is doused with blood twice while standing on stage at her fat camp reunion.

★ In ''King of Queens'', during one of Doug and Carrie's arguments, Doug says that Carrie scares him sometimes. Furthermore he says, "They didn't make a horror movie called 'Doug,' did they? 'Carrie'!!" There may also be a subtle reference when Carrie threatens to stop Doug's heart during the same argument.

★ In the 1980's teen comedy ''Zapped!'', Scott Baio's telekinetic character unleashes psychic mischief at his prom after being drenched with red punch.

★ In ''Tiny Toons'', there is an episode where, at a party, a punch bowl gets dropped on Shirley the Loon's head. Babs Bunny remarks to a friend, "Did you ever see Carrie?", and Shirley begins to destroy the place in a fashion similar to the Stephen King book. When the sprinklers come on, instead of causing electrocution, the water washes the punch off of Shirley, who swiftly reverts to normal, looks at the carnage, and says "Oops - mood swing."

★ In the third season premiere of ''Lost'', some of the Others are reading the book at a book club just before Flight 815 crashes. The film version is referenced in the season one episode, The Moth, when Charlie's hand emerges from the ground as he is escaping from the cave-in. The book can also be seen on a table next to Juliet during one of her flashbacks in the season three episode "Not In Portland." Finally, in the season three episode "One of Us", it was revealed in a flashback that Ben was reading Carrie and found it extremely depressing. Also, the headmaster of Carrie's school has the name 'Henry Grayle', surprisingly similar to Ben's alias, 'Henry Gale'.

★ On the Canadian TV show ''Being Ian'', Ian is shown winning an Oscar. While he is thanking the audience, his two brothers are on the roof, and pour what looks like pig blood on Ian. Ian's eyes go wide, and he shuts the doors with his "telekinetic powers" (The screen gets a red tinge here, much like the movie). He also makes his brothers float in mid-air. His brothers begin to laugh, and we see he was only imagining it, his brothers are pouring chocolate sauce on him in real life.

★ In the sitcom ''Just Shoot Me!'', Nina tells Maya, who has been invited to a party, that, "they're just using you. They tell you how good you look, hook you up with a handsome guy, and then when you least expect it, they dump a bucket of pig's blood on your head!" Maya responds, "That's the plot of ''Carrie''."

★ In ''The Nanny'', when Brighton refuses to take a girl named Brooke to the dance, Fran yells at him and says, "Do you know what could happen if you torment a girl that age? We'll go to the video store and I'll rent you ''Carrie''."

★ In the show ''Medium'', one episode begins with Allison dreaming about her daughter experiencing her first school dance as Carrie. Blood falls on her after she wins the competition and she uses telekinetic powers to trap everyone.

★ In the 1999 film "Superstar" Mary Katherine has a bucket of paint dumped on her during a talent show audition by her enemy Evian, similarly to that in "Carrie"

★ In the show ''Head of the Class'' Janice speculates about a possible outcome of the approaching senior prom similar to the climax of the book. Creepily, she seems excited at the prospect.

★ In the show ''She-Wolf of London'' in the episode "Eclipse" Randi attends a support group for people with paranormal abilities. A primly dressed character describes a humiliating experience at her prom where everyone laughed at her. After 'asserting herself' the way she was taught in group, she states "Everyone stopped laughing." Presumably because they were busy burning to death. After the girl sits down, the facilitator says "Thank you for sharing that, Carrie."

★ In Episode six, season one of British sitcom ''The IT Crowd'', Jen (''Katherine Parkinson'') tries to subtly say she's having her period. After it becomes clear Moss (''Richard Ayoade'') doesn't understand, Roy (''Chris O'Dowd'') yells "Carrie, Moss, first scene in Carrie".

★ Garrison Keillor once provided listeners to ''A Prairie Home Companion'' with a list of things he had learned from horror movies; heavily emphasized was "''Don't go to the prom!''"

★ In an episode entitled The Prom on the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a rejected senior trains hellhounds to attack the prom by showing them movies involving proms, including Carrie.

★ In the show The Drew Carey Show, in an episode where Drew, Kate, Lewis and Oswald attend their Highschool Reunion, at the end Drew Carey is on stage and the crowd of his peers are chanting the name "Carey" (Carrie). Then, blood is dropped on him after which he telekinetically slams the doors to the auditorium shut.

★ The scene near the end of the movie White Chicks, when Heather and Megan fall from the rafter and are soaked by two buckets of red paint is reminiscent of the prom scene from Carrie.

★ The music video for the Jill Sobule song "Supermodel" borrows extensively from Carrie in both plot and style, down to the split screen effect at the end.

★ A Filipino rip off titled "Anak ng dilim
★ (Daughter of Darkness) was released in 1999. It follows a similar plot about a girl named Adela, unlike Carrie she had an overly religious big sister instead. It has the pig blood at the prom scene as well.

★ In the TV show Supernatural,a dream of Sam Winchester involves a hand shooting up from a grave.

Adaptations

★ A 1976 movie, based on the novel, was made, directed by Brian de Palma and starring Sissy Spacek.

★ In 1999, a sequel titled '' was released. The premise was that Carrie's father had remarried and had another daughter who had telekinetic powers. Sue Snell, the only survivor of the prom, is now a school counselor.

★ In 2002, a TV movie remake was released. It starred Angela Bettis, Emilie de Ravin and Patricia Clarkson.

★ A 1988 Broadway musical, starring Betty Buckley, Linzi Hateley, and Darlene Love closed after only five performances and 16 previews. It is viewed as one of the biggest Broadway flops of all time.

Editions

★ ISBN 0-606-00823-3 (prebound, 1975)

★ ISBN 0-385-08695-4 (hardcover, 1990)

★ ISBN 1-56780-057-2 (paperback, 1992)

★ ISBN 0-8161-5688-3 (library binding, 1994, Large Type Edition)

★ ISBN 84-01-49966-6 (hardcover, 1999)

★ ISBN 0-671-03973-3 (paperback, 2000)

★ ISBN 0-606-20594-2 (prebound, 2001)

★ ISBN 0-609-81090-1 (paperback, 2001)

★ ISBN 0-671-03972-5 (paperback, 2002)

★ ISBN 84-01-49888-0 (hardcover)

★ ISBN 0-7434-7060-5 (mass market paperback)

References

1. http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.htm
2. "Stephen King: 'I Like to go for the Jugular'" Grant, Charles L. ''Twilight Zone Magazine'' vol 1 no 1 April 1981
3. Introduction to "Carrie" (Collector's Edition) King, Tabitha Plume 1991
4. "On Becoming a Brand Name" essay King, Stephen Adelina Magazine Feb 1980 p. 44
5. "Stephen King From A to Z: An Encyclopedia of His Life and Work" Beahm, George 1988 Andrews McMeel pp. 28-30
6. "The Stephen King Companion" Beahm, George Andrews McMeel press 1989 pp. 171-173
7. "From Textbook to Checkbook" Wells, Robert W. Milwaukee Journal Sep 15, 1980
8. "The Art of Darkness" Winter, Douglas E. 1984 Signet pp. 28-35
9. This is mentioned on the DVD deluxe release.
7. LOST - Episode 3X01: Juliet's book club are discussing the novel.

External links

★ Carrie Book Review

★ CARRIE THE MUSICAL OFFICIAL WEBSITE

★ Flyrope.com page on the musical