Carrie: The bloody parts

Carrie White is a 16-year old girl who lives a miserable life between home and school. Not only is her widowed mother a fanatic Christian but she’s also psychotic. Carrie is verbally and physically abused by her mother who considers any form of pleasure or comfort as sinful. She doesn’t allow pillows. She doesn’t allow showers. (Baths only!) She refers to breasts as “dirtypillows.” When Carrie’s first period comes, she’s in the shower of school following a physical education class.

Carrie turned off the shower. It died in a drip and a gurgle.
It wasn’t until she stepped out that they all saw the blood running down her leg.¹Stephen King, Carrie, (New York: Random House, 1974; Reprint edition, 2013), 6.

She reacted in a panic attack as blood flowed down. Her mother had never explained to her the changes of puberty. To make matters worse, her classmates took on the opportunity to taunt and bully her:

“Per-iod!”
The catcall came first from Chris Hargensen. It struck the tiled walls, rebounded, and struck again. Sue Snell gasped laughter from her nose and felt an odd, vexing mixture of hate, revulsion, exasperation, and pity. She just looked so dumb, standing there, not knowing what was going on. God, you’d think she never-
“PERiod!”²Ibid., 7. Unless stated otherwise, all italics are in original.

Then came the climax point in the book’s most infamous scene:

“She thinks they’re for lipstick!” Ruth Gogan suddenly shouted with cryptic glee, and then burst into a shriek of laughter.
…
“You’re bleeding!” Sue yelled suddenly, furiously. “You’re bleeding, you big dumb pudding!”
Carrie looked down at herself.
She shrieked.
…
Then 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. They flew like snow and the chant became: “Plug it up, plug it up, plug it up, plug it-“³Ibid., 8.

Meanwhile, Carrie’s potentially dangerous telekinetic powers, which she had since birth, reawakened with her first menstruation. She could mentally control and move objects from a distance. In her panic fit, she burst a light bulb.

Carrie was allowed to return home early from school where she sat alone surrounded by symbols of religiosity:

[The living room was] dominated by a huge plaster crucifix on the far wall, fully four feet high. Momma had mail-ordered it special from St. Louis. The Jesus impaled upon it was frozen in a grotesque, muscle-straining rictus of pain, mouth drawn down in a groaning curve. His crown of thorns bled scarlet streams down temples and forehead. The eyes were turned up in a medieval expression of slanted agony. Both hands were also drenched with blood and the feet were nailed to a small plaster platform. This corpus had also given Carrie endless nightmares in which the mutilated Christ chased her through dream corridors, holding a mallet and nails, begging her to take up her cross and follow Him.⁴Ibid., 48.

While her mother was still out…

She unsnapped her heavy cotton bra and let it fall. Her breasts were milk-white, upright and smooth. The nipples were a light coffee color. She ran her hands over them and a little shiver went through her. Evil, bad, oh it was. Momma had told her there was Something. The Something was dangerous, ancient, unutterably evil. It could make you Feeble. Watch, Momma said. It comes at night. It will make you think of the evil that goes on in parking lots and roadhouses.
But, though this was only nine-twenty in the morning, Carrie thought that the Something had come to her. She ran her hands over her breasts
(dirtypillows)
again, and the skin was cool but the nipples were hot and hard, and when she tweaked one it made her feel weak and dissolving. Yes, this was the Something.⁵Ibid., 51.

The gym teacher, Miss Desjardin, punished the girls for their behavior with one week of detention. Anyone who misses the detention loses their prom privileges. The ringleader, Chris Hargensen, rebelled hoping others would join her but they did not. Later Chris, realizing she won’t be allowed into the prom, planned to take revenge and humiliate Carrie in front of all prom attendees even though the latter was her victim.

While Carrie was a lonely girl, her schoolmates and abusers were popular girls who had boyfriends. One of them was Sue Snell:

She had been going out more or less steadily with Tommy ever since October (it was now May) and they had been lovers for only two weeks. Seven times, she amended. Tonight had been the seventh. There had been no fireworks yet, no bands playing “Stars and Stripes Forever,” but it had gotten a little better. The first time had hurt like hell. Her girl friends, Helen Shyres and Jeanne Gault, had both done It, and they both assured her that it only hurt for a minute-like getting a shot of penicillin-and then it was roses. But for Sue, the first time had been like being reamed out with a hoe handle. Tommy had confessed to her since, with a grin, that he had gotten the rubber on wrong, too.
Tonight was only the second time she had begun to feel something like pleasure, and then it was over. Tommy had held out for as long as he could, but then it was just . . . over. It seemed like an awful lot of rubbing for a little warmth.⁶Ibid., 54.

Being a popular teenage girl, Sue Snell had fears which seemed a world away from Carrie.

There were dark things lumbering around their warm circle of light. The idea that she had let him fuck her
(do you have to say it that way yes this time I do)
simply because he was Popular, for instance. The fact that they fit together walking, or that she could look at their reflection in a store window and think, There goes a handsome couple.
…
The word she was avoiding was expressed To Conform, in the infinitive, and it conjured up miserable images of hair in rollers, long afternoons in front of the ironing board in front of the soap operas while hubby was off busting heavies in an anonymous Office; of joining the P.T.A. and then the country club when their income moved into five figures; of pills in circular yellow cases without number to insure against having to move out of the misses’ sizes before it became absolutely necessary and against the intrusion of repulsive little strangers who shat in their pants and screamed for help at two in the morning; of fighting with desperate decorum to keep the niggers out of Kleen Korners, standing shoulder to shoulder with Terri Smith (Miss Potato Blossom of 1975) and Vicki Jones (Vice President of the Women’s League), armed with signs and petitions and sweet, slightly desperate smiles.⁷Ibid., 56.

Sue had been torn with remorse the whole evening about the shower incident. She told Tommy what happened. When he questioned her actions and what that “silly bitch” ever did to her, she hit back:

“When did you start making all these big moral decisions? After you started fucking me?”⁸Ibid., 59.

After that open conversation with Tommy, Sue felt a little better. Then they gave sex another try:

She pulled him to her. “Love me. My head is so bad tonight. Love me. Love me.”
So he loved her and this time it was different, this time there finally seemed to be room and there was no tiresome rubbing but a delicious friction that went up and up: Twice he had to stop, panting, and held himself back, and then he went again
(he was a virgin before me and admitted it i would have believed a lie)
and went hard and her breath came in short, digging gasps and then she began to yell and hold at his back, helpless to stop, sweating, the bad taste washed away, every cell seeming to have its own climax, body filled with sunlight, musical notes in her mind, butterflies behind her skull in the cage of her mind.⁹Ibid., 60.

Carrie’s mentally unstable mother believed that menstruation is some kind of punishment for sin. When she returned home and found out that her daughter had just had her first period, she started raging:

“O Lord,” Momma declaimed hugely, her head thrown back, “help this sinning woman beside me here see the sin of her days and ways. Show her that if she had remained sinless the Curse of Blood never would have come on her. She may have committed the Sin of Lustful Thoughts. She may have been listening to rock ‘n roll music on the radio. She may have been tempted by the Antichrist. Show her that this is Your kind, vengeful hand at work and-”
“No! Let me go!”
She tried to struggle to her feet and Momma’s hand, as strong and pitiless as an iron manacle, forced her back to her knees.
“-and Your sign that she must walk the straight and narrow from here on out if she is to avoid the flaming agonies of the Eternal Pit. Amen.”
She turned her glittering, magnified eyes upon her daughter. “Go to your [prayer] closet now.”
“No!” She felt her breath go thick with terror.
“Go to your closet. Pray in secret. Ask forgiveness for your sin.”
“I didn’t sin, Momma. You sinned. You didn’t tell me and they laughed.”¹⁰Ibid., 68.

Her mother’s fury continued:

“You spawn of the devil,” she whispered. “Why was I so cursed?”
Carrie’s whirling mind strove to find something huge enough to express her agony, shame. terror, hate, fear. It seemed her whole life had narrowed to this miserable, beaten point of rebellion. Her eyes bulged crazily, her mouth, filled with spit, opened wide.
“You SUCK!” she screamed.
Momma hissed like a burned cat. “Sin!” she cried. “O, Sin!” She
began to beat Carrie’s back, her neck, her head. Carrie was driven, reeling, into the close blue glare of the closet.
“You FUCK!” Carrie screamed.
(there there o there it’s out how else do you think she got you o god o good)
She was whirled into the closet headfirst and she struck the far wall and fell on the floor in a semi daze. The door slammed and the key turned.
She was alone with Momma’s angry God.¹¹Ibid., 70.

Then the reader is presented with some background about Carrie from the seventh grade. She wrote a disturbing poem for an assignment which was saved by her teacher:

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?¹²Ibid., 88.

In dealing with her feelings of guilt, Sue convinced her boyfriend, Tommy, to take Carrie instead to the upcoming prom. He asked Carrie and, though she was suspicious, she gladly accepted.

At supper, defiant Carrie told her mother about her prom date. Her mother reacted by throwing tea in her face, then hysterically yelled at her…

“The closet,” she said. “Go to your closet and pray.”
“No, Momma.”
“Boys. Yes, boys come next. After the blood the boys come. Like sniffing dogs, grinning and slobbering, trying to find out where that smell is. That . . . smell!”¹³Ibid., 119.

The prom night arrives. Carrie put on her gorgeous, sexy dress which she designed herself. Her mother was seething when she saw her dressed like a “harlot” in a “Satanic red” gown.

“Take off that dress,” Momma said.
“No.”
“Take it off, Carrie. We’ll go down and burn it in the incinerator together, and then pray for forgiveness. We’ll do penance.” Her eyes began to sparkle with the strange, disconnected zeal that came over her
at events which she considered to be tests of faith. “I’ll stay home from work and you’ll stay home from school. We’ll pray. We’ll ask for a Sign. We’ll get us down on our knees and ask for the Pentecostal Fire.”
“No, Momma.”
Her mother reached up and pinched her own face. It left a red mark. She looked to Carrie for reaction, saw none, hooked her right hand into claws and ripped it across her own cheek, bringing thin blood. She whined and rocked back on her heels. Her eyes glowed with exaltation.
“Stop hurting yourself, Momma. That’s not going to make me stop either.”
Momma screamed. She made her right hand a fist and struck herself in the mouth, bringing blood. She dabbled her fingers in it, looked at it dreamily, and daubed a spot on the cover of the Bible.
“Washed in the Blood of the Lamb,” she whispered. “Many times. Many times he and I-”
“Go away, Momma.”
She looked up at Carrie, her eyes glowing. There was a terrifying expression of righteous anger graven on her face.
“The Lord is not mocked,” she whispered. “Be sure your sin will find you out. Burn it, Carrie! Cast that devil’s red from you and burn it! Burn it! Burn it! Burn it!”
The door slammed open by itself.
“Go away, Momma.”¹⁴Ibid., 148.

Earlier Chris had planed with her boyfriend, Billy, to dump buckets of pig blood on Carrie and Tommy during their announcement as king and queen of the prom. She also intended on rigging the prom elections for that purpose. Billy and his friends went to a farm and slaughtered two pigs and collected their blood.

Chris found Billy’s unrefined, working class character seductive. She manipulated him through sex. He’s the typical 1950s bad boy who maintained perfectly groomed hair and drove his car too fast. His grease-covered hands were offered to explore…

“Feel me,” she said in his ear. “Feel me all over. Get me dirty.”
He did. One nylon split like a gaping mouth. Her skirt, short to begin with, was pushed rudely up to her waist. He groped greedily with no finesse at all. And something-perhaps that, perhaps the sudden brush with death[while driving dangerously]-brought her to sudden, jolting orgasm.¹⁵Ibid., 163.

Carrie waited for Tommy while worrying she was a victim of a practical joke. He did show up and he treated her like a lady.

At home, Momma came to the conclusion that the devil had taken possession of Carrie and there was only one solution:

Blood, fresh blood. Blood was always at the root of it, and only blood could expiate it.
She was a big woman with massive upper arms that had dwarfed her elbows to dimples, but her head was surprisingly small on the end of her strong, corded neck. It had once been a beautiful face. It was still beautiful in a weird, zealous way. But the eyes had taken on a strange, wandering cast, and the lines had deepened cruelly around the denying but oddly weak mouth. Her hair, which had been almost all black a year ago, was now almost white.
The only way to kill sin, true black sin, was to drown it in the blood of
(she must be sacrificed)
a repentant heart. Surely God understood that, and had laid His finger upon her. Had not God Himself commanded Abraham to take his son Isaac up upon the mountain?¹⁶Ibid., 184.

Momma waited with a knife for Carrie to return home:

The knife…slicked the cup of her palm below the thumb.
She looked at the cut. It bled slowly, thickly, from the open lips of the wound, running out of her hand and spotting the worn linoleum of the kitchen floor. Good, then. It was good. The blade had tasted flesh and let blood. She did not bandage it but tipped the flow over the cutting edge, letting the blood dull the blade’s sharp glimmer. Then she began to sharpen again, heedless of the droplets which splattered her dress.
If thine right eye offend thee, pluck it out.
If it was a hard scripture, it was also sweet and good. A fitting scripture for those who lurked in the doorway shadows of one-night hotels and in the weeds behind bowling alleys.
Pluck it out.¹⁷Ibid., 199.

Carrie had the night of her life. Other girls admired her dress and Tommy danced with her. Then the voting started for Prom King and Queen. Above the stage, Chris and Billy were ready with the buckets of pig blood. Carrie and her date voted for themselves. In an ominous moment, as Carrie made her vote, the pencil broke and cut her finger.

They’ were announced as winners and they got on stage in disbelief of the victory. A moment later, the content of the buckets was dumped on them. Carrie stood there covered in blood and Tommy was lying dead next to her after one of the two buckets fell and hit him on the head. The reaction to the prank was laughter from everyone.

Carrie immediately took revenge on everyone using her supernatural powers. She turned on the sprinklers and dropped the power cords. She watched the prom attendees burn to death or die electrocuted. Then she walked out of the school, and unleashed fiery destruction on the whole commercial centre of the town.

Then she walked mindlessly into a church…

The veins on her face and neck bulged. Her mind was filled with the huge knowledge of POWERS, and of an ABYSS. She prayed in front of the altar, kneeling in her wet and torn and bloody gown, her feet bare and dirty and bleeding from a broken bottle she had stepped on. Her breath sobbed in and out of her throat, and the church was filled with groanings and swayings and sunderings as psychic energy sprang from her. Pews fell, hymnals flew, and a silver Communion set cruised silently across the vaulted darkness of the nave to crash into the far wall. She prayed and there was no answer. No one was there-or if there was, He/It was cowering from her. God had turned His face away, and why not? This horror was as much His doing as hers. And so she left the church.¹⁸Ibid., 249.

Religion had never brought her solace, only misery through her own mother!

Her mother received her at home in a delusional state holding a knife. Without a word on Carrie’s horrible appearance, she told her that she regretted giving birth to her…

“I should have killed myself when he put it in me,” she said clearly. “After the first time, before we were married, he promised. Never again. He said we just . . . slipped. I believed him. I fell down and I lost the baby and that was God’s judgment. I felt that the sin had been expiated. By blood. But sin never dies. Sin . . . never. . . dies.” Her eyes glittered.¹⁹Ibid., 260.

Carrie stared back at her and said…

“I came to kill you, Momma. And you were waiting here to kill me. Momma, I… it’s not right, Momma. It’s not…”
“Let’s pray,” Momma said softly. Her eyes fixed on Carrie’s and there was a crazed, awful compassion in them. The firelight was brighter now, dancing on the walls like dervishes. “For the last time, let us pray.”
“Oh Momma help me!” Carrie cried out.²⁰Ibid., 262.

In an instant, Carrie stopped her mother’s heart with her special powers then she walked out of her home towards the roadhouse where Chris and Billy were hiding and having sex. She burned it down but the malicious lovers managed to escape. They got into their car and Billy tried to run over Carrie. While standing in the middle of the road, she used her powers to flip the car over killing both of them. Carrie felt tired, she lied down to die on the street.

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