Carrie

As the next part of the novel focuses on Carrie’s vindictiveness, which stems from her having been tormented to the point of violence, the last section in the first part focuses on Chris’s vindictiveness, rooting it in Chris’s insider status as she uses her connections to form and enable her plan. She convinces her friend to give her access to the prom planning materials, but it isn’t until she learns Tommy and Carrie have been nominated for prom king and queen that her anger gains focus. Immediately after, she asks Billy to kill two pigs and drain their blood into buckets. Chris’s plan is symbolic, reflecting the adolescent milestones of menstruation and prom while also linking the novel’s initiating event to its end (and the ends of many characters).

Throughout the novel, the excerpts that focus on Carrie’s telekinetic power approach it through its biological characteristics and origins rather than highlighting its paranormal aspects. This gives the concept of Carrie’s power verisimilitude and reflects the cultural environment in which King wrote the work. In the early 1970s, the human body and mind were imagined to contain untapped powers, and telekinesis was widely considered to be one of these latent abilities. Carrie makes use of such beliefs, suggesting telekinesis is a “genetic-recessive occurrence” that manifests in women (126). This naturalization of telekinesis is yet another reason Carrie’s body and the markers of its difference—e.g., the comparisons to animals—receive so much emphasis in the work. The novel wants the reader to be aware of her body and what it becomes: a weapon. The longer excerpt draws two medical comparisons when describing the genetic basis of telekinesis. The first is hemophilia, a disease characterized by excessive bleeding, and the second is the case of Typhoid Mary. Typhoid Mary, or Mary Mallon, was a cook in New York in the early 1900s who was an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid and, allegedly, deliberately infected her affluent employers with the disease by preparing their food. Comparing Carrie with Typhoid Mary is telling, as it suggests the weaponization of one’s body, which is exactly what Carrie has been undertaking leading up to the prom.

Carrie’s absence in this section is notable, though her threat hangs over every scene. This last section instead focuses on a theme that will underpin the rest of the novel: retribution. The narrative closely details the steps Carrie, Chris, and Billy take toward their final acts of violence. In the previous section, Carrie refines her powers in a methodical way, readying herself to use her power in service of what she wants. In this final section before the prom, Chris and Billy each undertake deliberate action against Carrie and the prom itself. These methodical actions contrasted with the other major storyline: the steps Sue takes to rectify her participation in the locker-room mob.