Carrie
Victim
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Rebel
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Temptress
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Carrie plays the role of victim of bullying and abuse. In the beginning scene Carrie comes out of the gym shower and sees blood running down her leg. King writes, “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.” This shows Carrie is a victim because all the girls are making fun of her simply because she doesn’t know what a period is. She should not be bullied because Margaret is not a good mother, which brings us to the second point. she is a victim of Margaret’s abuse. Magaret once looked her in a closet to pray for forgiveness for a day. Carrie fainted from the smell of her own waste. First, she is verbally taunted by her schoolmates, and right after she goes home to a physically abusive mother. Overall, Carrie is seen as the victim in the beginning of the book.
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Carrie is seen as a rebel because throughout the book, she talks back to her mom and goes against her mom. For example, when Margaret finds Carrie in her prom dress, after returning to work, she tells Carrie to take it off repeatedly. However, Carrie continuously says no and goes to the prom anyways. As you can see, Carrie is quite rebellious towards her mom and does the opposite of what she says. Another part that shows this is when her mom disapproves of Carrie going to prom, let alone with Tommy, but Carrie still sneaks out and goes. These moments when Carrie decides to go against what her mom says proves that she is a rebel. Margaret is her only parent and usually kids have to follow their parents rules or they’ll get grounded or charged with another punishment. In this case, Carrie doesn’t care what the punishment is and still does whatever she wants. For that reason, Carrie is seen like a rebel when she is with her mom.
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Carrie is a temptress because she uses her telekinetic powers to her advantage. Instead of using them to help others, she uses it as a weapon. For example, in the end, King writes, “State officials say that the death toll in Chamberlain stands at 409, with 49 still listed as missing.” This was caused by Carrie. She uses her powers to trap all the kids that went to the Spring Ball in a burning school building for revenge, blows up the whole town, and kills her mom by stopping her heart. She takes advantage of her powers to make everyone else weaker. She kills 458 people and dies herself from blood loss. No one would have died if she didn’t do any of this. None of it was necessary if she would’ve dealt with bullying and abuse a different way and ask someone to help her with her problems. Sue would’ve easily agreed to help her. Therefore, Carrie seems like a temptress because of the fact she didn’t ask for help and she tried to solve her problems by punishing others using her powers.
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Sue (and Tommy)
The Good Girl
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The Scapegoat
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Star- Crossed Lovers
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Although at the start of the story Sue seems like just another mean girl she recognizes that her action were wrong and tries to make up for it. Sue joins Chris when she starts throwing things at Carrie, but she tries to help Carrie after feeling empathy for her. She proves she is a good girl when King writes, “‘Wait. Just wait. Let me talk. You want me to ask Carrie White to the Spring Ball… [Tommy says]’” Sue askes Tommy to take Carrie as a way to make up for bullying and to help Carrie break out of her shell. She wants Carrie to not be so timid around kids because she’s scared she's going to be made fun of. Sue seems like a good girl because she recognizes her mistakes and tries to fix them. She feels guilty about bullying Carrie and to make up for it she tries to do the complete opposite and help her. Thus, Sue tries to maintain her good girl attitude not for a public image, but for her self benefit.
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Toward the end of the book, Sue is treated like a scapegoat. King supports this statement when he writes, “Q. [interviewer] You deny you had prior knowledge of Carrie White’s whereabouts? A.[Sue] Of course I do. It’s an absurd idea.” This quote shows the society people not trusting Sue and keeps hammering her to try to get her to say what they want to hear. Sue seems like a scapegoat because she is blamed by the society for knowing where Carrie was and having knowledge that she was going to blow up the whole town . For this reason, Sue can be considered a scapegoat during her interview after Carrie’s horrific effect on Chamberlain.
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Sue and Tommy are star- crossed lovers because Sue lives and Tommy dies due to Sue‘s good girl personality. Sue askes Tommy to go with Carrie to the prom and when he does they win prom king and queen. Pig blood gets poured on them causing Carrie to lose her mind and start killing everyone including Tommy. Sue is left alone and one of the only survivors of Carrie’s reign of terror. When Tommy dies, it shows they are star crossed lovers because their love is ill-faded. Sue’s act of kindness to help Carrie come out of her shell is her downfall and as a result Tommy and Sue become star- crossed lovers.
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Miss Desjardin- The Mother Figure
Miss Desjardin seems like the mother figure to Carrie due to Margaret not acting like a mom. One reason one can call Miss Desjardin a mom to Carrie because when Carrie goes through her first period . She tries to help her and defend her from the taunts of the other girls. Many teachers will send her to the nurse or just punish the bullies. However, she acts like a mom and tries to help and educate on her. In addition, Miss Desjardin tries to punish the bullies harder than just two detention periods. She cares for Carrie and wants to help her with her problems . Maybe this is because she had a mom that didn't care about her or she was bullied as a kid as well. Margaret treats Carrie like a dog while Miss Desjardin treats her like an actual daughter. All in all, Miss Desjardin takes the place of Margaret’s absent mom attitude making her kind of like her second mom.
Tommy- The Puppet
Tommy can be seen as a puppet with Sue being the puppet master. This is shown through his decision of asking Carrie to the Spring Ball. When Sue askes. Tommy to ask Carrie to go with him, he quickly agrees it besides his small doubts . Tommy follows Sue and what she does because he is basically blinded by her love, since Tommy agreed to ask Carrie despite dating Sue. It could've been a test to see if Tommy would actually do it to prove his love for her, but he wouldn’t know because he is too focused on making her happy. This is his downfall because he is so dependent on her resembling a puppet and the puppet master controlling it. Tommy acts like Sue's little puppet that she is controlling and Tommy is happy to fit that position in exchange for Sue's love.
Chris (and Billy)
Popular Mean Girl
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Spoiled Brat
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Shadow-Bully
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Chris acts like the stereotypical popular mean girl with a clique that everyone is nice to out of fear. All the teachers are scared to stick it to her with the exception of Miss Desjardin. King writes, “‘Chris and her Mortimer Sherds’ Morton murmured.” Even Mr. Morton, the assistant principal, knows Chris and her little minions are a problem. The way King writes murmured to describe the way Mr. Morton talked shows he didn’t want to say it too loud and have anyone overhearing. Also, Chris fits the popular stereotype because she is so concerned about winning prom queen until she is suspended from the prom. The prom queen desire and campaigning seems like the popular mean girl in all school life movies and book that everyone hates. That being the case, she fits the role of popular mean girl.
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In addition to being that popular mean girl that everyone despises, Chris is the spoiled brat in the school. This is supported when Miss Desjardin pushes Chris against the locker for verbally and physically harassing Carrie, but Chris refuses to take her two detention punishment. After the incident she goes straight to her lawyer also, known as her dad. King writes, “‘I am here because my daughter was manhandled by your gym teacher Miss Rita Desjardin. and verbally abused..’ [Chris’ dad said]” As you can see, Chris is only telling her dad her side of the story and not Miss Desjardin’s reasoning. This resembles a spoiled brat because she complains to her parents to get others in trouble. Because of her dependence on her dad, she seems like a spoiled brat.
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Chris and Billy are a perfect example of a shadow in a school environment, also called a bully. They run the halls like a perfect couple. Everyone fears them, and does their best to satisfy them because they don’t want to be made fun of. A part in the book that shows this clearly is when Chris and Billy take pig blood and places it above the prom stage to put on the winners of prom queen and king, since they couldn't run. Because Chris was banned from the prom her malicious attitude creates a lot of drama. She makes sure Carrie wins prom queen to embarrass her. She wants to punish her more form getting her banned from the prom. On that account, Chris and Billy act like the school bullies to punish others and take out their aggression on them.
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