Carrie White from the Horror Movie Carrie
Brings Up an Existential Question:
If
you had the
special powers of Carrie White would you exact revenge on
those you
felt wronged you? Is she a villain, or a hero?
Written
by BHM contributor Jennifer
G. March 1, 2007
Ah Yes, High school! Homecoming, SATs, calculus, and yes the Prom.
Having graduated from a very small all-girls catholic high school in
the Midwest, I, as well as my friends were spared the agonizing period
of waiting to discover if and when we would be asked to the dance- and
by whom. At an all-girls school, if you want to go to the Prom, you
have to do the asking. There were couples we knew would automatically
go together, girls paired up with boys from the local military academy
(our brother school), and then there were the cute long-haired guitar
playing public school guys who you would get to know and hopefully
date, if you threw enough neighborhood parties. I remember the rocker
public-school guy on whom I had a crush and the girl from my school
that he took to the prom, (she later became pregnant and he moved out
East to pursue his music never to be heard from again).
So I, like many was not immune to the emotional highs and lows of high
school.
However, to imagine the fresh hell that public school
could’ve provided stood luckily out of my reach. It
wasn’t until seeing the movie Carrie that my heart ached and
I heard myself quietly saying to Carrie White- “please, just
realize it’s your period, all women go through it.”
For those of us who have seen Carrie several times,
a type of
metamorphosis occurs within our conscience, the lines between right and
wrong cross indiscriminately. We may not have noticed the quiet longing
that Carrie White (played by Sissy Spacek) so eloquently displays
towards Tommy the first time we watch the movie. Or, the brilliance in
which she proudly stands up to her mother, played by Piper Laurie-
“they’re not dirty pillows, their breasts
Mama.” But after seeing the movie two, three, or more times-
Carrie White, in all her telekinetic glory, becomes
an underdog. She is
that part of ourselves we would like to tuck away forever; that part of
us that ran from our high school crush, hated gym and did not
understand the mean girls. She is quietly, embarrassingly like us. And
if this is true, we must then suffer the existential question- If I had
the special powers of Carrie White, would I exact revenge on those I
felt wronged me?
Carrie White’s situation of course is extreme. Terrorized by
her peers on a daily basis, overwhelmed by her religious fanatic
mother, she doesn’t have any way to vent. She
doesn’t have that safe place that we, as stress-coping
individuals, provide for ourselves; except in her mind where she has
complete control with the added bonus of controlling her
environment by
employing her thoughts. In one scene, Carrie White is walking home from
school after a typically rough day when a young boy on a bike makes fun
of her. She, on some level, maybe without even realizing it, has had
enough. The boy hits a stone, topples over his bike and crashes to the
ground. An odd sense of satisfaction comes over the viewer. Finally,
she has done something about her lot in life. She has proven that she
will not be pushed around.
Wouldn’t it be great to have that ability, just some of the
time, and only with those people that are especially mean-spirited?
After this scene and another in which she uses her power to stand up to
her mother, the direction of this movie becomes clear. Carrie White
will exact revenge on those who harm her. The
question however,
remains- On what level is her revenge acceptable? This young
bike-riding bully now has a couple bruises and bumps and hopefully
he’s learned his lesson. But he wasn’t set on fire.
Brian De Palma is not one of Hollywood’s greatest directors
for naught. With events set in motion and the prom looming, De Palma
begins to humanize his characters for either good or evil.
In one scene, we see Tommy, played by the “greatest American
cutie,” William Katt and his friends picking out tuxes for
the prom. He’s having fun and one gets the feeling
he’s not all that bummed out about going to the prom with
Carrie. Likewise, in another scene we begin to see Chris
Hargensen’s character, played by Nancy Allen, take form. Her
vindictiveness towards Carrie grows, and she is
unrelenting in her
desire to bring Carrie White down. Her plots and schemes against Carrie
are not just talk, she has something in store for the girl which,
unbeknownst to her, will prove to be her untimely demise. And who could
forget the infamous line Carrie’s Mom, Margaret, spews at her
daughter before the big event- “They’re all going
to laugh at you!” This line will play over and over again in
Carrie White’s mind as she tragically misinterprets the
reaction of the crowd after Chris has accomplished her evil deed.
Carrie White even believes her most fervent supporter,
Miss Collins
(played by Betty Buckley), is also chastising her. In a state of
intense rage, made all the more frightening by her grotesque
appearance, Carrie White does what she knows how to do best- use her
mind to manipulate the objects around her. Chaos
ensues, and a chain of
events are set in motion that will forever change the course of
everyone’s life. Sue Snell, played by Amy Irving is the only
one that survives this ordeal. She initially convinced her boyfriend
Tommy to take Carrie to the prom. Sue will forever live with the guilt
of that night. Carrie White is mercifully relieved of this guilt.
So, I ask you to choose. Is Carrie White a hapless victim in all of
this, or something more, something else? We want to know what
you think, so if you have comments
about Carrie White, contact us!
And to Carrie White, may you rest in peace. As far as I’m
concerned, you deserve to.
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Carrie White’s situation of course is extreme. Terrorized by
her peers on a daily basis, overwhelmed by her religious fanatic
mother, she doesn’t have any way to vent. She
doesn’t have that safe place that we, as stress-coping
individuals, provide for ourselves; except in her mind where she has
complete control with the added bonus of controlling her
environment by
employing her thoughts. In one scene, Carrie White is walking home from
school after a typically rough day when a young boy on a bike makes fun
of her. She, on some level, maybe without even realizing it, has had
enough. The boy hits a stone, topples over his bike and crashes to the
ground. An odd sense of satisfaction comes over the viewer. Finally,
she has done something about her lot in life. She has proven that she
will not be pushed around. 
