Carrie White

"They're just tryin' to trick me again. I know it."

- Carrie White in Carrie (1976).

Carrie White (full name: Carietta "Carrie" N. White) was the titular protagonist of Stephen King's novel Carrie - as well as several films and the musical based on the story. Carrie is the main anti-villain of the story, the true villains being her worst enemy, Chris Hargensen, and her abusive mother, Margaret White.

She is portrayed by Sissy Spacek in the classic 1976 film, Angela Bettis in the 2002 made-for-TV movie, and Chloe Grace Moretz in the 2013 remake.

History
Carrietta (Carrie) White's history is bizzare and tragic, her story is a thought provoking and cautionary tale about social isolation, peer pressure, religion and the outcome of bullying. She was the only child of Ralph and Margaret White. Both of her parents were very concencrated Christians and promised each other to never have sex before marriage. However, her father raped her mother one night when he came home from a Roadhouse down the street from their house and he was extremely drunk. Though Margaret put up a fight at first, she admitted later on that she smelled the Whiskey on his breath and she liked it. Carrie's father eventually left her mother when he got another woman pregnant and died shortly after. Margret was left all alone to give birth to her daughter in her own home, whom she named Carrietta.

As the years went by Margret's mental state deteriorated because she never got over Ralph, and she ultimately became obsessed with religion. Margaret believed that her daughter Carrie was a "child of sin", because she gave birth to her out of wedlock. As Carrie grew up, she had a very difficult childhood. Her mother strictly raised her to be a concencrated Christian like herself, and if she disobeyed or did something ungodly, Margaret would beat her with a Holy Bible, throw drinks at her, and send her to the prayer closet to pray for forgiveness. Carrie never had any friends because of her mother's deluded and crazy ways. She was a very lonely and quiet girl who was isolated and cut off from her surroundings, rarely leaving the house unless it was mandatory such as school.

Rain of Stones
In the novel; one day as a child, Carrie was playing in her yard until she ventured out into the next door neighbors' yard when her mother was not watching. There she found a young beautiful teenage girl sun bathing in a sexy bikini without a top on, her ex-neighbor Estelle "Stella" Horan. Carrie looked at the half naked girl and pointed to her breasts and asked her "what are those?" The girl replied "breasts" and told Carrie that one day she would get them. But Carrie shook her head and said that good girls do not get them and that she referred to breasts as 'dirty pillows' which was a phrase that her mother had put in her head. Margaret then came rushing out of her house hysterically, screaming at Carrie for talking with the neighbor girl, and even called her a "whore" and a "slut" which was heard by Estelle's mother, Mrs. Sheila Horan who asked Mrs. White to never call her daughter that anymore. She pulled Carrie by the arm and back inside the house and began abusing her. Screams and cries could be heard by neighbors nearby. Suddenly a rain of hailstones came falling from the sky and strangely only fell directly on the White's house, mainly damaging the roof and windows. It was later hinted that Carrie was the cause of this.

Prayer Closet
The prayer closet that Margret White locks her daughter to pray inside of for hours or even days at a time (depending in Margaret's sick mind how severely Carrie has sinned) is a very symbolic part of the story of Carrie. It represents the repression, mind control and power Margaret has over her daughter. It is a metaphor for Carrie's world of stolen freedom, being trapped and unable escape the misery that consumes the majority of her young life. Being inside the closet brings a strong feeling of claustrophobia and fear to Carrie as she cries, screams and pounds on the closet door begging to be let out, which is useless.

Inside the closet there are religious pictures hung up upon the walls, Bibles are laid out to read, candles for light and small religous figures cluttered all about the tiny space. A large and creepy Crucifix with a bleeding and suffering Jesus nailed to it also on the wall which is the focal point of the little room. When locked inside against her will, Carrie reads glamour magazines such as Cosmo or Seventeen to pass the time instead of just endlessly praying. She dreams of what being a normal teenage girl would be like and hides the magazines under the floor boards of the closet. So her mother will not find them to punish her even more for filling her head with provocative and ungodly things.

High School
Years later as a teenage girl who was slowly developing into a woman and attending public high school, Carrie was an outcast who was always singled out and relentlessly teased by cruel bullies and by the other popular classmates. Even a few teachers joined in on the fun making because of her crazy mother and the un-cool clothes her mother forced her to wear. At home, Carrie was constantly beaten into submission and stripped of her individuality by her insane mother on a regular basis but Carrie was too afraid to tell anyone.

Appearance
In the novel, Carrie was first descibed while showering in the girl's locker room at school. She is said to be a 'Frog amongst Swans', an unattractive teenage girl with long, straight oily, and colorless flat blonde hair that hangs over her face. She was chubby at the waist, and had a lot of pimples on her chest, face, and back and buttocks. As a small child, she was described by neighbors as being a very pretty little girl, who always wore homemade bright colored clothes, stockings and long skirts every day at school and at home. But over the years Carrie did a reverse ugly duckling.

She was never seen wearing jeans or skirts because her mother does not want her daughter to wears clothes that she describes for being "provocative". When Carrie got all dressed up to go to the Prom, she wore a red dress of thick crushed red velvet that she made herself, with high heeled shoes and a matching corsage.

In the classic 1976 Sissy Spacek movie, Carrie wore a flimsy light pink dress of silky material with a pink translucent sash wrapped loosley around her arms. She was more attractive and skinnier and unlike in the book she had no pimples, but did have many freckles. Her hair was straight but not very well kept and hangs over her face like in the novel. On Prom night, she brushed and curled her hair at the bottom. She walked with a slouch, wore Librarian clothing and had Hazel eyes. In the 2002 TV remake, she has long brown hair and brown eyes. Her forehead was big and slightly broad. As opposed to the novel, she was underweight. In the TV movie, she also wore a light pink dress like in the Sissy Spacek film.

Telekinesis
Carrie was mysteriously born with telekinesis. Which gave her the ability to move and control things with her mind whenever she concentrated hard enough. Carrie refers to her telekinesis as "flexing". At first this seemed like a rare and special gift, a miracle in Carrie's eyes that she strictly kept to herself, not telling a soul. Despite Carrie's effort to keep it a secret, she subconsciously had few a outbursts infront of people who witnessed this phenomenon but chose to ignore it. Carrie thought her telekinesis was a blessing, but in the end it all turned into a curse as Carrie did not now how to control her powers inside. And Carrie finally let it take over her mind and spirit, which lead not only to her eventual demise but sadly many others also. In the book, Carrie was also psychic and could sometimes read people's thoughts when they were near her. Such as Ms. Desjardins, her Physical Education teacher, which were a mixed feeling of sympathy and disgust.

Character analysis
Despite her eventually turning into a homicidal, sadistic, and destructive force to be reckoned with, Carrie was not a complete monster. Throughout her story in both the book and the movie, Carrie was shown as a shy young woman who had a traumatizing childhood and longed for a friend and someone who truly understood her pain and suffering. Alas, she let her powers get the better of her and this, coupled with all the abuse she suffered, caused her to undergo a villainous transformation.

Notably, even after her descent into villainy and madness Carrie is usually shown to still not be completely bereft of redeeming qualities. In several versions, she spares Miss Desjardin's life due to appreciating the kindness she had shown to her earlier and also chooses to let Sue Snell live even when she does not forgive her. Finally, she sought comfort in her mother following her rampage, suggesting that she still loved her and wanted to be loved by her even after all of the abuse Margaret showed to her.

Prior to snapping, Carrie was very sensitive and she would cry silently in her room late at night, dreading the next day of school. When she had her period for the first time, she was hysterically frightened because she thought she bleeding internally and was going to die. She appeared to be a shy student who kept to herself much of the time.

Carrie can be considered a secondary villain (to the main villains Margaret White and Chris Hargensen), a tragic villain, and a protagonistic villain.

Queen of the Prom
After years of humiliation and emotional and physical abuse, Carrie is pushed to her breaking point during the fateful night of her prom.

When Carrie arrives at the Prom, things look as if they are turning around for Carrie at last. She talks to some of the cool and popular kids and even cracks a few jokes and her peers actually laugh with her and finally not just at her. The night seems to be going fairly well as she gets complimented on her appearance. But Carrie's fantasy is ultimately shattered when she is tricked by vindictive and sociopathic students into being elected as Queen of the Prom and crowned on stage. She is sitting on the Queen's throne, when suddenly she is showered with pig's blood that is dumped on her from a bucket high above the throne and Carrie is drenched from head to toe in front of the entire school. Her red velvet dress she made for the special night is completely ruined. It is stated that Carrie looked as if someone had dipped her in a red bucket of paint. Tommy Ross, Carrie's date is also showered in pig's blood as he is sitting on the King's throne next to her with a second bucket above, but Carrie gets soaked the worst. Tommy's bucket falls and hits him on the top of his head. He is knocked unconscious, instantly killing him. The prank was followed by a rain of cruel laughter by even a few of the teachers including Ms. Desjardin, the teacher who was nice to Carrie, like a friend before. In embarrassment, Carrie then tries to flee the stage only for an anonymous student in the crowd of Prom goers, to stick their foot out to trip Carrie as she passes by. She falls clumsily, leaving a big streak of blood behind her as she slides on all fours across the room, and the laughter grows louder. Carrie gets back up on her feet and runs out of the school and lays on the wet grass outside to catch her breathe.

Descent into Madness and a thrist for Bloody Revenge
While Carrie is outside and in a state of utter shock, trying to come to terms with what just happened, Carrie remembers her telekinesis. She pulls herself together and returns to the school with a deep and ruthless vengeance. Carrie locks everyone inside the auditorium and looks in through the windows of the gymnasium doors and smiles as she see's everyone inside panicking. Carrie looks happy as she seeks her revenge and watches her fellow classmates electrocuted and ultimately burned alive before leaving to destroy the town next.

Only a few students and teachers survived that night of "The Black Prom".

Carrie, in a catatonic trance proceeded to go on a hellish rampage, destroying cars, and houses, blowing up gas stations, knocking over electric poles, setting the town of Chamberlain, Maine ablaze and killing as many people as she can. Innocent bystanders are running and screaming through the streets in all of the chaos and confusion throughout the town. After praying at a nearby chapel, Carrie then returns to her house and from her mother learns the truth about how she was conceived. Though at first Margaret appears to comfort her distraught daughter, she then brutally stabs her in the back, hitting an artery. Carrie retaliates by stopping her mother's heart. Carrie then makes her way outside and kills the two main antagonists who were the ringleaders of the prank, Chris Hargensen and her boyfriend Billy Nolan by crashing their car into the building of a nearby strip club and setting it on fire.

At the end of the story, Carrie has a deep conversation with Sue Snell before her dying, where she does not forgive Sue and chooses to hold a grudge. Carrie, however, does believe her when she states she had nothing to do with the prank at the Prom. Thus, Carrie leaves her alive showing her some mercy, but also shows Sue all of the soul crushing torment she received throughout her life. The story ends with Carrie crying out for her mother and dying in Sue's arms. Seconds later, Sue strangly has her period on herself with menstrual blood running down her leg. Sue received the "Curse" of Carrie. Rather Sue's period coming at the exact same time of Carrie's death was coincidentally or caused by Carrie, either one is left to the unknown.

The cause of Carrie's death is left a mystery. Carrie either died due to blood loss from her wounds, or she used her telekinesis to shut her own body down and committed suicide.

The Sissy Spacek Film
In this classic 1976 movie version only Carrie gets Pig's blood dumped on her. Tommy Ross does get hit in the head and knocked unconscious, but by Carrie's swinging bucket above, instead of two buckets with one as his own.

Everything that Carrie does to the Prom goers after the prank, happens inside of the gymnasium instead of Carrie just looking in the gym door windows like in the novel. The film adds the cruel twist in which she only imagined that everyone was laughing at her but in reality many of the students and staff were shocked and horrified by the incident, with only Chris Hargensen's group of friends actually laughing. This delusion of Carrie's triggered a psychotic episode in which she unleashed her suppressed telekinesis in a horrific manner - killing everyone in the gym while burning it down and locking everyone inside. There were no Survivors.

Carrie does not destroy the entire town in this movie. But while Carrie is slowly walking home and in a catatonic state, Chris Hargensen and her boyfriend Billy who is drunk, are driving in Billy's car. Chris is at the wheel and she see's Carrie down the same road ahead of them, she is walking and covered in pig's blood as wailing fire trucks are seen passing by. Chris pursues to run Carrie over, but Carrie quickly turns around to see them and flips the car over dozens of times and blows it up killing Chris and Billy both. Carrie then makes it home finally to find hundreds of religious candles lite and burning all throughout the home.

She slowly walks up stairs, takes off her bloody prom dress and washes herself in a hot bath. After she drys off and puts her nightgown on, she finds her mother Margaret standing behind her. In sadness and despair Carrie throws herself into her mother's arms only to be stabbed in the back by her with a butchers knife, believing Carrie is evil. Carrie's mother corners her in the kitchen of the house and in defense Carrie stabs her mother all over the body with kitchen utensils using her telekinesis. Carrie's mother has her hands pinned to the walls by knives and dies resembling Jesus on the cross. Realizing she has killed her own mother, Carrie screams in anguish and frustration. Carrie uses her telekinetic powers to make the house cave in and collapse with her and her mother inside which makes the candles all about the house knock over and burns the house to the ground. Carrie is knocked unconscious during the house fire, and while holding her dead mother in the Prayer closet, the two are buried together and Carrie dies.

Sue Snell, a former classmate of Carrie and girlfriend of the deceased Tommy, stayed home on Prom night so Tommy could take Carrie instead. Sue did not have anything to do with the prank, but is guilt ridden by the tragedy nonetheless. Sue is forever haunted by Carrie in her nightmares and will never be the same.

2002 TV Movie
In the 2002 remake of the fim Carrie suffers a black out because of the evil prank. She is therefore not aware of her surroundings and what she is doing, while she does all the destruction at the school and the town of Chamberlain that ends when she reaches her home to wash all the blood off in the bathtub. Only after reaching it and putting herself in water she recovers her awareness of the world around her. Shortly afterwards Carrie's mother tries to drown her in a overflowing bathtub after the Prom. She stops her mother's heart and kills her in self- defense. She nearly dies because of the murder attempt, but she is later found by Sue, who was looking for her. She manages to revive her. After waiting until things would cool down Carrie moves to Florida to start a new life thanks to the help of Sue who drives her halfway. Carrie was kept alive in this version, because a TV show was meant to follow after it, but the show never made it on air.

2013 Carrie Remake


The positive to mixed 2013 remake brought a few elements from the book into Carrie's story. Carrie also has the ability to effortlessly levitate. After the prank is pulled on her, she kills the majority of everyone inside and then sets the school ablaze, she then lifts herself up into the air after sparing the lives of only a few and flies out of the gymnasium to take on the entire town. In the ending, she seemingly dies after burying herself alive by bringing down her house with her own telekinetic power. However, when Sue Snell, after she learned from Carrie that she was pregnant with an unborn daughter belonged to both Sue and Tommy, leaves a flower at her desecrated grave, the tombstone cracks. Suggesting that Carrie maybe have in fact survived the night of the Prom and disappeared, never to be seen or heard from ever again.

Portrayals
Carrie White was portrayed by Sissy Spacek in the original movie, and was portrayed by Angela Bettis in the 2002 remake. In the 2013 film she is portrayed by Chloe Moretz.

The Rage, 1999 Sequel
In the poorly received sequel to the 1976 film, Sue Snell ends up becoming a school counselor. And Carrie's father Ralph White long before he was killed at a construction site years later, had another family including another daughter named Rachel, who also had telekinesis.

Personal Information
Race: Human

Birth: September 21, 1963 (1985 in the 2002 movie remake and 1995 in the same 2013 remake)

Died: May 28, 1979 (novel, 1976 movie, 2013 movie (though the post-credits ending leaves Carrie's fate unknown), and musical only, but lives on and redeems to a new life with the help of Sue Snell in the 2002 movie)

Star Sign: Virgo

Age: 16-17 (At death, in novel, 1976 movie, 2013 movie (though the post-credits ending leaves Carrie's fate unknown), and musical only)

Eye Color: Hazel in the 1976 film/2013 remake. (Brown in novel and the 2002 TV movie)

Hair Color: Dirty blonde (novel) Strawberry blonde (1976 movie and 2013 movie) Brown ( 2002 TV movie) Family:

Ralph White - Father (deceased)

Margaret White - Mother (deceased)

Rachel Lang - Half-sister (The Rage: Carrie 2 1999 movie only)

Trivia

 * She shares a similarity to the dog Max from the movie Man's Best Friend. They have both been abused throughout their life and always sought retribution.
 * She also shares this similarity to Matilda Wormwood from the Roald Dahl book Matilda as they have both been tormented throughout their life and both use their powers to get back at them. However whilst nearly everyone tormented Carrie it is only certain people who have tormented Matilda: her father, her mother, her brother and her headmistress.
 * She also shares similarities to Alessa Gillespie from the Silent Hill videogame series as Carrie and Alessa possessed psychokinetic powers, have been tormented at their schools by their cruel classmates, and both have psychotically religious mothers. It turns out these similarities were intentional, as Alessa is a direct reference to her.
 * She shares a similarity to It and a doctor who is the villain in The Pied Piper. They are all telekinetic.
 * She also shares a similarity to Aggie Prenderghast, both being treated as outcast, both having telekinesis and both used their powers against those who offended them.
 * She is not killed in the second adaptation and it is hinted that she lives in the 2013 adaptation as well.
 * She is also somewhat similar to Lucy from Elfen Lied as they both are tormented by students and angrily murdered them as they laughed, using forms of telekinesis.
 * She also shares this similarity to Willow Rosenberg from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a girl judged unsightly and humiliated daily by Cordelia Chase, the queen bee of her campus like Chris Hargensen. Willow also obtains a telekinetic power by becoming a witch. Her friendship with Buffy is possibly comparable to the relation between Carrie and Sue Snell as far as these last tries to restore her self-confidence in her and is in a way her guardian angel. However, Willow is neglected and not abused by her parents. Another difference, she was considered like the most studious among the campus contrary to Carrie who is ignored on all spheres. Later, Willow becomes a lesbian. When her girlfriend is murdered, Willow becomes a temporary dark version of herself, vengeful and empowered, similar to Carrie when humiliated in the prom. Interestingly, Willow has a veinous face like Rachel Lang in the sequel. Others females characters on the show are also inspired by Carrie. The relationship between Amy Madison and her mother is similar to Carrie and her mother from the 1976 film because the father left the family home. The mother becomes psychotic, obsessed by her youthful age and often humiliating her daughter.
 * Another villain from Buffy, Drusilla is depicted in her former human life as a pious, shy and virginal girl like Carrie, haunted by her medium power and considered herself as The Devil's gift. Becoming schizophrenic and vampirized, she has a comportment similar to Margaret White. Another medium, Cassie Newton is depressed by her own power and has cut all relationships.
 * In the 2013 remake, Carrie White mentioned that she inherited her telekinetic power from either her father Ralph, or from her great-grandmother Sadie Cochran, was the mother of Judith Cochran, the mother-in-law of John Brigman, the grandmother of Margaret Brigman. Sadie, like her great-granddaughter, was telekinetic. She died of heart failure at the age of 66, possibly from straining herself with her own powers.
 * She shares many traits with Elsa from Frozen. In order of events, both of their parents were deceased, they were depressed of their own powers (Elsa's ice powers and Carrie's telekinesis), they cut all relationships after humiliation striked upon them (Elsa's powers were revealed and Carrie's 'first experience' was filmed), they caused a traumatic disaster to their hometown (Elsa made an eternal winter in Arandelle and Carrie set her hometown aflame), and they were both responsible for the death of someone close to them (Elsa froze Anna's heart and Carrie telekinatically stopped her mother's heart). Interestingly, the main difference is how Elsa's powers froze things, while Carrie's telekinesis destroyed and set things on fire. Another thing is how the death of that someone had to do with the heart.