Carrie By Stephen King Reading Response

Many kids all over the world are often being bullied both at home and in school, and because of this the outcome can range from suicide to murder. Carrie by Stephen King gave an example of a child who was being hurt, Carrie White. Carrie White is a misfit high school girl, who gradually discovers that she has telekinetic powers. Repressed by a domineering, ultra-religious mother and tormented by her peers at school, her efforts to fit in lead to a dramatic confrontation during the senior prom that involved killing all the people who wronged her. Although Carrie looked like she didn’t care about what was going on in her life, she was actually being subjected to social abuses such as bullying, abuse, and religious discrimination which led her to more brutal reactions.

Initially, Carrie is frequently being bullied by her peers in school that would affect her later on. For instance, while Carrie was writing in her notebook during class, she noticed that there was graffiti scratched into her desk that said, “Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, but Carrie White eats shit.” This expresses how even when Carrie was not around, people in her school still made fun of her finding other ways. This also gives some insight on what might happen later on because just as some kids in the real world act out violently, Carrie was doing the same thing. Carrie was being bullied in school quite often. Moreover, when Carrie had just gotten her period and didn’t know what it was, kids in her gym class were making fun of her and she recites, “Then the laughter, disgusted, contemptuous, horrified, seemed to rise and bloom into something jagged and ugly, and the girls were bombarding her with sanitary napkins…” This part makes me think that Carrie was not only being bullied verbally but also physically. When the students were throwing napkins at her no one bothered to stand up for her. That showed how some schools all over the world have society’s that are so bad that people won’t help others. Sometimes on the news I hear about a school whose students were being bullied so much that they finally reacted in either suicide or violence such as shootings.

Subsequently, Carrie was not only being tormented at school but she was being abused at home by her own mother. For example, when Carrie told her mother that she was invited to prom her mother reacted, “She was whirled into the closet headfirst and she struck the far wall and fell on the floor in a semi daze.” This proves that Carrie was being abused physically, Carrie had never gotten self-confidence from her mother all she got was abuse and that made me realize that Carrie may have reacted so violently because of this. She was constantly being abused by her own mother. Correspondingly, when Carrie was talking about the things that her mother was doing she said, “There had been times when Momma had kept her in the close for as long as days at a stretch.” This made me feel sympathy for Carrie because the person whom she thought she could trust would lock her in a closet for hours. This also gives some insight that Carrie had no safe place to go, because she was being abused at home a place that was supposed to give love to her but instead; Carrie had a good reason to act out so brutally to the people who wronged her. There are people in this country who are being abused not only by their parents but also strangers and these people can often relate to Carrie because of the things that were happening.

Finally, Carrie was also being subjected to religious discrimination in her life which affected her in her life. Namely, in the book when an article was writing about Carries family they said, “Due to the White’s near-fanatical fundamentalist religious beliefs, Mrs. White had no friends to see through her period of bereavement.” This explains how because of their deep religious beliefs Carrie’s mother ended up with no friends who would then also show that because of religion Carrie had also been affected by it and also had no friends which would eventually lead to bullying. Today, a lot of people have taken toll on religion and have acted out because of it just as Carrie and her mother did. Also, after Carrie told her mother that she had gotten her first period, her mother freaked out and yelled, “Go to your closet. Pray in secret. Ask forgiveness for your sins!” This shows how Carrie‘s mother’s crazy religious beliefs in the fact that having a period is a sin, made Carrie have no idea what it was and therefore embarrass herself. There are religious families around the world who take things to the extreme and their children would have to suffer for it.

Consequently, Carrie is an example of one of the people who often gets abused not only at school but also at home. There were articles on children who have been bullied so much that they went suicidal to violence. There are stories on how some people are so driven out of their mind about bullying that they will go to the extreme and shooting occurs. Carrie was like that and acted out because of these three things, bullying, abuse, and religious discrimination. She went along and killed all of the people who had wronged her.  She may have seemed like a girl who wanted no harm but then at the end, she was pushed up until the point when she couldn’t take it anymore and decided to become violent.

Julia Nowak 811