Carrie: Part 1: Pages 117-137 Summary & Analysis

In an excerpt from her autobiography, Sue expresses her disgust that a sanitized film adaptation has been made out of what happened in Chamberlain. Monday morning, Morton asks Grayle about Hargensen, but Grayle says it doesn’t seem likely that Hargensen will go through with his threats. He tells Morton that Carrie is going to prom with Tommy, much to Morton’s shock. He continues that it looks like Sue put him up to it out of guilt, and that she doesn’t seem particularly bothered about missing her senior prom. When Morton asks if Grayle thinks there will be an incident at prom, Grayle admits he’s worried and recalls a violent riot that erupted during a school basketball game in 1976.

In an excerpt from The Shadow Exploded, Congress explains that the telekinetic (or “TK”) gene functions similarly to hemophilia, in which females can be a carrier but only males can suffer the disease, except that with the TK gene, the sexes are flipped. Congress suspects that Ralph White was a carrier, while Margaret White had the gene recessively, hence her lack of telekinesis—with there being a chance that Margaret’s grandmother was TK dominant. Thus, Carrie’s genetics were very improbable, but Congress emphasizes that, given the destruction her abilities caused, investigating the gene is of utmost importance.

On Wednesday afternoon, Sue is working on a mural for the Spring Ball. Her friend Helen works beside her, complaining about the work. She then asks Sue about Tommy asking Carrie to prom, and Sue admits that she asked him to as atonement for the locker room incident. Helen says that most people don’t necessarily look down on Sue’s decision, but that Chris and Billy do—but that most people in the school don’t respect Chris and Billy much. Just then, Chris herself passes by, and Sue wonders what she could possibly be doing in the area where the Prom Committee is working. As Sue continues coloring, she knows that despite Helen’s reassurance, she has lost the respect of her peers. In her autobiography, Sue reflects on how, although many of Carrie’s tormentors ultimately had some sympathetic qualities, Chris was completely hellbent on destroying Carrie.

In an empty classroom, Chris convinces Tina Blake to give her the various paperwork involved in planning the prom. Chris looks at the seating chart, trembling in anger when she sees Tommy and Carrie’s names together. She then turns her attention to the ballot for Prom King and Queen and laughs when she sees Tommy and Carrie on the ballot. She leaves, passing Sue as she works on the mural, and goes to call Billy. In The Shadow Exploded, Congress speculates that, although Chris was the one who wanted to bring Carrie down, Billy was the one who did most of the planning and execution.

Billy and a bunch of his friends screech up the road to a local farm, passing around joints as they go. The owner of the farm is a man named Henry known for driving people off his property under threat of buckshot, but Billy reassures his friends that Henry is away for a funeral. They arrive at the farm and approach two sows in a barn. As Billy prepares an icebox, his friend Henry holds a sledgehammer, but ultimately chickens out and hands it to Billy. Billy kills one sow with the sledgehammer, and a boy named Lou slits its throat. Billy places a bucket underneath to catch the blood. They then do the same to the other sow. The boys then place the buckets into the icebox and leave. As he drives, Billy thinks about “pig blood for a pig” and smiles.