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Part 2: Pages 141-170
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Carrie, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Puberty, Adolescence, and Coming of Age
Female Sexuality and Shame
Conformity vs. Ostracization
Cycles of Abuse
Sin vs. Atonement
Summary
Analysis
At prom, Carrie admires the beautiful decorations and fancy outfits. She looks at the giant mural of Venice prepared by the students and feels that this moment will always remain with her. The two couples marvel for a moment before George shouts and takes to the dance floor. Norma Watson enters and sarcastically compliments Carrie; when she asks Carrie why she’s “glowing,” Carrie makes a snarky remark in response, catching Norma off-guard—much to Carrie’s satisfaction, since she’s usually the butt of the joke. Tommy is similarly unimpressed with Norma, and she leaves bewildered. Tommy asks Carrie to dance, but she’s too embarrassed to admit that she can’t dance, so they sit for a while and hold hands. In The Shadow Exploded, Congress ponders Margaret White and Carrie’s decision to return home after prom—apparently to commit matricide.
Once again, King increases the suspense and dread in the novel by contrasting a positive moment with a snippet of narrative that forecasts the carnage to come. This time at prom is Carrie’s emotional high point of the novel: not only is she making friends with her kinder peers, but her interaction with Norma also shows that her standing up against Margaret has helped her learn to stand up to her unkind peers, as well. Her interactions with Tommy are also warm and tender, suggesting that genuine feelings might be developing between them. However, the excerpt from The Shadow Exploded, which drops the bomb of revealing that Carrie will soon kill her own mother, shows that this happiness will not last long for Carrie.
Themes
At the White house, Margaret mourns Carrie’s leaving. She ponders Carrie’s “devilish” power and how it parallels that of her grandmother, who was also telekinetic and died of a heart attack at 66. A few weeks after her death, Margaret had found Carrie telekinetically dangling a bottle over her head; she nearly killed the girl then and there, but Ralph stopped her. She now regrets letting Carrie live. Staring at the crucifix in the living room, she thinks of how she can feel Carrie’s power strengthening, and how she had had a false sense of security until Carrie’s period came. She realizes that she must kill Carrie, so she goes to the kitchen and begins to sharpen a knife.
Immediately after revealing that Carrie will kill Margaret, the novel switches to Margaret’s perspective, showing that, in parallel to Carrie’s imminent matricide, she is considering filicide. This is because Carrie’s telekinesis is not a mystery to Margaret; she experienced it with her grandmother and thus, when Carrie was born, she knew exactly what it would grow into. Thus, she views Carrie less as her daughter and more as an abomination to be eliminated.
Themes
At prom, Carrie eventually admits to Tommy that she can’t dance. Tommy is understanding, so he suggests they visit other tables. This makes Carrie nervous, but she agrees out of fondness for Tommy. As they rise, they see the King and Queen’s thrones brought out onto the stage. Carrie says they’re beautiful, and Tommy says that she’s the beautiful one. Someone calls Carrie, and she turns around to see Miss Desjardin, who calls Carrie beautiful. Carrie blushes and denies it. Miss Desjardin tells her to forget what happened before, but Carrie says she can’t. Miss Desjardin tells her about her own prom and tells Carrie that she’ll never forget it, then tells Carrie to have a wonderful time and walks away. When Tommy comes over to ask Carrie about the encounter, Carrie says she thinks Miss Desjardin was saying sorry.
Much like Sue has attempted to atone for bullying Carrie by letting Tommy take Carrie to prom, Miss Desjardin makes her own attempt at atonement here. Although she does not directly apologize to Carrie, her compliments of Carrie and her regret over the locker room incident read this way to Carrie. In this way, Miss Desjardin’s character parallels Sue’s: both are fundamentally kind people who nevertheless embraced the collective ostracization of Carrie and now have to grapple with their complicity in ways that are imperfect but still meaningful to Carrie.
Themes
Sue sits at home, listening to an album and mending an old dress. She wonders if Tommy will fall in love with Carrie and worries about her period being almost a week late. In the school parking lot, Billy grabs Chris tightly by the wrist and orders her to go in and pull the ropes he set up when the P.A. announces the King and Queen. He then warns her that she needs to run away immediately, as what they’re doing is criminal assault, and that he will not wait for her if she stays behind. Chris agrees, then angrily tells him to take his hands off her. He does so and grins in anticipation.
Sue’s worry about her late period, coupled with Tommy’s early admission that he did not use the condom properly the first time they had sex, heavily implies that she is pregnant. In contrast to her uneasy but peaceful night, Billy and Chris prepare to execute Billy’s plan. Both of these moments provide an ominous backdrop to Carrie’s enjoyable time at prom which, unbeknownst to her, is about to be ruined.
Themes
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At prom, voting begins for the King and Queen, led by Senior Class President Vic Mooney. When the ballots are passed out, Carrie is shocked that she and Tommy are on there and asks him if they should decline. Tommy says no, although he finds the process silly. He suggests that they vote for themselves, and Carrie does so, but her pencil breaks and gives her a splinter, drawing blood. Once the votes are counted, Vic announces that there’s a tie, with Carrie and Tommy being one of the couples. Tommy looks over at Carrie and feels the same strange dizziness he experienced when he asked her out. Vic announces a run-off. Behind the stage, Chris waits impatiently.
The voting for Prom King and Queen begins right after Billy and Chris are shown preparing for their plan. As a result, while the characters at prom view the voting as simply exciting, the novel’s reader understands it to be high-stakes and ominous. Thus, this scene functions as an example of dramatic irony, where the reader is aware of parts of the story that the characters don’t know—a literary device that’s often used to illustrate an impending tragedy.
Themes
In the gym, Tommy prepares to vote for himself and Carrie again, but Carrie is suddenly anxious and asks him not to. Tommy disregards her, stating that his mother always says, “in for a penny, in for a pound.” This makes Carrie think of her own mother, and she becomes terrified. She begs Tommy not to cast the vote, but he does so anyway. At the White house, Margaret drops the knife and cuts herself; she lets the blood drip on the blade and keeps sharpening. She thinks of the scripture: “If thine right eye offend thee, pluck it out.” The cuckoo clock in the living room strikes 10. At home, Sue finishes mending her dress. She sits alone, overwhelmed with an inexplicable anxiety.
Carrie’s sudden anxiety over being voted Prom Queen is left ambiguous in origin; it may be a result of her telepathic abilities picking up on Chris’s intentions behind the stage, or it may simply be a learned fear she has after having been bullied for so long. Either way, her anxiety increases the atmosphere of dread, which is further compounded by Margaret’s blood on the knife—which parallels Carrie cutting her finger on her pencil—and Sue’s own inexplicable anxiety at home.
Themes
The run-off votes are counted: Carrie and Tommy win by a single vote. Carrie gasps, and Tommy is once again briefly overwhelmed with the prior dizziness, Carrie’s presence filling his mind. The two are led to the stage, and Carrie shakily sits down on the throne, feeling exposed. Their names are announced, and everyone begins to clap, overjoying Carrie despite her nerves. Behind the stage, Chris hears the announcement and pulls the rope. It rushes through her hands, something heavy falling on the other side. The music outside suddenly stops, and somebody screams. Then, people begin to laugh.
This is the climatic moment in the novel, but the full consequences are not evident on the page. Although the reader knows at this point that Carrie and Tommy have just been hit with pig’s blood, the moment in question is from Chris’s point of view—and, importantly, she does not even understand what she is doing, as she is not able to see the stage and Billy has not shared all the details of his plan.
Themes
