Previous
Part 2: Pages 238-277
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
A national AP ticker on June 5th reports the final death toll in Chamberlain as 409, with 49 still missing. It also states that an autopsy on Carrie revealed unusual formations on her brain. A newspaper article a few months later describes the bleak state of Chamberlain, with most residents choosing to leave the town due to the immense trauma of Prom Night and the local economy being in shambles due to the vast destruction. It reports that the death toll has risen to 440, with most buried in two mass ceremonies. Graduation night was a bleak, sorrowful affair, and in the months that followed, wounds were often reopened as more missing were discovered dead. The writer theorizes that Chamberlain might never recover and will simply cease to exist.
The final AP report on Chamberlain shows just how devastating Carrie’s outburst was on the town. The specific details in the report, most notably the two mass funerals, emphasize the severe loss of life. Given the death toll, most people in Chamberlain likely lost at least one person to prom night. In this way, Carrie’s individual pain has metastasized to the entire town, and it’s implied that Chamberlain will die with her.
Themes
A series of short excerpts follow: Both Henry Grayle and Rita Desjardin resign from Ewen shortly after prom night; both feel responsible for failing to prevent the tragedy. An article titled “Telekinesis: Analysis and Aftermath” warns that the TK gene will almost certainly recur in another child. A book of slang terms defines the phrase “to rip off a Carrie” as causing violence and mayhem, especially arson. In The Shadow Exploded, Congress closes his book with some Bob Dylan lyrics that Carrie wrote in one of her notebooks: “I wish I could write you a melody so plain / That would save you, dear lady, from going insane / That would ease you and cool you and cease the pain / Of your useless and pointless knowledge.”
These excerpts further elaborate on how prom night has affected Ewen. In a sad irony, both Grayle and Desjardin feel responsible for the tragedy despite advocating for Carrie, showing how their good intentions came too little, too late. This is further emphasized by the Bob Dylan lyrics that Carrie wrote in her notebook, which suggest that Carrie was hoping someone would intervene and save her from her suffering.
Themes
Sue closes her autobiography with the hope that the book’s sales will allow her to move somewhere where she can be anonymous. The White Commission closes, concluding that it is unlikely that a recurrence of telekinesis will happen. In a letter to her sister, a woman named Amelia talks about her two-year-daughter Annie. One day, Amelia spots Annie outside playing marbles with her brothers. The marbles are moving without her touching them, and some of them are levitating. Amelia recalls how her grandmother once pulled guns out of the hands of cops that came to her house; she hopes that Annie won’t have heart problems like her great-grandma did. Amelia closes her letter by praising Annie’s beauty, saying that she bets the girl will “be a world-beeter [sic] someday.”
The contrast between the White Commission’s conclusion and the final letter of the novel suggests that the U.S. government is not prepared for the potential implications of the TK gene. While they conclude that a case like Carrie’s will never happen again, Amelia’s letter shows that her daughter is already showing similar power to Carrie. Given that Annie’s upbringing seems volatile from the detail about guns coming to her grandmother’s house, it isn’t impossible that she, too, will have a deadly psychological break one day, thereby perpetuating the cycle of violence.
Themes
