Carrie, The Disliked Girl
‘Carrie’ in a book written by Stephen King published in 1974 tells the story of Carrie White, a girl being picked on by her classmates. Carrie happens to have telekinetic powers and while she is bullied, she goes berserk and destroys the whole town of Chamberlain. The major theme of this story is that Carrie is not liked by anyone and has never been liked. This will be argued through analysing the book and its 2013 movie adaptation in regards to the aspects characters of Chris Hargensen, Sue Snell, as well as her mother and Miss Desjardins, her mother figure.
Chris Hargensen is the main antagonist of the novel, and she abhors Carrie White. This is shown when Chris calls out Carrie before anyone else does during the
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First of all, Margaret White describes her daughter as being a witch which, for for an ascetic Christian like her, is akin to being the devil. She even says that she should have killed her own daughter and tries to stab Carrie in the back to kill her in order to cleanse the evil within her. This is a final attempt to purify her from her sins. Margaret shows that she believes Carrie to be the embodiment of her sins. Nonetheless, as she is pregnant, Margaret believes Carrie to be a cancerous tumour and she thinks she is dying as she goes in labour. Both in the 2013 movie and in the book, Margaret tries to commit infanticide further supporting that she is not loved by her mother. This behaviour repeated throughout Carrie’s life as her mother believes her to be the punishment God gives her for her sins shows that Margaret cannot appreciate Carrie for she sees Carrie as a constant reminder of her mistakes. Moreover, the character of Miss Desjardins can be seen as a mother figure for Carrie. She has taken care of Carrie at many instances in both the movies and the book. She is the one who goes and sees that the culprits of the shower incident are being punished, but she does so to apologize for slapping Carrie while she has a panic attack. She also makes sure that Sue and Tommy are not pulling a prank on Carrie. She arguably does that in an effort to keep Carrie from being humiliated in front of the whole school. While this would seem to show that she cares about Carrie, Carrie herself believes Desjardins to be going through the trouble of looking out for her because she is sorry. Sorry that Carrie’s whole life has been being laughed at school and being punished by her mother at home. Miss Desjardins, like Margaret, do not like her, but take care of her for other
Beloved is a movie full of pain, love, and triumph. This film is constructed and created from the works of Toni Morrison’s novel. Beloved can be considered a ghost tale based on how the main character Beloved magically appears and disappears with no warning signs. The movie takes place in the summer of 1865 in Ohio at 124 Bluestone Road in a little white house on a plate of land.
I think it is very difficult to define the exact character of Dreiser’s "Sister Carrie", and his original intention. I would say, "as many eyes, so many opinions", so no wonder there are different approaches and interpretations towards the novel which is influenced not just by the reader’s reading or personal experience, but also by their particular philosophy of life as well as knowledge about the historical background. "Sister Carrie" can be read as a novel of desire, seduction, or the critique of capitalism and consumerism. It’s definitely not the plot or characters which are dominant elements of it. The taste and the literary value of Dreiser’s novel is shaped and created by its setting and the author’s tone. Chicago and New York have almost as organic and important role in the novel as the characters. They do not just form the simple environment for the novel, but they influence its character and a very strong impression. Chicago’s character is kind of more "positive", it is a city of promise, luck, rise (Carrie). We can say that in Chicago, Hurtswood means something. New York ‘s character is different. It’s a city of lies, fall, impersonal isolation of "walled city where surviving is much more difficult than in Chicago. In New York, Hurstwood means nothing. The setting creates different expectations to people. During the reading of "Sister Carrie", I was interested in searching and revealing the different kinds of desire. Generally we can say that Dreiser deals with the desire of wealth, social status, material things which are represented by money. Within this generalization, we can find and identify many other faces and forms of lust and longing. Carrie, as an ambitious and strong woman embodies the social values of the consumer culture. All she longs for is a material wealth, which represents power. She can be seen as a symbol of money. But Carrie lives in a world of prices. Her labor costs $4.50; board $4 a week; car fare $.60; cheap lunch $.10; etc. She imitates everything perfectly and that’s why she is becoming what people want her to become. Her desires come from other people’s desires. It is exactly Drouet, who introduces her to the world of wealth, to materialism. He gives her money, flat even "name when she enters the world of theater. She plays her role according to Drouet’s desires – once acts as his mistress or "wife".
The book uses fictional documents, such as book excerpts, news reports, and hearing transcripts, to frame the story of Carietta "Carrie" White, a 17-year-old girl from Chamberlain, Maine. Carrie's mother, Margaret, a fanatical Christian fundamentalist, has a vindictive and unstable personality, and over the years has ruled Carrie with an iron rod and repeated threats of damnation, as well as occasional physical abuse. Carrie does not fare much better at her school where her frumpy looks, lack of friends and lack of popularity with boys make her the butt of ridicule, embarrassment, and public humiliation by her fellow teenage peers.
Have you ever loved a place as a child, but as you got older you realized how sugar coated it really was? Well, that is how Jacqueline Woodson felt about her mother’s hometown and where she went every summer for vacation. The story, When A Southern Town Broke A Heart, starts off with the author feeling as if Greenville is her home. But one year when she has 9 she saw it as the racist place it really is. This causes her to feel betrayed, but also as if she isn't the naive little girl she once was. By observing this change, you can conclude that the theme she is trying to convey is that as you get older, you also get wiser.
...and not only literature. It subtly questions the role women in society since the origin of the tale of Adam and Eve. Mrs. Coulter breaks away from the stereotypical restraints put upon female villains, demonstrating they can be capable of many different emotions and thoughts other than focusing on a quest for power. Lyra became a perfect example of adolescence and the inevitable heartache one must face in order to truly enter adulthood. Although they both had male counterparts, Mrs. Coulter managed to break through her toughened exterior and allowed her heart to dictate her fate; Lyra chose to use her logic and her experience over her impulsive nature to make the choice between love and the safety of billions.
At the near beginning of the novel, Cory and Carrie are both five years old, and know almost nothing of the world but their family and play. This is illustrated on page 14 when Carrie and Cory play in mud after being cleaned and dressed for a birthday party, and complain to Catherine about having to take another bath. They tell her, “One bath a day is enough!...We’re already clean! Stop! We don’t like soap! We don’t like hair washing! Don’t you do that to us again, Cathy, or we’ll tell Momma!”. Throughout the book, Cory and Carrie suffer abusive acts from their grandmother, such as when they are threatened by their grandmother to be whipped if they disobey her (p. 92), are starved for two weeks to the point where they had to drink their sibling’s blood for sustenance (p. 251), and are poisoned with arsenic for months (p. 396-397). Catherine was always a mother for them, she cared for them when they were sick (p. 362-363) and told them stories to calm them down (p. 172-173), and Christopher was always a father for them, ushering them to eat healthy food they didn’t want (p. 167) and trying his best to give them what they wanted and what they needed (p. 281-282). Through their older siblings they were able to make it through the three years they had been abused and locked away in an attic like rats, and were kept from suffering trauma afterwards because of it. Near the end of the book, it is described how they played together, in a joyous way that it would seem no one who suffered what they did could, “...Cory was plucking a tune on banjo...as Carrie chanted simple lyrics he’d composed...And I sang to him that special, wistful song that belonged to Dorothy in the movie The Wizard Of Oz, - a movie that the twins adored every time they saw it…The look on Cory’s face as he
The actions Elle decides to make changes her life completely and leads to the death of her best friend, Karen. In the first place, society are quick to judge by appearances and without knowing the true story behind the event. To compare, Elle is being judged by her self-image that is portrayed by the society in a negative way, without knowing what exactly happened. “The paper described Karen as a ‘lovely, vibrant girl – so full of life.’ They called me a ‘ruthless blonde who didn’t think’” (Hollander 119). People around Elle did not listen to her when she was trying to tell the truth. Just because she survives the accident, others start to use this as an opportunity to get as much dirt on Elle as possible. Even though, the situation was quite
Carrie is "completely innocent of the entire concept of menstruation" (King 10). Carrie believes this is a punishment for disobeying her mother who has told her that showers are ungodly. When Carrie's first period has come, Chris encourages the other girls to throw towels at a frantic Carrie and this makes her very angry. Chris hates Carrie because of her arrogance, pride and lack of empathy. When Margaret has known this incident, replied that "You are a woman now"(King 27).She forces Carrie to pray in the closet for her sins. Here, Carrie faces the conflict that reflects the difficulty of trying to become a member of a group. Her appearance and flaws, resulting from the crazy actions of her mother, will not permit her to be a normal girl. The conflict in Carrie is man versus Society and man versus self. For example, Carrie has a conflict with her peers who reject her, and she has to deal with her own
An example is her torture during the majority of the book. In 6th grade she went to her friends party, and to her astonishment, a couple began making out in the closet. She called her mom to tell her what was going on and her mom told the mother ...
In Sister Carrie, it would seem that Carrie, while outwardly benign, and possibly even deserving of her portrayal as sweet and innocent at the beginning, soon emerges as a ruthless predator in the guise of a helpless woman. From her relationship with Drouet, she manages to gain the experience and social skills to pursue higher aspirations. She seems to stay with Drouet only long enough to see that better things are available, comforts more extravagant than Drouet can provide, and cultural experiences and social nuances whose existence Drouet seems unaware of. Drouet, then, acts as a stepping stone for her. When he no longer has anything he can offer her, she drops him in favor of Hurstwood. In Hurstwood, Carrie sees all that lacks in Drouet--a more acute sense of culture and worldliness, and the wealth to explore the new wonders of civilized Chicago life.
In Daisy Miller, Henry James slowly reveals the nature of Daisy"s character through her interactions with other characters, especially Winterbourne, the main character." The author uses third person narration; however, Winterbourne"s thoughts and point of view dominate." Thus, the audience knows no more about Daisy than Winterbourne." This technique helps maintain the ambiguity of Daisy"s character and draws the audience into the story.
In fact, it seems as if she is constantly attempting to uncover, interpret, and compose her own set of values. In an episode, Carrie has her shoes stolen at her friend Kyra's kids party. After telling her friends, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda, of the occurred events, they give her advice plus mention that she should have Kyra pay her for the stolen pair of shoes. Carrie takes this into consideration and the following day decides to go to Kyra's house and ask her if she had found her shoes. As she replies no, she tells Carrie "oh my gosh Carrie, I'm such a shit. I should have offered to pay for them. I'll write you a check, just tell me how much they were." Once Carrie names the price of her shoes($485), Kyra tells her that that is crazy/insane and she'll give her only 200 dollars. Carrie proceeds by telling her that, that was how much they cost, and she should know because she used to wear them. But then Kyra tells Carrie that yeah, she used to wear those type of shoes "Before she had a real life, but now she has responsibilities, kids, and a house." Through the whole episode, Carrie tried to answer her own question, to why Kyra thought she didn't actually have a "real
Most people, at first glance, will make comments about how she probably dresses provocatively, or make judgement calls about how intelligent she is by reading about her luminous disposition. People in regards to both Legally Blonde and the real world, are constantly making instant judgements about girls who decide to wear clothes that make them feel good about themselves, and girls who do feminine things because they like to do feminine things, and this book is actively trying to counter that. To say that it is uncommon to see such ideas in literature would surely be an understatement. Even when reading Legally Blonde, many will still think lowly of Elle Woods, even though she’s an accomplished and highly intelligent lawyer-to-be who still keeps her dignity and stays true to herself even when times get
On the train to Chicago, Carrie had met a traveling salesman, Charlie H. Drouet. She is impressed by the way he talks and dresses. When they meet again, Drouet is aware of her beauty and innocence and he hopes to charm and seduce her. He "lends" Carrie money to buy nice winter clothes, treats her to fine meals, takes her to the theater, and shows her the sights of Chicago. Because Carrie is young and inexperienced in the world of men, she is not wise enough to understand where all Drouet's attention is leading toward. Although she senses that the money should be given back, her desire and longing for the good things in life are so powerful that she ignores her beliefs in what is right and wrong.
In this novel social issues were involved immensely such as depression, rape, suspense, and drama. For the young adults that read this story will be able to expand their knowledge by adapting themselves to the mix, of tension with her peers, a young girl dealing with high school troublesomes and being self harmed as well. As Hannah was a young teen (just like the most of the readers) dealing with high school and its package of hatred, rumours, and relationships all can take a toll on a human being. Fiction was included in this novel, and without some unrealistic events occurring in this story, this book would’ve been unexciting. And that’s where the social issues suspense and drama enter the world of fiction. Without the fiction and the creativity, this novel would’ve been about just a young girl living her life as a highschooler and the drama she would be dealing with, there wouldn’t be creativity or something suspenseful, or even having the urge to keep reading wondering what will happen next. The writers were creative about the plotting