What Does Carrie White Symbolize

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In Carrie, Stephen King examines humiliation in the society at that time as an instigator of anger. Carrie White is an ideal example of humiliation in the novel. This character has a tragic history. Her story is a tale about social isolation, peer pressure and religion. Carrie is usually angry because she wants to have a normal life, but she cannot because she is afraid of her mother who has strange religious views. Margaret views Carrie as the embodiment of sin in the flesh because she has sex with her husband before marriage. Margaret is very religious, so she refers to the Bible and this is a religious illusion. Thus, Margaret becomes very cruel towards Carrie believing that she does this for Carrie's own sake. Isolation is …show more content…

King describes Carrie as being "a frog among swans" (4) in relation to the other girls at school. Carrie is not attractive. She is a girl of sixteen with pale skin. She has short and colorless flat blonde hair. She is chubby at the waist and has a lot of pimples on her face and back. Physically, Carrie has a lot of flaws. At school, Carrie is made fun of on a daily basis. She is an outcast and teased by cruel bullies and by the other popular classmates. She is at the bottom of the social pyramid. She is considered the target of humiliation. "Carrie white eats shit" (King 4) is written on a desk in the school to give an example of Carrie's …show more content…

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

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