Review: Carrie by Stephen King

As far as I can recall, Carrie was my forray into the world of Stephen King and it left a definite impression on me.  I understood the social isolation, the way people would stop talking or look at you funny when you came near them, because, in grade school, I was Carrie.  The social pariah was me. 

No sympathy please.  It happened over 20 years ago and while it left some emotional scars, they have long since healed.  The only reason I mention it now, is to give you some context on why I connect on such a deep level to this book. 

Here we have a girl, Carrie, who wants nothing more than to belong.  Unfortunately for her, small town life has a way of preventing that.  On her first day of school she branded a weird girl for kneeling down to pray before she ate her lunch and years later, while not everybody may have remembered why the cruelty started, that single act made Carrietta White, the weird girl.  Anything else - her funny style of clothing (black skirt, white blouse), her plain looks, etc. just became fodder for their harsh actions and remarks, what hurt the most was when she finally found an in road, her classmates destroyed her for it. 

How dare she rise above her station, so she paid them back in kind.  She destroyed the kids, her school and her town, all of which were so uncaring towards her, before for she finally succumbed to her own death. 

On my initial reading of it, there was quite a large piece of me who relished in the pain Carrie doles out, because I never really fought back.  In grade school, I had learned that it defending myself just lead to more attacks and it was just easier to accept my outsider status.  So I kept moving forward, but even when I did collect friends, I kept them at a distance.  That way I could avoid any taunts or jabs they may have wanted to inflict.

It made things a little lonely, but it got me through. 

It wasn't until I became an adult that I realize how truly sad Carrie is.  Unlike me, our heroine never got the pleasure of getting away from everyone, forging a new life for herself, developing her own sense of style or even meeting and befriending other outcasts like herself.  Carrie never got to realize how small high school really is, how it little it matters who you were as a child, like I did.

To gain that perspective you need to become an adult and our girl will never get that chance.